Dave Bascombe talks about Depeche Mode cult album ‘Music For The Masses’ – Watch now
Producer Dave Bascombe talks about Depeche Mode cult album 'Music For The Masses' - Watch now
In April 2020, a three-part video interview with Dave Bascombe was released on Vaughn George’s YouTube channel. This series seems to have slipped under the radar with many Depeche Mode fans, so we decided to unearth it, and you watch all three parts at the end of this article.
Vaughn George is a music producer, artist development coach, and a reviewer of piano, keyboard, and synthesiser artists. In the interview, Dave Bascombe, a producer and engineer, discusses his work on Depeche Mode’s 1987 album “Music For The Masses”. The interview is packed with interesting details and a surprising number of ‘alarm’ sounds. You’ll understand why we mention this once you watch it. All in all a very interesting interview.
Table of contents
Who is Dave Bascombe?
If you’re not familiar with Dave Bascombe, he’s a producer who has worked with numerous bands, including Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, Peter Gabriel (on the album “So”), Human League (on the album “Octopus”), Erasure, and many more.
Born in Chester, England and raised in London, Bascombe started his career as an errand boy at a recording studio. He used the studio’s off hours to record bands, which eventually led to freelance engineering jobs and a full-time position at a London studio. His career really took off when he engineered Tears for Fears’ multi-million-selling album “Songs From the Big Chair”, which included hits like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, “Shout”, and “Head Over Heels”. He also worked on their follow-up album “The Seeds of Love”, which featured the singles “Sowing the Seeds of Love”.
6th Depeche Mode album
“Music for the Masses” is Depeche Mode’s sixth studio album, released on 28 September 1987 by Mute Records. Daniel Miller, who had co-produced Depeche Mode’s previous album, decided to step back from production duties for this album due to the increasing tension experienced during the recording of “Black Celebration”. With Miller’s blessing, Alan Wilder co-produced the album with David Bascombe.
You can enjoy the interview series below.
Side-Line also covered Depeche Mode’s ‘The Things You Said’.
About Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode formed in Basildon, Essex, England, in 1980, initially under the name Composition of Sound. The lineup that became Depeche Mode came together that year around Vince Clarke (keyboards, guitars), Andy Fletcher (keyboards, bass) and Martin Gore (guitars, keyboards), with Dave Gahan joining shortly after as lead vocalist. The band adopted the name Depeche Mode at a gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town on 24 September 1980, where Mute Records founder Daniel Miller saw them and signed the group.
Depeche Mode’s debut single, “Dreaming of Me,” was recorded in December 1980 and released on Mute in February 1981, followed that October by the debut album “Speak & Spell.” Vince Clarke left the band that November, going on to form Yazoo and later Erasure; Alan Wilder joined on keyboards in 1982 and became an official member from the 1983 single “Get the Balance Right!” The band’s catalog through the 1980s includes “A Broken Frame” (1982), “Construction Time Again” (1983), “Some Great Reward” (1984), “Black Celebration” (1986) and “Music for the Masses” (1987), the latter turning the band into arena headliners in the US off the back of their Rose Bowl concert, later documented in the film “101.”
“Violator” (1990) and “Songs of Faith and Devotion” (1993) marked the band’s commercial peak, but Wilder departed in June 1995, continuing his own project Recoil, leaving Gahan, Gore and Fletcher as a trio. The band released “Ultra” (1997), “Exciter” (2001), “Playing the Angel” (2005), “Sounds of the Universe” (2009), “Delta Machine” (2013) and “Spirit” (2017) as a three-piece, touring with long-serving live members Christian Eigner (drums, keyboards, since 1997) and Peter Gordeno (keyboards, bass, since 1998). Alongside the band, Gahan released solo albums “Paper Monsters” (2003) and “Hourglass” (2007), and Gore released “Counterfeit²” (2003).
Depeche Mode was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 7 November 2020. Andy Fletcher died on 26 May 2022, and Gahan and Gore continued as a duo, releasing “Memento Mori” in 2023 with Eigner and Gordeno again on the road. The band has sold more than 100 million records and placed 54 singles on the UK charts. Dave Bascombe’s engineering work on “Music for the Masses” (1987) came during the band’s transition into a stadium act, in the years before Alan Wilder’s 1995 departure.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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