par ventilateur » 28 Jan 2018, 21:15
Page tenue par Simenon aujourd'hui.
ULTRA
At some point during the summer of 1995, Daniel Miller called me to say that Depeche Mode were looking for a producer to start work on some new songs. I think Martin and Dave had enjoyed the Gavin Friday album “Shag Tobacco” I had produced the year before and the interest began from there. So I went in for a meeting at the band’s offices in London and met with Daniel, Martin and Fletch. We listened to a demo of Useless. It was a very bare bones version of the song with Martin singing but the melodies, structure and main guitar riff was all there.
The meeting went well and so in the autumn of 1995 I assembled a small production team, and we went to a recording studio that I worked at often called Eastcote in West London and started experimenting and reworking the first three songs Martin had written.
There were a lot of mixed emotions during those first few weeks - excitement, pressure and uncertainty were the ones that leapt out the most. Excitement at the prospect of working with the band I had enjoyed listening to for so many years. Pressure in knowing that with Alan’s departure, those were going to be some big shoes to fill! And uncertainty looming constantly in whether the album was going to be made or completed at all due to Dave’s recent health scares. We were just simply going to take it slow and see how things would progress.
The first three songs that we started on were Useless, Insight and Sister Of Night. The production team included Dave Clayton on keyboards, Kerry Hopwood as programmer and Q as engineer. The early stages of the production we focused primarily on the tempo of the songs as well as the key for each song most suitable for Dave’s voice. Once we ascertained the foundations we were then able to get creative with the songs and that was fun! After a couple of months we all felt the production collaboration could work so it was decided that Martin would write more songs over the Christmas break and work would resume in the new year.
Martin played me the demo version of It’s No Good in the new year. Again a very bare bones version of the song with him singing. I was blown away … My first impression of the track? CLASSIC MODE!
We kept working through 1996 as Martin wrote more songs. With additional recording stints at the Electric Ladyland Studios in New York and at Larrabee West in Los Angeles, by the autumn of 1996 by sheer perseverance, determination and hard work from all involved we had a majority of the album recorded. Back in London, Daniel Miller booked us into Abbey Road Studios during November and December of 1996 to mix the album.
By the beginning of 1997, Ultra was eventually completed!
Posted by:
Tim Simenon
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Only When I Lose Myself EP + Singles Tour
The band had decided not the tour with “Ultra”, but were ready to head out on the road the following year. To help promote their second “Singles” compilation, we went back in the studio to record a few songs for a new single.
We ended up recording three songs: “Only When I Lose Myself” and an instrumental track called “Headstar” and “Tempt” (which was later re-named “Surrender”).
The Singles Tour kicked off early September in 1998 and I joined the band for seven weeks on the European leg of their tour. What a fantastic experience that was! To be able to play a forty five minute dj set to warm up the audience before the band would come on stage was just pure pleasure!
Posted by:
Tim Simenon