Dave Gahan

Dave Gahan

David Gahan (born May 9, 1962 in Epping, Essex, England) is the baritone lead-singer for English synthpop Band, Depeche Mode.

Life Before Depeche Mode

Born into a working class family to Sylvia and Len, David was 6 months old when his parents separated. They divorced 2 years later and his mother moved the family -- David and sister Sue (born 1960) -- to Basildon after Sylvia met and married her second husband Jack. The Gahan family continued to grow with the birth of two further brothers Peter (born 1966) and Phil (born 1968). David and Sue were raised under the impression that their mother's second husband (Jack Gahan; from whom Dave takes his second name, and after whom Dave's own son Jack is named) was in fact his real father. Legally and morally this was true, Jack had adopted both Sue and Dave and raised them as his own children. Tragedy struck in 1972 when Jack, the elder Gahan died when David was ten. Gahan recalls how he "came home one day and found this bloke [his biological father] at home". Of the incident, he has said: "I'll never forget that day. When I came home from school, there was this stranger in my mum's house. My Mother introduced him to me as my real dad. I remember I said, crying, that was impossible because my father was dead. How was I supposed to know who that man was? From that day on, Len often visited the house, until one year later he disappeared again. Forever this time. Since then he had no contact with us. By growing older, I thought about him more and more. The only thing my mother would say, was that he moved out to Jersey to open a hotel".[1]. "Mum had kept it back from me til there was a need to tell me about my birth father, it's a different generation and you can understand I guess she thought she was doing the right thing."

Gahan compensated for the loss of his father by becoming something of a "real wide boy with a chip on my shoulder, a real yob". His crimes as a youth included stealing cars, vandalism, and spray-painting graffiti on walls, and as a result he had visited juvenile court three times before he was 14.

Within six months of leaving Barstable School in July 1978, Gahan found and lost something in the order of twenty jobs, from selling soft drinks to working on a construction site. David also applied for a job as an apprentice fitter with North Thames Gas. He was told by his probation officer to be honest with the interviewer, and as a result, he admitted his criminal record but claimed he was a "reformed character". Of course, he did not get the job.

Eventually, he earned a place at Southend Art College, which he enjoyed immensely. After three years, he gained the British Display Society Award, which allowed him to get jobs doing displays in shop windows and shopping centres.

Depeche Mode

File:DMin1981.jpg

Dave Gahan (far right) in 1981, as part of Depeche Mode's original lineup.

Circa 1980, Vince Clarke was, at one point, a member of two bands; French Look, with Robert Marlow, and Composition Of Sound with future Depeche Mode member Andy Fletcher. Martin Gore drifted between the two bands, until eventually both groups fell out (and French Look fell apart; consequently Martin later joined Composition Of Sound), as they both wanted Gore to be part of their band and -- in an attempt to please everyone -- he had been unwilling to choose one over the other.

Later that same year, at a jam session for local talent, Vince Clarke (Yazoo, Erasure) was impressed with Gahan's vocal rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes" and invited him to join his band, Composition of Sound. Gahan agreed, and shortly thereafter the band was renamed to Depeche Mode (a name suggested by Gahan after he had come across a fashion magazine by the name of Dépêche-mode) which has been translated to "Fast Fashion" many times. However, when taking into account the actual meaning and not the literal one, it translates to "Fashion Dispatch (news)". The group released their debut record, Speak and Spell, in 1981 on Mute Records.

Since then, the band has continued to explore new musical directions, and their sound has evolved immensely since their inception. They have released eleven studio albums, four greatest hits compilations (The Singles 81>85, The Singles 86>98, Catching Up with Depeche Mode The Best Of, Volume 1), a remix album (Remixes 81 - 04) and are now considered elder statesmen of their craft, who inspired an electronic movement.

Solo

Dave's first solo album 'Paper Monsters'

In 2003 he released his first solo album, Paper Monsters (which he co-wrote with guitarist and friend Knox Chandler), followed by a world tour (including a performance at 2003's Glastonbury Festival), singing both his new solo tracks and Depeche Mode fan favourites. His touring band included Knox Chandler on guitar, Martyn LeNoble (Porno For Pyros, Jane's Addiction, The Cult) on bass, Vincent Jones (Sarah McLachlan) on keyboards, and Victor Indrizzo (Beck, Macy Gray) on drums.

The album was a moderate success. The first single "Dirty Sticky Floors" became a Top 20 hit on the World Singles chart selling over 200,000 copies, as well as hitting the Top 20 in the UK. The album itself became a Top 10 hit on the European album chart and a Top 40 hit in the UK. This success was backed by a world tour and a live DVD titled Live Monsters which was released in 2004. A year later, he also appeared as model and spokesperson of the European mid-range fashion retailer J Lindeberg and its S/S 2006 menswear line. The ads featured both him and seemingly random quotes like "What would happen if we all told the truth", "You can tell he's lying because his lips are moving", etc. These ads appeared prominently in international fashion press.

The album made Dave a little bitter about never writing songs for Depeche Mode, sometimes personally attacking Martin or Andrew in interviews. In 2004, he said that if he did not get to write half of the songs on the new Depeche Mode album, there would not be one. Eventually there was a compromise, and Dave wrote three songs on 2005's Playing the Angel. The three songs, "Suffer Well" (nominated for a US Grammy award announced on Dec 7, 2006), "I Want It All" and "Nothing's Impossible" (the first later becoming a single), have had mixed opinions from fans. Others point that Depeche Mode songs usually don't have outside input in songwriting, but that the music on the three songs are collaboratively by Andrew Philpott and drummer Christian Eigner. The exact contribution of each writer (Gahan/Eigner/Philpott) is not known, but according to Dave in 2003, during the making of Paper Monsters, he worked on lyrics and basic melodies for some songs, with help from Knox Chandler to flesh them out. You can see a video of this at Dave's solo website, under the in-studio videos. It is viable to think he did this type of collaboration for Playing the Angel as well. It is agreed by all in the band, including Dave, that "Dave's songs" were thrown in the Depeche Mode blender during the making of Playing the Angel, and were no longer just Dave songs, but they became true Depeche Mode songs. Going from strength to strength' Depeche Mode have won the "Best Dance Artist Group" award at the 22nd Annual IDMA Awards in March 2007, sponsored by the Winter Music Conference.

Dave Gahan would be working on new material for his new solo album, the first since his 2003 solo debut "Paper Monsters".

Personal troubles

On August 17, 1995, Gahan allegedly "attempted suicide" with a razor blade -- he later stated that this was more of a "cry for help", rather than a suicide attempt [2] . At one point during this episode Gahan was known to spend 12 hours a day inside his wardrobe, watching The Weather Channel and talking to 'The Tin Man', a doll he was convinced could talk (later on and after recovery, he would refer to these "conversations" in his solo single Dirty Sticky Floors).

He was then admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Beverly Hills, California and released shortly after. On May 28, 1996, Gahan overdosed on a heroin and cocaine 'speedball' in a Los Angeles hotel room. On the way to the hospital, he was pronounced clinically dead for two minutes, but was revived by paramedics, then again taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was arrested upon his release two days later, and ordered by the court to complete a 9 month rehabilitation. The drug charges against Gahan were eventually dropped in September 1996, and Gahan has now been clean for 10 years. Amanda De Cadenet is one of the people he credits with helping him make that climactic step towards sobriety, after his wife Jennifer, and Baron Jonathan Kessler.

Gahan currently lives in New York, with his third wife Jennifer, their daughter Stella Rose (b. July 29, 1999), and Jennifer's son Jimmy. He also has a son, Jack (b. October 14, 1987), from his first marriage.

March 2007: After recently returning from LA where he sang guest vocals on Victor Indrizzo's album, Dave is currently writing new material in New York in collaboration with Andrew Philpott and Christian Eigner.

External links

• The Official Paper Monsters Website
• The Official Depeche Mode Website
• Depeche Mode at Myspace