MARK
BELL (Depeche Mode)MARK
BELL (Depeche Mode)For Depeche Mode are no strangers to pop’s tumultuous ways, first written off as early as 1981 with the departure of then-principal songwriter Vince Clarke immediately following their lightweight long-playing debut, Speak & Spell. While Clarke found further synthesized fortune with Yazoo (and later Erasure), Gahan and keyboard players Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher refused to be beaten – Gore promptly taking over songwriting duties and classically trained keyboard virtuoso Alan Wilder filling Clarke’s on-stage shoes (later proving indispensable in the studio). Confounding fans and critics alike, this fabulous foursome admirably reinvented themselves, finally attaining world domination status with the 101st and final concert of their Music For The Masses world tour when performing to a 70,000-strong audience at Pasedena’s Rose Bowl in California on June 18, 1988, captured on film by none other than D.A. Pennebaker (of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Look Back 1965 British tour ‘rockumentary’ fame). A rock ’n’ roll roller coaster ride had truly begun for Essex’s finest, but what goes up usually comes down…
Following 1993’s ‘difficult’ Songs Of Faith And Devotion album, the subsequent 180-show trek to over two million fans took its toll in more ways than one – not least Wilder’s 1995 departure, citing “dissatisfaction with the internal relations and working practices of the group”. Doom merchants again predicted Depeche Mode’s disbanding. They were nearly right.
The partially rehabilitated Gahan, Gore and Fletcher only just managed to regroup as a trio under the watchful production gaze of Bomb The Bass man Tim Simenon and were rewarded with 1997’s chart-topping Ultra. Simenon’s baby shifted over four million copies worldwide, spawning the group’s highest UK hit single in several years (‘Barrel Of A Gun’). This would clearly be a tough act to follow, both sales-wise and in terms of production – especially as the group showed no sign of letting up, venturing out to tour in support of their The Singles: 1986-98 ‘Best Of’ album. But someone had to do it. And that someone is Mark Bell, an individual who had already made his own mark on the charts as co-founder of Leeds-based LFO, a Warp Records signing dubbed by several American websites as one of the most influential techno acts of the early-’90s. At time of writing, ‘Dream On’ was the most added song to North American radio playlists – in advance of its release as the first single to be lifted from Exciter. Chances are Exciter itself will have effortlessly entered the Top 10 – if not hit that coveted number one spot – by the time you read this.
But
what of its producer? Though a relatively recent ‘A-list’ inductee, Bell came
with excellent credentials, fresh from working on Bjork’s latest long-playing
masterpiece, Selmasongs (having previously produced
Homogenic for the Icelandic songstress in 1997).
Indeed, it was these recordings that swayed Depeche Mode in favour of Bell.
Yet, ironically, the refreshingly humble Leeds [northern England] lad wears
his production crown with some discomfort. “I find it so weird being called
a producer, because producer means different things to different people,” he
muses. “It could just be someone who takes artists out to parties all the time
and never actually does any music at all. Or it could be someone who does all
the music. There are just so many variations – like the way it can cross over
into programming. But I feel I’m still doing exactly the same as what I was
doing 10 years ago with LFO; the equipment I used on the Depeche Mode album
is essentially the same – sampler, computer and loads of old analogue stuff.
I saw myself more as a musician then, and now I’m still doing musical things.”
While Warp Records played up Depeche Mode’s synth pop pioneering status when announcing their wonder boy’s latest big time production breakthrough back in May 2000, Bell’s posthumous recollection of the event reveals a genuine admiration for this often misinterpreted and underrated group: “They were really important to me when I was 15 or 16. I liked how they always treated electronics and acoustics as one entity. Their music doesn’t belong to any particular genre; it’s not clichéd in any way. So when I got the chance to work with them I thought it would be really weird, but it didn’t seem weird at all. I’d already done a remix of a track called ‘Home’ from their last album and they really liked how I interpreted the song. I didn’t just completely change it into a hip-hop or speed garage track, or whatever was in at that moment. I did it how I thought it should sound, and I think that’s what they were interested in.”
Exciter’s gestation period predates May 2000, however. Gore ostensibly resumed song writing in early 1999 at his private studio sited in a double garage attached to his 17th Century Hertfordshire home in southern England. Designed and built in 1990 by Electric Eel’s Kevin van Green – responsible, incidentally, for creating customised recording spaces for ex-Depeche men Wilder and Clarke, and Mute maestro and Depeche mentor Daniel Miller – it features a custom cabinet housing three classic ARP 2600 analogue synthesizers in reverence to Depeche Mode’s recording roots. Progress was slow; in October 1999 Gore enlisted the assistance of keyboard player/programmer Paul Freegard and veteran engineer Gareth Jones (whose association with the group extends back to 1983’s Construction Time Again). The comradeship Gore sought evidently paid dividends with Jones’ website soon announcing, “Dave [Gahan] has been over from New York and done some excellent vocals on four tunes already.”
With nine new songs written, on June 5, 2000 band, producer and engineer moved into London’s RAK Recording Studios – replete with the only fully functional, 1976-vintage API consoles in the UK. Bell picks up the narrative: “When I first heard the demos I thought some of them sounded finished already. But I think they were a bit bored with the songs because they’d been playing with them for so long. It was exactly what I’d been listening to – German minimalist clicks and cuts, but with real instruments.”
Bravado momentarily gets the better of the normally subdued Bell: “I thought, ‘I’m the most qualified person in the world to do this!’” Yet this period was more of a bonding exercise than a true recording session, as the producer continues, “We went to RAK just to see if we’d get on as people, really; obviously we did. We were there for three weeks, playing around with the new songs. I’d add completely new bits – things that had nothing to do with the originals.”
Bell can be forgiven for improvising here as the prestigious Depeche Mode production gig came virtually without warning. “I had no time to think about it,” he concurs. “They just said, ‘Right, do you want to start in a week?’ So initially I just concentrated on doing everything I could for these songs – loads of rubbish ideas, but the odd good one as well!”
A brief follow-up stint at Trevor Horn’s Sarm West complex in London proved unsatisfactory, especially for Gahan. “When we all went to Sarm it wasn’t really so much of a team effort because Dave lives in New York now,” clarifies Bell. “It was more a case of him making the effort for everyone else.”
Depeche Mode took the month of August off. Unsurprisingly perhaps, production then reconvened in New York City at Sony Music Studios. Here group and producer concentrated on song arrangements for another three weeks.
But Gore and Fletcher reside in the UK, so an executive decision was made to collectively relocate afresh. And where better than Santa Barbara Sound Design in sunny downtown Santa Barbara, California, a mere three blocks from the beach. “It’s always good if you move somewhere new as a team,” Bell declares. “I think it’s good for building camaraderie. Santa Barbara’s more like a holiday resort. We’d go to the local pub and played in the pool team there – Depeche Mode against the bar staff! Even though we were concentrating very hard on the music it was a social thing as well.”
Two
month-long bookings were made, split by a two-week break during which Gore and
programming buddy Paul Freegard demo’d two more songs while visiting Vancouver.
If an on location-style QuickTime movie posted on the band’s official website
(www.depechemode.com)
in September 2000 is anything to go by, Sound Design’s Neve 8048 Studio and
live room proved to be a sound move for all concerned.
Such high spirits could be accredited to Bell – particularly the unique way he utilised Sound Design’s facilities in pursuit of an equally unique recording. “We moved all our equipment into the live room and hired in two 32-channel Mackie desks so Gareth [Jones] and myself were kind of working on a couple of bedroom set-ups,” he reveals. “Martin worked in another room and we gave Dave the control room so he could hear himself on really good [Tannoy SGM-10B] monitors through the desk and all the best effects. He had a Pro Tools system set up in there so he could just sing until he was comfortable with the songs or try out different things by himself. It was a good way to work because we weren’t always working on the same song at the same time. Even though the studio’s divided into three areas we could still see each other through the windows and walk in and out of the rooms. Everyone had the freedom to do what they wanted.”
One of the most remarkable aspects of Exciter is Gahan’s intimate, up-front-and-personal vocal approach to tracks like ‘Dream On’ (the first single) and the dreamy ‘When The Body Speaks’. Both Gahan and Fletcher admirably attribute this to Bell. “I’m really crap at taking compliments,” he blushes, “but a lot of that was just down to making Dave feel comfortable. I got the impression that in the past he was nervous; obviously he was performing the songs, but not necessarily how he wanted to. So I encouraged him to do what he wanted; that’s why I gave him his own room, though I’d still go in there and give him directions. For instance, he’s got a seven-month-old baby daughter now, so I suggested he sang the album’s closing track ‘Goodnight Lovers’ as though he was really singing it to her, like a lullaby. And I think that comes across. It’s not role-playing, but something he could really feel. Also we tried to do most of the vocals in one take, because I think your brain instinctively knows otherwise – even if it’s an amazing cross-fade, or whatever. That was really important to this album – and Dave. He enjoyed the support. After all, he can sing; he’s been doing it for 20 years!”
As for Bell’s own musical role on Exciter, a shot of the man hard at work – taken by Daniel Miller during a November 2000 visit to Sound Design and posted on his company website (www.mute.com) – proves most revealing: Bell is seated at a makeshift workstation, surrounded by a variety of gear, including an Apple PowerBook G3 laptop, Clavia Nord Lead synth and Akai’s popular MPC2000 integrated sampler/drum machine/MIDI sequencer. Asked to expand upon this, the producer responds, “All that stuff was hired in, but I do use the MPC, G3 and an E-mu E4 sampler at home. I also had exactly the same set-up in my hotel room so I could work there if I didn’t have any ideas in the morning or evening, or didn’t want to come into the studio. I’ve also got loads of old analogue stuff at home, like an ARP 2600 which I sample and mess about with in the E-mu. You can do so much more that way.”
Though session drummer Christian Eigner is credited with playing on ‘I Am You’, Bell’s favourites are again responsible for much of the album’s intricate rhythm. “I don’t think much of what Christian did is actually on the album,” concedes Bell. “Most of the percussion you hear is electronic stuff I did myself, either on the MPC or Cubase. I just got loads of silly noises from the analogue stuff and then made layers in the sampler so the sound would change depending on velocity. It sounds more organic that way, though it’s definitely electronic.”
Yet Bell is quick to credit where credit’s due: “I didn’t really copy Christian’s parts, but rather I was influenced by the feel of his playing – be it aggressive or light, or the frequency he played in to fit with the track. That way, we could EQ the original electronic percussion into that range.”
Speaking of rhythm, one of the world’s top jazz percussionists features on ‘I Feel Loved’ and ‘Freelove’ – albeit accidentally. Bell smiles at the memory: “We were working on a song called ‘The Dead Of Night’ and having trouble with the bridge. Martin suggested using a kind of jazz/waltz sample he had, but it sounded completely shit. We were just about to take it off when in walks Airto Moreira! It was really embarrassing, as the song was at its worst, but we still ended up playing him the other songs. He came back a week later with his toys and played some brilliant stuff that sat well with the tracks, whereas if it had been someone trying to sell themselves they might have gone completely over the top. It was good to have someone else’s input for a change.”
Another
Daniel Miller-penned online photo shows Depeche Mode’s Andy Fletcher also working
on an Apple PowerBook G3. More enlightening, however, is an Emagic Logic Audio
box positioned next to him with ‘Martin’s Logic’ scribbled on it and an Apple
flatscreen monitor with a ‘Cubase work sync’ note stuck to its side. Together
with Bell’s beloved Akai MPC2000 this implies the use of three different platforms
during Exciter’s Sound Design sessions. Bell sheds
light on the sequencing situation: “We used all of them because they each bring
different things into a project. The problem with most sequencers is that someone
else sets the limitations. What they think is interesting might not interest
you, but you’re still steered towards what that program does best. I think Logic
just happened to be what Martin brought along with him, though he has got Cubase
as well. I’m also really fast with Cubase, whereas with Logic I usually make
loads of mistakes, but then that can sometimes be a good thing. The MPC is really
good because it focuses you – particularly when programming drums, so you’re
not thinking of anything else like chord progressions.”
All those Apple laptops proved indispensable in Bell’s studio modus operandi – above and beyond the call of sequencing. The producer soon shrugs off any praise for the smooth running of an undoubtedly complex production procedure, preferring to sing another colleague’s praises: “Not only is Gareth a brilliant engineer – sorting out which microphones to use where – he’s also so organised when it comes to the computer side of things. We’d often pass ideas around by burning a song onto a CD or giving each other sample files. That’s why it was brilliant having all those computers about so we could try out different things live and have lots of stuff playing at once. You could play any keyboard at any time and record it, and Gareth would instantly have it colour-coded, labelled and dated. If that was me at home it would be chaos; all my samples are called ‘Untitled 1’!”
In November and December 2000 band manager Jonathan Kessler also dropped in on the Santa Barbara studio sessions, again capturing the event on camera where some of Depeche Mode’s traditional tool’s were on display – Access Virus, Clavia Nord Lead, Korg MS2000, Korg Triton and Roland JD-800. Of course, no Depeche Mode album would be complete without a healthy helping of synthesizers. While Exciter is no exception to this unwritten rule it doesn’t immediately come across as a synth-dominated recording, such is the beauty of Bell’s sympathetic treatment.
“Synths
are still really important to them,” counters Bell, “but it wasn’t a case of
us deciding this was going to be an electronic album, even though that’s what
I really liked about them before. Right at the beginning the songs were written
on a piano or guitar, just to get the basic chords. Then they were programmed
into a computer to mess about with the structure. By the time I became involved
there was just so many keyboards around, plus Martin’s got loads of guitars.
I can remember each synth we used, but the list would be too long to mention.
Just to give you an example, we used that new PPG soft synth [Steinberg/Waldorf
PPG Wave 2.V] on ‘Comatose’ where it plays an arpeggiating
part. We used loads of different synths on ‘The Dead Of
Night’, messing about with the envelopes and pitch controls. We just
went completely silly and it became a jam session, then once we found something
that worked we made it into a sort of performance that really suited the song.”
And making a song work is the key to production success – whatever the instrumentation. Solo cellist Knox Chandler and a five-piece string section were deployed with chilling effect on ‘When The Body Speaks’, perfectly complimenting Gahan’s vocal and Gore’s guitar work without compromising the recognisable Depeche Mode sound. “We took a different approach with ‘When The Body Speaks’,” Bell asserts. “In the past I think they would have got Martin to play the guitar as perfect as he could. Then it probably would have been edited to make it even more in time before Dave sang over the top. But then everything from the demo would have been lost, because the way Martin originally played it sounded really good. So I sat them in the studio and recorded them performing together. I don’t think they’ve done that for 16 years or more, apart from live performance. Then we wanted to take the acoustic aspect further and make it sound even more like an Unplugged-type thing. Dave said he’s got this friend who’s a string arranger, so Martin and myself put these dissonant chords together and Knox did the rest.”
Following a month-long mixing process at New York’s legendary Electric Lady Studios with Steve Fitzmaurice at the helm, the Exciter production officially wrapped on January 20, 2001. The 13-track album is testament to teamwork, Bell’s production skills and Gore’s songwriting talent, a talent rightly recognised with the May 1999 presentation of an award for International Achievement by the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. Daniel Miller, the man who sealed a deal with Depeche Mode with a simple handshake – no written details, no formal contracts – some 20 years ago, made that presentation. What an awe-inspiring vindication of faith. And with Exciter Depeche Mode remain loyal to their indie label roots – globally, of course. “I just hope people can see that it’s honest,” concludes Bell. “It’s not trying to be manufactured pop and it’s not trying to be weird.”
© Jonathan Miller (April 2001)
CONSOLE: Neve 8048 with Neve Flying Faders (50 input channels) • Neve 10:2 Class A • Yamaha 02R
MONITORS: B&W CDM-1 • Tannoy SGM-10B • Yamaha NS10
RECORDING: Alesis ADAT x3 • Studer A-80 Mk IV 24-track (with Dolby XP/SR) • Tascam DA88 x3 • Tascam MX2424 digital 24-track
MASTERING: Ampex ATR102 half-inch • Panasonic SV3700 DAT • Sony PCM3402 • Studer A-80 half-inch • Tascam DA30 DAT
COMPUTERS/STORAGE: Digidesign Pro Tools 5.0.1 with Apogee AD8000 24-bit A-to-D/D-to-A convertors and MotU MTP/AV synchroniser (running on 18Gb Apple G3 with Adaptec Ultra SCSI array) • Steinberg Nuendo/Cubase 24-bit/96kHz 5.1 Surround Sound mixing (running on a 750Mhz Windows 2000 PC with 384Mb RAM)
OUTBOARD: AMS RMX16 • Aphex 612 stereo gates • Aphex Dominator • Aphex Expressor x2 • dbx 160X compressor x3 • dbx 162 stereo compressor • dbx 263X • dbx 463X • Dynafex NR • EMT 140ST plate reverb • Eventide H3000 • Lexicon 200 • Lexicon PCM70 x2 • Massenburg 8200 parametric EQ x2 • Summit DCL200 stereo tube compressor • Summit Element 78 preamp/EQ • Summit EQF-100 4-band tube program EQ x2 • Summit EQF-200B 3-band stereo EQ • Summit Modular Tube Rack • Summit TLA-100 mono tube limiter • Summit TLA-100A 2-channel tube mic pre/DI • Teletronix LA2A • Universal Audio LA3A • Urei 1178 stereo compressor • Valley People Gain Brain x2 • Valley People Kepex gates x4 • Yamaha SPX90 II • Yamaha SPX900
MICROPHONES: AKG 414EB x4 • AKG C12A x2 • AKG C24 •AKG CE452EB x4 • B&K 4006 x2 • Beyer MB301 x2 • Electrovoice RE20 x4 • KM83 • KM84 x4 • Neumann U47 • Neumann U67 • Neumann U87 (with InnerTube mod.) • Schoeps CMT35 • Sennheiser 421 x3 • Sennheiser 441 • Shure 81 x2 • Shure SM57 x3 • Shure SM58 x2 • Sony C37A • Sony C500 • Sony ECM50PS x2 • Telefunken U47
Speak & Spell (Mute, 1981)
A Broken Frame (Mute, 1982)
Construction Time Again (Mute, 1983)
Some Great Reward (Mute, 1984)
The Singles: 1981-1985 (Mute, 1985*/1999)
Black Celebration (Mute, 1986)
Music For The Masses (Mute, 1987)
101: Live (Mute, 1988)
Violator (Mute, 1990)
Songs Of Faith And Devotion (Mute, 1993)
Songs Of Faith And Devotion: Live (Mute, 1994)
Ultra (Mute, 1997)
The Singles: 1988-1998 (Mute, 1999)
Exciter (Mute, 2001)
(* = deleted)
