Tag: anton corbijn

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

I know, I know… This website already has some tumbleweed rolling in the background. In fact, there are a few post in the making. I’m just never 101% satisfied with them to hit “publish”, but I’ll eventually say to myself “if you do it, they’ll come”.

Moving on, our main story tonight is the 2nd anniversary since “Spirits in the Forest” was screened all over the world. Yes, by now only me and my mom watch it on a regular basis. Just kidding, no we don’t. I didn’t get nominated for that Oscar. And just two years ago, life was completely different.

At one point in the film, I say I can only hope things are changing for the better. That statement was caught on camera in 2018 in the context of LGBT rights in Brazil. Since then, I can’t quite say my prophecy materialized as expected. And not just in the intended context, but in several ones. However, as we approach the holiday season of what feels like the 24th month of the year, I hopefully predict 2022 cannot – must NOT – be worse. There can be no worse. 2016 was tough already and we got out if with a new Depeche Mode album and tour.

By Posted on Posted in Anton Corbijn, Books, Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , ,

autograph of Anton CorbijnYour favorite photographer dash director had a RSVP signing session at the local fancy Taschen shop here in the village of Buh Leen. It was supposed to be from 18h to 19h. However, arriving at 18h meant you had go to the end of a line that actually had no end in sight (literally). But it moved fast and just TWO hours later (that is a few minutes in Berlin waiting lines) it was my turn.

I should note that It was very nice of the guest author not to storm out of the store when the clock hit 19h and really stayed longer autographing for every one who arrived until 19h (the line wasn’t infinite, though).

So I finally got to meet Anton Corbijn for the first time in 3 years. He was surprised (because I just appeared unannounced like everyone in the line). In fact, his joy felt almost like nostalgia, as if the project had been ages ago, when, in fact, we last met in October of 2019 in London. (now I got nostalgic about life in 2019). I got to send greetings on behalf of the other SPiRiTS and we even had a chat about the superb work of co-directors Pasqual Gutierrez and John Merizalde in the film.

Meeting Anton CorbijnI didn’t prepare anything special for him to write in the autograph. I could have done it, though. They were taking notes on post-its, but I decided I’d just let the moment flow. I did have “Dear Daniel, f*ck off! Love, AC” as a back up and I did suggest it. It was incredible how he was in such a great mood after the repetitive work of autographing for two hours straight. But he was concise, since he had already made an autograph that had taken almost the entire page. The result is the picture above.

I have 4 of his books in my shelf (well, DMAC XXL edition is not technically on a shelf) and three of them are autographed. First, during in a brief moment while filming, he wrote “Daniel, enjoy the music as much as the pictures, AC” on my “1-2-3-4” (I think he was under the impression I adore him and DM only; not just every artist featured on that book). The Gutemberg Bible edition of DMAC already came autographed. And now the XL edition of the same book. Only my restored copy of the rare Strangers that I bought for 1/3 of what it’s worth remains in pristine condition. No scribbles or doodles on it so far.

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

I came back from walking my dog this morning when I saw the postman had already passed by my building. Apart from the usual fear of receiving mail at all in Germany (long story, all bureaucracies come by mail and they’re usually bad), I wasn’t expecting anything in particular. I hadn’t ordered any record or CD. An empty box was all I wanted to find. Well, I didn’t. There was a CD/DVD sized envelope inside. I didn’t get to read what it was or from whom immediately because my hands were busy holding my dog on his leash, house keys, gloves (this is being a bit of a hard winter), mask, beanie/knit cap inside the elevator. Once at home, I managed to read what it was and when I saw who sent it, that’s when it hit me. Before the world was taken by this chaos and the band had plans to be in the same place at the same time May last year, something like this would have been fairly easy to get. But that never happened, and it slipped out of my mind because 2020 ended up being taken by one other big issue. But if they managed the logistics of autographing 1986 identical pages of the “DMAC” book being miles and miles away from each other, I can only assume that wasn’t the only thing they autographed. It’s a little treasure (ok, it’s a big deal) that I’m incredible grateful for. I never waited for the band in hotel doors or airports, so I don’t have anything autographed by the entire band for me. Well, now there’s also the book, but that was far more impersonal. Dave, Mart and Fletch, thanks for the gift. Well, actually, there is a long list of people to thank for helping me get this and you can read it all on my Instagram post about it. The Depeche Mode machine never stops giving love.

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode Tagged with ,

I’ve just treated myself to what’s probably the most expensive birthday gift I could have ever bought: the collector’s edition of “DMAC”, or “Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn” as stated on the box. The career-spanning photographic anthology of Anton Corbijn’s collaboration with Depeche Mode. Forget “Strangers”, tour books, music video stills and all artworks he has produced for them. This is all of that… and then some. Starting from their accidental session for NME in 1981 (when he “did not want to touch them”), but really kicking in from 1986 on, Anton has dug deep in his archives to produce this 500-page, 2-kilo+ Gutenberg beast of a book. In case the promotional material released so far hasn’t given the actual dimension of it, bear in mind Anton is a very tall guy and the book is roughly half his height. Mine just so happened to have arrived on my birthday, but I had it delivered to the local Taschen shop. And I had to bring it home by car. I have no idea in which shelf I can fit it. Or even in which room to keep it. Or how many liters of blood I must sell to pay this off. But It’s indeed a wonderful work of art. I did’t go with “art edition” because I’m also running out of walls to hang things. Of course both versions are sold out. But a more affordable edition has been confirmed by Anton himself to be coming sometime soon. I also did a quick unboxing video for the FB “Depeche Mode Global Fan Group” which is for members only, but you can join here. Sorry for not always having the best angle. It wasn’t easy to even fit the book inside the frame.

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

I got so excited with this 2nd anniversary of the legendary final shows of the GST in Berlin… that I left the last chapter escape the date itself. But dates are just numbers on a calendar. If you followed this far, I left off on July 23rd, 2018, the day we had the “hard wrap” of filming my scenes and I went off to see the first of the two concerts later that evening. Being part of that crew, even if for 4 days, I couldn’t help but share their feeling of accomplishment after a long and hard job around the world. This would be the first of two times I felt that in 3 days.

Days 1 (Jenna, eternally grateful), 2 (myself), and 3 to the power of 3 (DMK).

On July 24th, which was ironically my only “free day” between Friday, 20th and Wednesday 25th, 2018, I had to optimize my commitments all into: meeting friends from all over the world who were in town for the show in the morning, meet my co-stars as we checked in at the hotel (for logistic purposes I got to stay in a hotel in my own city; no one wanted our schedule to suffer delays because I was late to catch my U-Bahn and meet the rest of the guys and the crew), and later, a dinner with other Facebook Takeoverees at the Italian restaurant located on the same building as the Hansa Tonstudios (I ordered pizza; no Toast Hawaii for me, thanks), because later that evening there was a party inside the “Big Hall by the Wall”. If you’ve never been there, it can get very hot in the summer. The windows don’t open fully. It quickly turns into a sauna. And I was very exhausted. As much as I wanted to see and say hi to everyone, I also had a busy day ahead of me that started with meeting Anton at 10am the next morning and leaving by bus to the Waldbühne. I did what I could to at least say a few words to each friend I met that day.

Not just any Hotel Ultra, but one owned by Mo Ghandehari a DM fan that is a superb guy. He has a few cameos on the bar and at the karaoke as well.

We were all interviewed by Anton on the bus on the way to the venue. For whatever artistic reasons he found applicable, he decided to not include them, except the part where Dicken pours his heart about trying to cover “Precious” and the importance for an artist to send his or her political statements through their works in times like ours. I was actually the first one to be interviewed simply because I was sitting closer to the front of the bus. Unlike the rest of the documentary, we were not “prepped” for this interview ahead. We didn’t even know what subjects he would talk about with us. Anton may blame English not being his first language, but he is an enigmatic character and sometimes not so easy to understand right away, no matter the language. He asked if I thought that Depeche Mode changed a lot from show to show. What exactly did he mean? From one night to another? Can’t be, they usually make slow changes to the setlist as the tour progresses into several legs, but consecutive nights in different cities tend to have the same setlist. Did he mean from one tour to another? Was he talking about his own stage designs and short films (in which case I’d be in an awkward situation should I dare say anything negative about them to his face)? It was so unclear and I was so embarrassed to make Mr. Anton Corbijn repeat himself that I somehow weaseled my way out if it with a yes-no answer that probably only made sense to me.

Behind the wheels on the bus

A much easier question to which I gave the best answer possible (without previous knowledge of the setlist) was: what song I wanted to hear them play that night. Without a second thought I said: “The Things You Said”. Anton then became silent, stared ahead as if trying to making something out of my very complex answer. Maybe he was expecting “Enjoy The Silence”? I don’t know. They did play “The Things You Said” that night. It was a highlight of the last leg and the last show. Apart from the fact that I was wearing my Ray-Ban Wayfarer the entire bus trip (he said it was my choice to wear it during the interview or not, so I chose to stick to my 80-ish look), this scene would have made an incredible introduction to including even a snippet of TTYS into the documentary. But I already talk about economy before “Everything Counts”, I get to tell the importance of Bowie and “Heroes” to the band. And I recall some tough times I went through in my coming out experience with “Walking in my Shoes” as the soundtrack. So it’s more than made up for.

Right after our arrival, Anton gave us a tour of the stage and it’s unique narrow concrete corridor built full of sharp corners, so Adolf-you-know-who could have had better chances at escaping firearms shots at him (he was already aware he was not THAT popular by the time the Waldbühne was built as part of the 1936 Olympic ensemble of which the neighboring Olympiadstadion is part of). And at the end of the corridor: the stage! I confess it was cool to see the stage from up there, but not mindblowing. It’s just the stage… seen from the stage. This being my 10th concert of the tour, it’s hard to think I’d find any surprises. The gear was covered. The band wasn’t there. We got to wander around and take some picture, but that was it. Oh, and Fletch’s stand is slightly higher than Peter’s. That’s your GST trivia of the day.

Then, to summarize the rest of that afternoon: we were free to roam the venue. Dicken and his kids made a small perfomance while the first part of the audience was entering. Despite not included in our VIP pass, they did let us eat from the catering (c’mon, we were there since noon). And we got to meet the guys from DAF! This is particularly touching considering the recent loss of Gabi Delgado. I’m not sure if the crowd understood the relevance of DAF opening for Depeche Mode. DAF were on Mute Record BEFORE Depeche Mode. That says it all. It almost mirrors when Fad Gadget went back into action and opened several concerts of the Exciter Tour in 2001, and then sadly passed away the following year.

For the main feature of the night, we were escorted to our two not-so-secret little areas in the crowd so they could film us from the side. As we were not supposed to stare at the cameras either, we were split into 2 groups (Indra, Dicken and his kids on one side and Carine, Liz, Cristian and I on the exact opposite). Apart from this slightly inconvenient of having a camera on your face all the time, we did manage to not stare into them all concert long. Anton wanted authenticity. He wanted our most genuine reactions. None of those close up shots were rehearsed. We had no insider tip of the setlist. We were being surprised just like everyone else that night. I didn’t mess up any lyrics when it shows me singing “Where’s The Revolution” and “Heroes”. I passed my self-imposed test of “not being the goth girl crying in despair” during “Blasphemous Rumours” on “101”.

Thank you ALL so very much!

After the apotheotic ending of the show, that’s when the second “wrap up” feeling hit me. This crew (or a big part of it) had been traveling around the globe for more than a year. They became one family. Yet, like at the end of any concert, they have to hurry up to get everyone out and start disassembling the gear. I could almost see tears in their eyes as they were still doing their job. For whatever reason, some of us got leave on a van first, but I stayed behind. This was when I finally gave in and drank some beers with the DAF guys whose dressing container was next to ours. I had avoided all alcohol that hot day. I didn’t want to have to leave for the little boys’ room during the show. But I smuggled some 6 or 7 bottles of mineral water on my cargo shorts. You can see how my light grey shirt is already dark grey by the last song. That’s all sweat! Also real sweat, as Anton wanted. Not fake sprayed water over my sexy body for visual effects.

The next day I couldn’t do anything. I checked out of the hotel, went back home and slept the rest of the day. The entire day! Those 6 days blended together into one thing, but I got to recover and resume my life that I had put on hold since Friday, the 20th (and my husband so gracefully understood how important it was to me and freed me of some our shared shores during that period). Exhausted, but happy to have experienced all of this. Thank you, Depeche Mode!

By Posted on Posted in Depeche Mode, Film Tagged with , , , , ,
Making a documentary requires creativity, even if it means leaving the door open, two crew members on the hall, one of them lying on the ground.

So now I’m already one day behind my original plan of following the events of July 2018. But who cares? Sunday, the 22nd had a lot more action in front of the cameras. Another groundhog day starting with more scenes at home at 10am. Then we were off for the scenes in the bar, at the karaoke, the surprise visit to the fans camped outside the venue and we managed to do it all before it was dark. Oh, and the very quick scene of me riding the subway that we shot in the middle of it all.

Like I said when I started these memoirs, film schedules never end up being followed, but somehow it all manages to get solved by magic. For this day, we had some strict curfew. Max deserves double bonus points here for: a) finding a regular bar that was ok with us filming inside (Berliners are super restrictive of being filmed or photographed without consent, specially if they’re inside a bar or a club) and; b) also getting the famous Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke to let us film there, as long as we were done before their opening hours. If you’re not familiar with the name, but watched Netflix’s “Sense8” (by the Wachowskis), it’s the same place Wolfgang (Max Riemelt) sings 4-Non Blonde’s “What’s Up” in telepathic connection with all the other characters from the show in one of the best episode finales of the show. It’s a Berlin classic.

On both bars I was joined by nearly the same group of friends. I thought I wasn’t even going to get a minimum of friends to make the scenes worth filming, but, magically, I did. Because we were running even ahead of schedule, I missed on having even more friends along. Of course it’s worth noting Jenna was there all the time. She was also with me the previous day either making sure my dog wouldn’t make any noise while the crew was recording ambient silence of my apartment or giving me moral support while I was running without listening to instructions.

We were also given free access to the drinks on both places because they wanted us as uninhibited as possible. To be honest, I don’t remember the exact moment they filmed me singing. We were assigned a booth. At one moment, they said we could start warming up and I picked “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” in the style of Cher because I had seen an episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race that week that was all about Cher’s different eras and I was already drunk enough to think I could do her voice. When we were done filming there, they just told us to pick any song and wrap it and it ended up being Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger”. Everything else in between was Depeche Mode. Oh, and they had some fun too in between takes.

I had suggested to the crew on Friday about filming the fans that were camped outside the venue since early that week. I had two friends who were my moles in there. Originally we tried to do it the previous day, but since we finished after midnight, it ended up not happening. But on that Sunday we were done way ahead of schedule, so they bought my idea and we made a surprise visit to the fans that were so organized in their camp for the show that would take place the following day. I was quite proud that an idea I pitched during the filming made it to the final cut. This was the first day I got home before dark, if memory serves me right. But then again, I had a few too many vodkas to be 100% sure.

Co-director Pasqual Gutierrez falls victim to some pup-attack.

On Monday, the 23rd, we began like always with a few more scenes at home. Then some outdoor scenes with my dog. None of this made it to the final cut, but that’s life. It wasn’t 100% relevant to the narrative either. This was also the day of the first of the last two shows of the tour. The crew was sensitive enough to ask me what was my curfew to leave for the show, so they could know how late they could still make as many shots as necessary. In the end, we had out hard wrap even a bit earlier than I had told them. We had a little celebration right there at the park where we did the last shots. I’ve never been part of a feature film before, so it was nice to live this film crew experience. But then I rushed home to get ready and to the S-Bahn to the Waldbühne where I was to meet with Jenna and watch the show together. Oh, and also get to sing “Happy Birthday” to Martin Gore!

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

So I’m running a little late with my 2nd anniversary retrospective. Guess what? Most of that Saturday, July 21st, was about me running up and down all over town. All of the outdoor running scenes were filmed that day. But first things first. Our schedule began at 10am with the crew coming to my place for the interview part. As I was soon to learn, filming schedules end up never being followed as originally planned, but somehow everything seems to work out right in the end. So filming at my place wasn’t over that day. In fact, in everyday we started at 10 am by doing some extra shots at home.

It was the hottest week of the year. The crew was so huge I had to keep the apartment door open. My dog enjoyed making surprise visits to the neighbors, even when they weren’t so thrilled about it. The crew picked the shirt was wearing. If you have a keen eye for Depeche Mode merch, it’s an original (and quite worn out) “The Singles Tour” T-shirt. Something I bought on ebay some 20 years ago, my very first DM shirt and it’s not something I’d wear when going out, but it made it to the final cut of the film.

Once we were done with the interview part, we went out for what I called “the Nike ad filming”. They really had the sunlight timed out perfectly the previous day. We spent hours doing some 6 or 7 takes of me running under the Gleimtunnel (which is only 130m long). Between each take, they’d check the playback, adjust something on the camera, do a take from the front, another from behind, another running along. It felt like we spent some three hours doing that. Then we moved on to Kreuzberg where most of the running scenes were made. All I had to do was run after “action” and stop whenever they decided they had enough material. That actually got me sweating since I only knew when to start running, but no idea when to stop. The part under the U-Bahn was particularly challenging because they were filming from across the street and I couldn’t listen to their commands without turning my head as well. But the light was sensational. I think we must have filmed roughly between 20h and 22h.

We still had one more scene they wanted, which didn’t make it to the final cut, sadly. They wanted some indoors running scene as well and since they couldn’t find a gym that would agree on letting us do it on such a short notice, they figured they would use their guest privilege of the sister hotel that they were staying. The work-out room of the sister hotel just so happened to be on the 1st floor, on the corner of the building that had full glass windows. I got in with the producer and the rest of the crew was parked outside discretly pointing their camera at me running on a treadmill from across the street. The producer was in charge of relaying the instructions. The whole thing didn’t last much and I never got to take a peek of how it came out, so maybe it was totally rubbish from a visual perspective. It’s the sort of crazy thing I wish they had used, but maybe it could have caused them legal fun later on. Oh well, another day going to bet around 1am with a 10am schedule to get going the next morning.

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

So let’s fast forward a little. On April 13th, 2018, I got another late night email with the subject “Depeche Mode Film Opportunity”. It was an invitation to take part in a project that would focus on the fans. Despite the vague description of the whole thing, I accepted immediately. I felt honored to have been selected, but I didn’t know much about what were they aiming for. I thought it would be a 30-min (maximum) bonus on their Global Spirit Tour DVD. It wasn’t until a few days before I started filming that the other selected fans found me online and added me to our own little chat. We started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. And that’s when we realized this was going to be something much bigger.

After I replied with my (obvious) acceptance, it took them more than a month to reply. They were busy putting their entire schedule together. I also had a Skype talk with the crew where we got to know each other and cover most of the subjects you see in the film. This was a very carefully crafted job that involved some serious research. They knew how to weight in the whole point of the movie and also be captivating even for non-fans. I think we can all agree the final cut is something you can show your friends and say: “this is why I am a Depeche Mode fan” and they’d get it.

Precisely two years ago, on Friday, July 20th, 2018, we set up to meet in person so we could go location scouting. They arrived late, which in Germany is a peccatum mortale, specially if by “late”, it means “a few hours late”. They had forgotten something in their hotel and had to go back. Fortunately, during this time of the year there’s enough daylight to explore places until it’s almost midnight. I showed them around several places in Prenzlauer Berg and they had their own list of a few places in Kreuzberg to visit as well. We wrapped up that day by having something to eat at Doyum, my to-go place in the Kottbusser Tor area when the overhyped Südblock is packed and has a long waiting line. This was the first day I’d go to bed around 1am with our filming schedule set for 10am the following morning. This routine would repeat itself during some 6 days that blurred together in my head.

It was also on this day that I met co-directors John Merizalde and Pasqual Gutierrez (whose’s sister is a Devotee, so he knew where he was stepping into by assuring me “it won’t be another 101”), both so young and talented. I also met producer Jefferis Gray (whose’s first name I misspelled on a million emails without noticing), and Max, the local Fixer, who happened to be the only real Berliner in our local crew, but also a magician in terms of solving location issues. I’m probably leaving 2/3 of the people I was introduced that afternoon out. I’m terrible with being introduced to a pack of people at once. I can’t remember if Jeremy Snell, director of photography, was already there on this day, but most likely yes. Producer Dustin Highbridge, however, I would only meet the following day and under an awkward situation, which I’ll leave for the next post.

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

The title of this post is a nod the etchings on the run out groove of Depeche Mode’s early 7″ singles (and a ton of records by other artists as well). It actually mentioned George “Porky” Peckham who used to be involved in mastering and pressing those vinyls at the time and used to leave his signature message on this part of the vinyl piece that most people don’t pay much attention to.

So now that I lost got your attention, this post is to spread the news to boys and girls that “Spirits in the Forest” is now available for streaming on Prime Video. It is also being aired in several channels across the world on an ever growing list you can check on the film official site.

You may find two results for the film if you’re new to Prime Video. One is for the paid download, the other is the streaming for Amazon Prime members. It should be pretty to tell them apart.

The Prime Video app is available across a plethora of systems and devices or on your computer if you’re old school like me waiting for the release of the full show on Beta and need a quick fix until then. 😉

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.