By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Depeche Mode Facebook Takeover, Film Tagged with , , , ,

I’ve been mostly just linking to articles, reviews and interviews about “Spirits in the Forest” and… I’m about to just link to another interview, but this one is very special, cause it was for my dear friend Jenna Rose Robbins, whom I managed to sneak into a quick cameo in the film (well, we spent almost an entire day filming, but in the end you see her for some 6-10 seconds, blame the editing).

You can jump straight to her website and either read or watch our conversation. I didn’t even realize it went on for over 40 minutes (time flies when you’re having fun).

A curious fact: I cried watching the film in several opportunities, but it wasn’t until the 5th time in a theater (6th overall) that I got emotional with my own story. Before, I went from full tears running down my eyes to a lump in my throat with my fellow spirits whenever watching the filme. But the last time, however, was after I finally read what other Brazilian devotees thought of the film over the weekend and how much they stressed the connection with the song “Walking in my Shoes” and that short film in particular starring Australian-born, but also Berlin-based artist Mikey Woodbridge.

Despite liking the video, I wasn’t very taken aback when I saw my first couple of “Global Spirit Tour” shows in Leipzig and Dresden. I found it to be overall quite literal (including a pair of very high heels that are indeed a challenge to walk on). Later when talking to Jenna, we confirmed that when we both saw the video for the first time, we didn’t know it was set in Berlin, but then slowly started to realize it was filmed on the Hauptstadt by the way the apartment is decorated, the heating, the staircase of the building, the architecture on the streets of what was obviously Kreuzberg, the sign in German on the cafe where Mikey stops and, ultimately, the Bar Tausend under the S-Bahn (urban rail) bridge that connects the Friedrichstraße station that Mikey enters as the song ends. And we both realized it more or less at the same time (even if we didn’t attend these same concerts, we both attended the one in Berlin on June 22nd, 2017). So curious how we both thought alike. Also, now, like so many things Depeche, I had mixed feelings about the video when I first saw it, and now I’m absolutely in love with it. If “Walking in my Shoes” was a song I loved, now it’s a song I adore and want the chorus to be engraved on my tombstone.

PS.: French-German channel ARTE will show the film in Germany on Jan 24th, 2020 (the same date as the new release date of the “MODE” box set). You can see more details here (including the fact they’re showing “101” right before).

PS 2.: If you can’t wait that long, the film is available on Amazon Prime, Vimeo, Youtube, Google Play Store and iTunes. On most of these platforms it’s available on SD or HD, and for rent or purchase.

PS 3.: Did you know Jenna has a very interesting book about her crazy idea of following the band during part of their Devotional tour in 1993 called “Faithful and Devoted: Confessions of a Music Addict”? I highly recommend you do. Here’s some more info about it.

PS 4.: WordPress is on the verge of updating some stuff and my site may face some visual issues until I fix everything. If this happens, please bear with me while I work on it. Internet knows no holiday breaks.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , ,

Well, It’s been more than 24h since I saw the proper first theatrical screening of “Spirits in the Forest” to the general public here in the Depeche Mode capital of the world. Besides a small after-show party hangover which made me miss the entire morning, I had a very busy day reading and trying to answer as many messages as I can (if you have written me and I have not answered, calm down, I’m not finished yet).

Besides the short celebrity experience all the way from when the lights went on in the theater and being asked for selfies with half of the people in the after party, what I’m the most happy with is the reaction people had after watching the film. So I wasn’t the only one who cried watching it (yes, I cried again). For the record, the list of films that made me cry is very short. It’s mostly films about prejudice and extreme injustice: “The Color Purple”, “The Help”, “Bent”, “Dancer in the Dark” plus an odd man out that just so happens to be another of Anton’s oeuvre: “Control”.

Even though I was not the director, nor had almost any creative control over this film, all my fears were indeed sashayed away. It was not another “101”. Our stories were not boring to (most) other fans. On the contrary. I had people telling me this movie made them reconnect with the moment Depeche Mode got into their lives, even if it had nothing to do with what us six tell in the film. Yes, I also got messages from people relating specifically with what we went through, but it was really incredible to see this film even transcends what being a Depeche Mode fan is. You can show it to someone else and say: “this is why we like this band”, but I’ll make Liz words mine and state that this is film about the humanity in us all. Anyone can watch it and still get the message.

As an update from the last post, I also bring Liz’s interview for Home, IndieWire’s review, and German Rolling Stone’s somewhat weird review with some wrong assumptions because none of us were interviewed by them. UPDATE: Anton goes back to his roots in this NME interview.

And for the record: Berlin is the capital of the Depeche Mode world, BUT LOS ANGELES comes in a close second place. Where else in the world is there a Depeche Mode convention? This first part of my line was very popular here in Berlin, where 11 out of 10 people are fans, but the second part was left in the cutting room floor and I just don’t want to piss off fans from LA. Specially after getting to know Liz and also all these great guys in the picture above that I got to spend some unforgettable days with.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , ,

We’re one day away from the big day: the worldwide screening of “Spirits in the Forest”, and I just wanted to leave links for some more interviews and articles here before I lose track of everything.

You can now read David McElroy’s interview with me and with Cristian Flueraru for Home.

Billboard also featured an article about the film.

Forbes Entertainment went as far as defining our film as a “new gold standard” for concert films.

Music Week is full of inaccuracies, but they interviewed Anton and it’s a good summary of what he spoke during his Q+A in London last month.

Mariskal Rock (in Spanish) initially said Dicken was a “chico from Medellín”, which they later corrected to Bogotá after his comment on the site. At least they got it right that I am a carioca in Berlin.

As a 🏳️‍🌈rainbow bonus🏳️‍🌈, LogoTV’s website NewNowNext featured an interview with me which should be available here. However, their site cannot be accessed from within the EU (well, not without a VPN, at least) because they’re afraid of being sashayed away by EU’s GDPR (not to be confused with RPDR). It’s late 2019 and they haven’t fixed it. So should you be redirected to their Youtube channel or some other site, the article can be read as a simple PDF here under fair use terms.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode Tagged with , , , ,

Last month I was asked to write two short reviews about Fletch’s DJ performances in Rio de Janeiro that took place in October 2007 and October 2011, respectively, for my friend Jean Campagner of DepecheMode.com.br. You can find the originals in Portuguese here and here with some extra pictures. Here are English versions of both.

October 5th, 2007. It was a Friday night. The club had just opened a few months before and was always crowded. Yet, Andrew “Fletch” Fletcher’s first visit to Rio wasn’t exactly a success. After the warm up with DJs José Roberto Mahr and Tony Viegas, the main guest DJ took over the booth shortly after midnight.

In case you’re still in doubt, he is really spinning. But his style is sort of unique. He doesn’t beatmatch and doesn’t always pick very danceable tracks. Of course there’s a lot of Depeche Mode in his set. And, obviously, these were the tracks that would get the crowd cheering the most.

I was probably one of the few people who paid extra to get to stay at the VIP area, behind the DJ booth. I already knew the club configuration and I knew the DJs had to pass through it to reach the booth. Before, during and after his set, Fletch would wonder around or go to the loo (only when playing very long tracks would he do it during his set).

Whenever he was not playing, he was in a more reserved area with his guests. During one of his ventures outside of the booth, I managed to intercept him and ask for an autograph on my “Playing the Angel” CD booklet I had brought with me.

I was prepared for the autograph, but when I left home, I ended up forgetting my camera. I took some pictures with my phone which were terrible and that was it, but I was already happy. It was definitely worth paying a little more and having had some great reward.

October 13th, 2011. After the disappointment caused by the cancellation of both of Depeche Mode’s shows in Brazil of the 2009 Latin American leg of the Tour of the Universe, there came our hero Fletch to gives another taste of one of his DJ nights.

This time things were slightly different. In fact, it had all the ingredients for a disaster compared to 2007.  It was on a Thursday and at the Costa Brava Club which is hard to reach (think of a venue on the top of a cliff by the shore in the isolated neighborhood of Joá). It’s the kind of place most people from Rio see from a bridge when passing from the South to the West side, but hardly anyone knows exactly how to get there. But in the end it all worked out fine and I made it on time.

Another thing made an entire difference. My devotee friends managed to arrange some time for us and Fletch with the event organizer. I think I was the first one to arrive, given how anxious I was. I took the “Sounds of the Universe” vinyl for him to autograph. We had roughly 20 or 30 minutes alone with him for pictures, autographs and his famous video promising that Depeche Mode would play in Brazil on their next tour. His promise would only come true two tours later, but better late than never.

This time the event was sponsored by a condom manufacturer. The dance floor of this club is smaller than the the one from 4 years before. If it didn’t get fully crowded, at least it didn’t look empty, like in 2007.

I confess I didn’t even pay that much attention to what the other DJs played before him after the state of grace that was that spontaneous meet-and-greet we were given. If Fletch didn’t surprise us in his setlist, his kindness made that night totally worth it.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , ,

I got asked a lot these past few weeks how does it feel to see yourself on the big screen. I didn’t have a proper answer until last Wednesday. I had only seen “Spirits In The Forest” once and it was the day before, at home. Watching it in the privacy of my sofa helped me defuse the surprise factor. That’s not a bad thing. Quite frankly I wouldn’t want to watch it for the very first time in a theater and then, when the lights go on, I’d still be trying to process what I had just seen while shaking hands and talking to everyone next to me.

So, on Wednesday, I ran to London for the very first theatrical screening with the extra special presence of Anton Corbijn, who would be answering questions after the film. Now that I didn’t have to worry how I was portrayed in the film, I managed to pay more attention to subtle details in the narrative of my five fellow spirits. Within 5 minutes I was already in tears, trying not to let people near me notice I was nearly sobbing for the entire first half of the movie, completely moved by everything those people on screen were telling and how it can make anyone understand what Depeche Mode is about. Everyone (or at least every Depeche Mode fan) will identify her or himself with what we have to say because it’s a very human approach to it. Anton said, quite rightfully, that Depeche invokes this sort of cult following that he doesn’t see among fans of other bands he also works with quite well (yes, he mentioned U2 at this moment). It’s not that they are better or worse than DM. It’s that the music and the themes on their songs relate to particularly intimate moments in their fans lives. And that’s why we’re drawn together by the band.

Just so we’re on the same page and everyone’s expectations are managed, without letting any spoiler out, here’s what to expect of the film:

  • It’s not a concert film. That will come out later next year. Anton was asked about this some 5 times in a row.
  • It’s not another 101 either. They didn’t just turn the camera on and let us goof around. It’s also not another “Our Hobby Is Depeche Mode” aka “The Posters Came From The Walls”. I wouldn’t even have signed up for something so embarrassing in the first place.
  • The band is only shown performing on stage. If you want to watch Alan teaching how to play Black Celebration, you’re watching the wrong film. In fact you’re a couple of decades late. If you want to hear the band talking, I’m sure you can find tons of promotional interviews on the internet. The “Spirit” era, in particular, had them talking a lot about their own personal lives and growing up in working class Basildon in the 60’s and 70’s.

If you want some more non-spoiler reviews, I strongly recommend you read what “Halo” book co-authors David McElroy wrote for Home and Kevin May wrote on his Halo, the Violator Book Blog. There’s also a honest review on Gigwise and we even made it to The Guardian (although they focus more on the media and the business model of the theatrical release, rather than the content, but there’s a bit about it too).

It was also interesting to meet the people who had spent 6 months listening to our voices mixing the audio of the film. Dear gawd, bless their souls. Not even I could stand my own voice for so long.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Music Tagged with ,

Depeche Mode box setA couple of months ago, a Polish website had a placeholder for the Violator 12″ box set, but it soon went away. Instead, multiple sites across Europe soon had placeholders for an “18 disc” set with prices that varied from €200 to €300. A set with all their studio albums was the most obvious assumption, but it wouldn’t account to 18 CDs.

So, after much conjecture, Depeche Mode announced last week a career-spanning box set containing all of their studio albums, plus 4 CDs with all of their B-sides with a surprise here and there (and also some omissions in the same proportion). It comes with a 227-page booklet, all album covers were also changed to greyscale. All of this inside a 7″x7″x7″ cube all in black. What a surprising palette!

Now, seriously, this box set is not for me, and that’s fine. I already have 99% of the contents here. I don’t really know what is the target audience of this. Maybe new fans that love the band enough to spend €250, because they own nothing at all and, yet, still buy CDs in 2019.

At least it helps my piggy bank for when the Violator 12″ box set comes out later.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film, Music Tagged with , , , , ,

So this author and a few other fans from across the globe have some stories to share with you on the big screen. All of them are unique, but have one thing in common: the devotion to Depeche Mode plays a part in bringing us all together. Here’s a sneak peak at “Spirits in the Forest”, the film directed by Anton Corbijn that follows the events in our lives leading to the final concert of the Global Spirit Tour on July 25th, 2018 (or watch the 30 second teaser with some exclusive shots here).

So head over to spiritsintheforest.com and check which theater is showing the film near you on November, 21st (and 23rd and 24th in some cases). In the meantime, I’ll see what behind the scenes anecdotes I can bore you with, like when I asked Anton to take a picture of me.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode Tagged with , , , , ,

Since last year, Mute Records is celebrating it’s 40th anniversary. But instead of ending the celebrations on 2018, they made it into a future-driven slogan aptly named “Mute 4.0 1978→Tomorrow”. There’s a bunch of re-releases and a bunch of new releases.

One of them is both ingenious and well-hearted, but possibly disappointing. I’m talking about “STUMM433”. They managed to get 58 artists from Mute (there are even ones signed to other labels right now, disbanded or even deceased) and had each one of them do a cover of the same musical piece: American composer John Cage’s “4’33″” (sorry for the excess of quotation marks, but it’s supposed to be read “4 minutes and 33 seconds”).

But this is no ordinary song. It’s an experiment. The entire composition requires the musicians to not play their instruments. So if you think this means 4’33” of silence, you’re correct. Or at least on the right track. It’s by no means absolute silence. And it’s not supposed to last 4’33” precisely either. By what we’ve been teased so far, it’s a contemplation at musical silence, yet, at the noise around us. Pitchfork gave it a 6.3 comparing it to ambient noise you hear on your daily commute.

The list of artists is impressive: A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Danny Briottet, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart / Sonskrif / The New Banalist Orchestra, Michael Gira, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Moby, Modey Lemon, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON / Boyd Rice, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Richard Hawley, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner and Edmund de Waal, The Warlocks, Wire, Yann Tiersen and Gareth Jones.

It is rumored that Depeche Mode’s rendition was recorded at the backstage of their final show of the Global Spirit Tour, July 25th, 2018. Maybe it’s the crew just having a chat while the band plays “Enjoy The Silence” on stage? Anyway, each version will also be followed by a visual piece. So that’s a lot of material on our way. Laibach, for example, made this accompanying video that clocks a bit over 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, Mute’s boss Daniel Miller himself revived his moniker “The Normal” for the first time since the creation of the label for a piece that is exactly that: ambient noise.

 

This release will be available on October 4th. There is a mammoth 5-disc vinyl box that comes along with candles with the scent of silence (?!) and a certificate of authenticity signed by Daniel Miller among other extras. This is limited to 433 copies and costs £220.00 and as of the day of this post (24/08/2019) they are still available. A regular 5CD box set is also coming, along the usual non-physical means. You can check it all out here. No wonder the deluxe version may take a while to sell out. Is it something people will play more than once in their lives, as the Pitchfork reviewer said?

Net profits from the release of the STUMM433 box-set will be split between the British Tinnitus Association and Music Minds Matter, charities chosen to honour Inspiral Carpets’ founding member Craig Gill who suffered from anxiety and depression as a result of his tinnitus in the years up to his untimely death. So there’s a very good charitable side to it.

By Posted on Posted in Life in General Tagged with ,
19.08.2013: I was already being welcomed at the Frankfurt Airport.

Today marks the 6th anniversary of my permanent arrival in Berlin. I had visited the city four times in the previous two years. There was almost this voice in my head: “if you build Berlin’s new airport, AirBerlin will come to Rio with a non-stop flight to pick you up”.

To no one’s disappoint, Berlin’s unfinished airport’s current opening date should be fall 2020. The original plan was to open it some time in 2010, but then the delays started. In one of my trips, I even got to get a flight ticket with BER written on it as my destination. About one month before the trip, Lufthansa emailed me saying the destination would be at good old Tegel airport instead. The airport has had so many unfulfilled openings, that no one takes whichever is the current one seriously (me neither). Along with the eternal delays with the airport, AirBerlin ended up filing for bankruptcy because they were counting on the new airport . They even did actually have plans for a Berlin-Rio non-stop flight. But it never materialized and it’s all history now. A buried past for AirBerlin and a mysterious future for Willy Brandt Airport, Berlin-Brandenburg (in case you were curious to know the full name of what Berliners simply call B-E-R).

Enough with Berlin trivia. If you want to get to know tons of information about the city that not even Wikipedia will tell you, I strongly recommend Notmsparker’s books.

There are many first-world-problems to whine about Berlin. “Berlin is not Germany”, some will say. They’re not that wrong. But to me, it’s almost like a Dorf (a small village) with the infrastructure of an European capital. Yes, there are stereotypical yoga-vegan-punk Berliners. But part of the German way of life is present, nonetheless. People say good morning, hello, thank you. The “bitte” culture is nice. I sometimes say it two or three times in one sentence just to be sure. But, hey, Germans, it’s not that us, foreigners, are rude for not saying the almighty “bitte” once in a while. Its just that sometimes it’s already understood in our mother tongue’s spoken language. The intonation implies everything. And sometimes one language interferes with the other and the bitte gets lost in translation. But when in Rome… I mean, Berlin…

Also, traffic is not an eternal gridlock. I laugh at the face of Berliners that complain about traffic. The maximum speed limit is 50km/h (I think there is one avenue that has an old limit of 60km/h, a relic from East Germany times). I had to cleanse myself of all the rage I had built upon the vicious circle of hate that is the traffic of Rio. People drive badly, so you drive even worse, which will lead someone else to drive badly… you get the point, right? Leave all that behind and simply drive calmly and with attention, specially with bicycles. And what’s not to love in a flat city much more welcoming to bikes? They’re not perfect, but don’t get me started on Rio’s bike situation.

There are some trade-offs, of course. The consumerist mentality is quite different. Apart from a handful of times per year, normal shops are not allowed to open on Sundays. Movie theaters have almost half an hour of advertising before the film starts. And, despite the magical convenience of simply hopping into a train or subway without barriers on the platforms, Murphy’s law says you will be controlled exactly on that day you forgot your monthly ticket expired the day before. And obviously, the one thing from Rio de Janeiro that Berlin can’t top: all seasons are more or less the same. In Berlin, it’s like living in 4 different planets every 3 months. But I will always have room for both cities in my heart. Rio, ich liebe dich, mas Berlin é a minha amante. pobre, mas sexy*

*(Rio, I love you, but Berlin is my poor, but sexy mistress)

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Music Tagged with , , ,

Just yesterday I was skimming quickly through the latest edition of Classic Pop magazine devoted to Depeche Mode that came out this week. There is an interview with D. A. Pennebaker about “101” and a candid revelation that a 4K restoration of the film could be in the works. I was very excited by this. He even mentioned extra material could see the light of day.

Then, just a few hours later, almost like a cruel prank from destiny, news of his passing away surfaced. Sadly it wasn’t an internet prank and he had died two days before the news were made public. Regardless of how an eventual restoration of “101” could be affected, it’s a sad loss. Music documentaries won’t ever be the same. But he died at the age of 94 leaving an immense legacy of political and music documentaries. Aside from Depeche Mode, he directed Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Look Back”, David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” and “Monterrey Pop”.
RIP, Donn.