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"I dissolve in trust, I will sing with joy, I will end up dust". The line really spoke to me. That's what it is: Enjoy what you have here. You're not going to be here forever, but the songs stay forever. For me, it's like Bowie songs - they carry me, and they continue to, even though he's gone.
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I think there's a great strength in having the courage and also having the support to do what you want to do when you're an artist in any way, shape or form.
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I was actually grateful for being arrested, for the judge that promised me that I would go to prison if I didn't stay clean, because I listened to him and something clicked. Those two years when we were making album "Ultra" and I had to go back and forth to court to prove to the judge that I'd stayed clean, it gave me this time to suddenly realize, "Oh, I can do this, I can crawl my way back, I can get better. And I do want to be here."
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There's always this weird dark humor within a lot of Depeche Mode songs that people miss, tongue-in-cheek and also very British.
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New York is a great place to feel inspired all the time.
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Really, what I'm always drawn to is the voice - PJ Harvey , Björk . If the voice interests me, then I'm interested to listen to what's happening.
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You have a tendency to just remember the bad times and bad moments. I think that often it's the way of life. Yet the rewards we got from it were fantastic and we played a lot of shows to sellout audiences in I don't know how many cities. I just think we didn't realise how insane it was until we were actually right in the middle of it and couldn't stop. We just couldn't stop.
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We seem to be in a really interesting time, a time of weird change and values and choices, and "Who are you really? Where's the revolution, and what does it mean to you? What are your choices?" To me, America is built on immigrants - everybody coming here and making America "Great," as Donald Trump would say. And that's what New York is, a melting pot for all these different races and religions. We all live on this little island together and somehow get on, some days. But most of the time it's proven to have worked, right? So I don't know what the f - k he's talking about.
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The possibilities are endless now, with performing, getting your music online, getting your own website and getting your music out there. I think that's very cool and amazing.
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Vocally, I really like going into the darker side of myself.
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I definitely have a dark side of me that can be pretty vicious... as we all do.
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I'm not that type of musician where I can sit down at the piano and work out a song; I actually really enjoy that process of sitting with somebody and having nothing and then suddenly something starts appearing. You struggle with it, and then suddenly a song starts to appear. Then, you've got to try and muscle it - there's that word again - into something and you do. You tussle with it and play with it and roll around with it and suddenly, magically, something appears.
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Music is still the one thing that ties people together. People can come together from all different religions, walks of life, colours, creeds and enjoy the same song. That's still the most incredible thing to me about performing live.
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Certain songs like 'Enjoy the Silence' - to me, it always fits anywhere. There's something about that song that's really timeless, and I never get bored or feel like I have to muster something up.
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To me, it's always been a challenge to look for the light: to look for those spaces in your heart where there is hope and faith and try to embrace that rather than crush it. I've spent so many years trying to crush those feelings of hope, and I certainly succeeded for quite a while.
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We live very wonderful, privileged lives, and we're very lucky and fortunate, but it doesn't mean we stop caring. With Brexit and everything, and then Donald Trump running for president, of course, we were like, "Is this really happening? No, of course not, it's never gonna happen." It's impossible to not affected by the craziness of the world.
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Depeche Mode have never got over their teenage awkwardness with each other. We're still like that. Mates but not mates. That awkwardness is there, only now we have families and kids.
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I have a very addictive personality, so I'm even careful about wanting more of anything than I need - even chocolate.
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Making a record with 'Depeche Mode' is not a simple process. It's quite complicated and long. We have the luxury of time. I'm not sure that's such a good thing when you're being creative.
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There isn't an amount of money you could offer me to do reality TV. I would rather get my job back on the building site. Or I could own a construction business. Maybe I could retire to my house in Long Island and take up painting, like Captain Beefheart. A crazy recluse: I like that idea.
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The whole 'serious artist' thing is very damaging. The powers that be will steer you towards your own demise. One thing I've learned is that it's not very glamourous, and my problems are no different from anybody else's.
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You've got to put interesting people around you; you've got to work with people who are gonna inspire you to take the songs you've written into a completely different direction, because there's nothing more boring than going to the studio and predictably knowing what is going to happen.
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Joy comes from places you least expect it. It's usually the simple things, like watching my son play basketball or going through Central Park when the blossoms are blooming.
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I have the urge to still be part of the world, the universe, of life. Through music I have the feeling that I come a little closer to that.