Tag: spirit

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

DMK has released their definitive tribute to Depeche Mode and unless you’ve spent more than a decade in a cave, you probably know their cover versions of DM’s songs. From internet viral sensations to being featured on 2019’s “Spirits in the Forest” feature film, everyone fell in love with their quality-time family videos. Using toy instruments and other household objects, they became known as DMK and they finally put those cover versions together in one album celebrating more than a decade of DM-relate fatherhood. Here’s what they have to say about it:

“After 12 years of creating music as a family, DMK are excited to wrap up this era with the release of our album “Songs of Tiny Devotion: A Family Tribute to Depeche Mode 2010-2022,” which compiles all of our DM covers, remixed and remastered, plus our original song “Pale Blue Dot.” The album is now available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, and more.”

Click on the link for access: dmk.hearnow.com

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 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, 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, Depeche Mode Facebook Takeover, Film Tagged with , , , ,

As we approach the 2nd anniversary of the epic closure of the Global Spirit Tour, recently released on CD, DVD and Blu-Ray. I decided to take a quick look back at what was the entire experience like for me. I’ll try to post for a few days on a row until we finish this July 25th. The D-day, or maybe I should call it the DM-day.

But let’s begin from the beguine. Actually more than a year before. When people ask me how was I chosen to be on “Spirits in the Forest”, the story starts in early 2017. The band had announced the “Fan Facebook Takeover”, where they’d choose one fan per day during one year to curate the posts on their FB page. At first, I didn’t bother to apply. I thought: “there will be a million contestants to choose from, why should I even try?” When a very dear friend said: “give it a try.” And so I did, not knowing very well how to sell my application.

“Spirit” was released on March 17, 2017. The Takeover was supposed to have started a few weeks before, in February, if I’m not mistaken. I hadn’t even paid attention that it was late if it wasn’t one email I got the evening before the album was released. I had been invited to kick off the Takeover AND watch the special VIP-only album premiere show (aka “Telekom Street Gigs” at the Funkhaus Nalepastraße), which just so happened to be in Berlin that Friday evening. Needless to say it took me a few hours to sleep with such excitement arriving just before my bed time.

But the posts were supposed to be sent to the agency running the massive campaign by Friday evening. Everything was in Pacific Time as the agency was based in Los Angels (hence the emails coming always late in the evening). That meant a very early Saturday morning deadline for me. I had a doctor’s appointment that Friday morning, I had to go to any Saturn or MediaMarkt to buy the album both in vinyl and the exclusive box set that included the deluxe 2CD edition and a pin. Oh, and I also had to be at the concert venue by 17h. Also, amidst all this excitement, I misread the part about character limit per post and wrote 600-word long posts, instead of 600 characters in that short Friday afternoon. I also wanted to make my own little music video to opening track “Going Backwards” which was a spot-on opening track on the album (and also on the concert, as I was soon to find out).

So I obviously exceeded my time rewriting my posts and rendering a video completely made of copyright-free stock footage and the takeover kicked off with my (until then) unknown neighbor, Jenna Robbins being “Day 1” and I was shifted to “Day 2”. We both guess we were chosen, partially because we were both living in Berlin and could attend the show and we could be were each other’s back up. As I learned later on from later takeoverees (a term coined by Jenna), they were given a bit more time to prepare their posts (something between 4 to 7 days), unlike us who had to rush with ours on a particularly busy day and we really didn’t have other takeover posts to guide us on what to write about. Jenna is so organized she really deserves to be remembered as “Day 1”, as she became a driving force by putting us all takeoverees in contact with each other.

From here on, all the fans who were chosen for the Takeover seem to have entered into a sort of a shortlist of fans for all purposes: random goodies on the mail, new products for unboxing videos, everything. We were always being teased that our adventure wasn’t over just yet and there was already “more to come”. I guess you know by now why I started the story from here. And in case you’d like to remember, my takeover posts are here, here, here, here, and here.

Now hold on, there’s more to come…

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

“SPiRiTS in the Forest”/”Live Spirits” 2BD/2CD, 2DVD/2CD, and “Live Spirits Soundtrack” 2CD out on June 26th, 2020!

Order yours from the official UK or US Depeche Mode Store. Or check your favorite retailer here. As always, keep up with official information about “SPiRiTS in the Forest” from the film official website.

By Posted on Posted in Life in General, Music Tagged with , , , , , ,

I know I’ve been absent from here and for the most contradictory of reasons: the partial lockdown which I turned into my own self quarantine. I’ve just reduced my trips outside to the essential. But like every sane and insane person in the world, this is obviously affecting us on a psychological level. Even being at home longer made me less productive. But moving on…

Umberto Tozzi (along with Laura Branigan, of course) must be my own personal frequency illusion bias (aka Baader-Meinhof phenomenon). One line from a Brazilian cover version of his 1982 hit song “Eva” got stuck on repeat on my head these days. The cover is not a word by word translation, but the lyrics follow the same apocalyptical idea. It translate into “it’s the end of the human adventure on Earth”. That’s when I reached to my Spotify to find out it was the name I had given to the very first playlist I put together on that platform a few years ago and never finished it (a playlist is never finished, is it?).

So I crawled out of my inertia and continued with the end of the world theme. I dropped the title in Portuguese (and couldn’t find an equally dramatic in the Italian original). I just went a bit more poppy and came up “It’s Pandemonum!” taken from the 2009 Pet Shop Boys song (here in a live version interpolated with “Can You Forgive Her?”). I tried to not overkill it with too many obvious choices (including Depeche Mode). I went for some covers or alternate versions instead of originals. I also had to make some concessions given what was available on my end. After so  many versions, I settled with this, which is more uplifting than when it started. I hope all 30 songs are available everywhere. Well, give it a try. “Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. I just want you to have some fun.”  ;^)

Also, feel free to drop a suggestion in the comments below.

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, 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.