How Andy Fletcher's Death Made Depeche Mode's Surviving Members Closer

It's hard for any band to continue being friends with each other throughout years of work with each other, and in a recent interview Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan admitted that the dynamic between him and Martin Gore wasn't always great, especially when Andy Fletcher was alive, and after the keyboardist's passing he had to find a way to "becoming friends" with his bandmate.

“Martin had lost his champion – someone who would always fight for Martin,” Gahan explained to Mojo. “If there was ever a disagreement over a song or a part, Fletch would sit me down and it would be, ‘Fing is, Dave… Martin and I have been talking and…’ I mean, that got really old. Why won’t Martin tell me himself? And that’s where we kind of got to on the last record [2017’s Spirit].”

“I think Fletch’s presence forced Martin and I to… maybe this is the wrong word, but, compete,” he confessed. “And it created a certain atmosphere of being a bit spiky. So Martin and I have had to find a different way. We had to find a way of communicating, becoming friends.”

Clearly, whatever they've been doing is working, because Depeche Mode recently shared their first single since Fletcher's death, and they haven't missed a beat. "Ghosts Again" is the lead single off their upcoming album Memento Mori, which is slated for a March 24 release.