After greater than 40 years in Depeche Mode, the unhappy passing of Andy Fletcher in 2022 left the query he was most frequently requested largely unanswered: what precisely did he do? Properly, it seems that Fletch may properly have been the one member who stored the band on an digital pop path…

Tright here’s a second in a brief video interview with Andy Fletcher from 1993, simply earlier than Depeche Mode’s well-known Crystal Palace gig, when his face drops as he will get requested that query.

The journalist has already known as Fletcher “one other one of many unsung heroes of Depeche Mode”, to which Andy replies, laughing, “Properly what number of are there?”

However then the interviewer – who genuinely doesn’t appear to know who Andy is – follows it up with the query, and one which Fletch already seems to be weary and cautious of, even at this comparatively early level in his profession. “Inform me about your function in Depeche Mode,” the reporter asks, after which provides just a little too straight: “What… what’s it?”

Andy pauses uncomfortably, however then gamely trots out, “As most individuals know we handle ourselves, so I prefer to handle that facet of issues, actually.”

And this could have been effective had he simply left it at that. However similar to so many different events earlier than and since, the ‘Fletch’ facet of Andy then involves the fore – all brutal honesty, with a smattering of darkish humour and a twinkle within the eye.

So when Andy is then requested, “Is it a troublesome function?”, he responds with, “Not likely. We’ve got a number of folks to assist us out.”

It’s one other one so as to add to that record of self-deprecating Fletch quotes. Every thing from an interview in Making Music journal in June 1987, when he stated: “All of us have completely different roles. Al [Alan Wilder]’s the principle musician, and I take a again seat typically. Often on the couch” to essentially the most well-known: “Martin’s the songwriter, Alan’s the nice musician, Dave’s the vocalist… and I bum round” quote from the Depeche movie, 101.

Fletch was requested the identical query relentlessly, but he hardly ever defended himself – though he did later make clear to Consequence Of Sound that the 101 quote was extra about his well-known dry humour (“I positively stated that tongue in cheek”). As a rule, although, it’s been as much as his bandmates to defend his function.

“Individuals who suppose Fletch doesn’t do something are sorely mistaken,” Martin Gore has stated. “No person ought to suppose that he doesn’t pull his weight. He completely does.”

And what Fletch did in Depeche Mode maybe goes additional than most of us may realise. Reviewing the whole lot that he talked about in 40+ years of interviews reveals extra depth and subtlety to his half within the band.

There was, after all, the function of mitigator that was talked about within the pretty tributes after Fletch’s premature demise in Could 2022 – he actually was the required downside solver and compromise builder between the generally battling egos of Martin Gore and Dave Gahan. However there’s extra…

For a begin…

Firstly, there’s the small indisputable fact that he was the one founding member left in Depeche Mode. He and Vince Clarke began No Romance In China during which Fletcher performed bass guitar.

The band would finally morph into the Mode through Composition Of Sound, however that preliminary incarnation was simply him and Vince, and extra about punk earlier than the pop and synths arrived.

“After we first began in 1978,” Fletch informed Hungary’s Viva TV, “we had been extra of a guitar-based band and punk had simply occurred. On the time, bands just like the early Human League began utilizing synthesizers which had been cheaply out there for the primary time. We determined to do away with our guitars and use keyboards. Clearly it was an excellent resolution!”

And it was a choice that shaped the spine of the Depeche Mode sound after Fletcher and Clarke requested Martin Gore to hitch, principally as a result of he had a synth. Clarke then realised that the band lacked a charismatic frontman so Dave Gahan entered the fray.

And instantly the massive items of Depeche Mode had been in place, large forces of nature who would occupy large chunks of the band and ego area, leaving Fletch with simply his bass enjoying, albeit now with a synth.

From then on Fletch’s enter would diminish. Even when Vince Clarke departed quickly into the Depeche Mode story, Andy couldn’t fill any enjoying duties as Alan Wilder arrived with classical keyboard expertise. Songwriting duties? No likelihood – it simply so occurred Gore may write as profitable songs as Vince.

And even when the band wanted backing vocals and a lead vocalist to tackle songs not suited to Gahan – yep, bloody Martin Gore once more. Already Fletch will need to have been questioning his function…

Studio finery

At this stage of the band’s historical past, there was some proof that Andy may and did embrace the  manufacturing facet of the music, or not less than take an equal function to the remainder of the band within the studio.

“A variety of teams don’t have a say within the combine,” he informed One… Two… Testing journal in October 1985. “It’s simply the massive producer is available in they usually should go together with what he says. With us we’re at all times in on the combo.”

And he actually demonstrated a information of the gear of the time when he talked about programming the band’s keyboards and percussion.

He additionally detailed how concerned he was within the sampling course of for the album Development Time Once more in a 1984 problem of Melody Maker: “We went down Brick Lane and simply hit the whole lot after which recorded it, took it again to the studio and put it into the keyboard. That’s how we made the observe Pipeline. We had been smashing corrugated iron and previous vehicles.”

But there’s little doubt that Fletcher’s function on each the manufacturing and music sides of Depeche positively dwindled over the next years, maybe as Alan Wilder’s function elevated and using exterior producers like Flood and Mark Bell grew to become extra frequent.

Nevertheless, for a very long time firstly of the band’s profession, they had been manager-less, so this was an apparent function for Fletch to fill, particularly because the enterprise and cash facet of the band began exploding.

“As a result of we didn’t have a supervisor the primary 16 or 17 years,” he defined to Launch journal, “I used to principally handle that facet of issues as a result of I used to be desirous about it: constructing relationships, getting on with folks, being artistic and dealing in the direction of a aim.”

This expertise would finally give Fletch the talents to start out his personal report label – see the Toast Hawaii field – and whereas selling it, the interviews he gave revealed another artistic traits he’d not turn out to be famous for in Depeche.

“After I signal somebody, I give the whole lot to them. I assist with the songwriting, with their stay performances, within the studio, with the whole lot, [including] manufacturing.”

In fact, after a long time in a band like Depeche Mode, you’d anticipate him to have these sorts of expertise, however it’s maybe shocking to listen to that he had sufficient confidence to share them with bands like Consumer, the principle Toast Hawaii signing.

Bringing the pop

Fletcher additionally dabbled in DJ-ing within the 2000s, with occasional spots round Europe to advertise his label. And by now you is likely to be considering that Andy had expertise in lots of extra areas than he was beforehand recognized for, however maybe no specific mastery in any certainly one of them – or not less than in comparison with others within the Depeche household.

Nevertheless, Andy’s most essential function within the band was presumably about crucial side of Depeche Mode: the music.

Whereas Martin Gore and Dave Gahan explored extra guitar, blues and rock influences on later albums, Fletch would hold the core of the music on a good digital pop keel.

In 1990 he stated: “That’s why we use electronics — that’s the best way ahead within the 90s. It was a unclean phrase within the 80s as a response to the early-80s synth-pop factor. However we nonetheless really feel that’s the best way ahead.”

And it was an opinion he would hold all through the band’s profession. “I like synth-pop,” he informed UTV in 2011. “I believe it was a good time in music the place bands sounded completely different and there have been nice pop songs.”

Then, in his most revealing interview, to German newspaper Die Welt in 2013, he took this additional: “Inside the band, I contribute the ingredient of pop. Martin L Gore, who writes a lot of the songs, loves American blues and nation.

“And Dave has found jazz for himself. I, nevertheless, will in all probability eternally really feel loyal to the straightforward pop melodies and the lightness they stand for.”

So have we lastly discovered what Andy Fletcher actually purchased to Depeche Mode: the ‘pop’ in synth-pop? Vince Clarke may need had the concept within the first place (“he ordered us to turn out to be an digital band – all of us had to purchase synthesizers!” Andy informed Consequence Of Sound), however was it left to Andy to hold the digital pop flag?

It’s actually an attention-grabbing notion, and has since been not less than partially confirmed by Dave and Martin. As just lately as February 2023, Martin informed French TV channel TMC that “generally if we acquired just a little too creative, he [Andy] would put us in our place”, with Dave including: “Fletch could be the voice after we had been engaged on one thing within the studio that might say if we had been going too far-off from one thing with the sound.”

World in my eyes

And at last we depart it as much as Andy to inform the world – okay, Die Welt once more – what he thought his function was within the band. In the identical interview, Fletcher lastly displayed a uncommon present of frustration – in public, not less than – at being singled out because the member of Depeche Mode who did the least.

“The contribution of every particular person stays invisible,” he famous. “And since I don’t push myself to the fore, many mistake me for the fifth wheel. Generally it’s irritating to not be taken critically. In spite of everything, you might additionally say my job is crucial; with out me there could be no band anymore.”

It’s a tragic assertion on various ranges: firstly that Fletch was even sometimes bothered by what folks thought and, after all, that this final quote would ever should be examined.

However examined it was when Fletch handed away final yr. There’s nonetheless a band, however sadly he’s not a part of it. One factor is definite, although: Andy Fletcher actually relished each day of being in Depeche Mode…

“Perhaps the largest second is simply right here, now,” he informed the Sizzling Press web site in 2017. “I may say enjoying the Rose Bowl or one thing, however I simply suppose it’s unbelievable that it looks as if Depeche Mode are as widespread as ever.

“We had an absolute dream profession… not less than, if you happen to take out these years that had been a bit messy. We lead regular lives, and we’re not celebrities. So it’s an ideal state of affairs. I’d prefer to suppose that now, actually, is the very best second.”

“It’s been like one large dream,” he informed Launch. “You wanna pinch your self and whenever you get up I’m nonetheless working for that insurance coverage firm I used to be working with after I was 18. We’re very lucky that this dream continues.”

Finally, whereas Fletch was the primary to undermine his personal function and often giggle together with the critics, perhaps the actual fact was that he merely had to take a again seat.

Put your self in his footwear: you’re sharing the stage – actually – with among the best songwriters of our era, and a singer who has developed not solely among the most distinctive vocals, however turn out to be one of the charismatic frontmen of the final 4 a long time.

And when Alan Wilder was within the group, you even had a classically skilled keyboard participant to compete with. As if that’s not sufficient, you’re additionally sharing the studio with among the finest manufacturing minds in historical past – Tim Simenon, James Ford, Daniel Miller, Gareth Jones and Mark Bell, to call however just a few.

So whereas Fletch most actually had some expertise in songwriting, studio manufacturing, enjoying bass, guitar and keyboards, plus an enormous information of the music enterprise, he in all probability didn’t actually have loads of alternative however to maintain a lid on most of it.

What are you going to do when surrounded by such icons? We all know what we’d do. Precisely what Fletch did. He may need largely taken the again seat, however he most actually loved the trip.