Martin Gore
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Martin Lee Gore (born July 23, 1961 in London, England) has been a member of the band Depeche Mode since their inception.
Martin left St. Nicholas's Comprehensive School in 1977 and took a job as a bank teller. Despite discovering that it was not the most exciting of jobs, and certainly not his vocation, he decided that the banking industry would make for a safe career option. During evenings, weekends and any other spare time, Martin was involved with the local band "Norman and the Worms".
In 1980, Martin met Andy "Fletch" Fletcher at the Van Gogh club, and was soon recruited into his band, "Composition of Sound". Before long, the band changed their name to "Depeche Mode" and recruited David Gahan to be the band's singer.
On Depeche Mode's first album, Speak & Spell (1981), Vince Clarke had chiefly been responsible for the album's material. Gore contributed only two tracks; the instrumental "Big Muff" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!". When Vince Clarke announced his departure from Depeche Mode in 1981 (citing the pressures of fame as the reason), Martin took over the songwriting duties for the band. Gore had been writing material since the age of 14.
The songs that he provided for Depeche Mode's second outing, A Broken Frame (1982) were vastly different in sound and lyrical content from Vince Clarke's lyrically nonsensical offerings on Speak & Spell. The predominant themes were unrequited love and naivety, with a dash of everything from politics to religion.
When Alan Wilder was finally introduced as a permanent member of the band (ca. 1983), Gore let all production and arrangement responsibilities rest with him. This is especially evident when one compares the solo church organ demo of "Enjoy The Silence" with the epic masterpiece that it eventually became.
Because of their real world subjects, Martin's songs have appealed to a wide and varied audience, despite, and maybe even because of, their often simplistic lyrics. As a result, Depeche Mode have retained a loyal fan base for more than two decades.
In 2003, Martin released Counterfeit2, a solo album follow up to his 1989 Counterfeit mini-album.
Both Counterfeits feature his takes on other people's material as he has stated publicly before he's not the most prolific songwriter and prefers to keep his own material for Depeche Mode albums.
The first Counterfeit featured covers of bands such as The Durutti Column and Sparks.
Discography
- "Counterfeit ep" (Mute Stumm67, 1989)
- "Counterfeit 2" (Mute, 2003)pl:Martin Gore