Profile of Martin Gore on Famous Like Me

Martin Lee Gore (born July 23, 1961 in London, England) has been a member of the band Depeche Mode since its inception in 1980.

Martin left St. Nicholas's Comprehensive School in 1977 and took a job as a bank teller. Despite discovering that it was not the most exciting of jobs, and certainly not his vocation, he decided that the banking industry would make for a safe career option. During evenings, weekends and any other spare time, Martin was involved with the local band "Norman and the Worms".

In 1980, Martin met Andy "Fletch" Fletcher at the Van Gogh club and was soon recruited into his band, "Composition of Sound". Soon the band recruited David Gahan to be the lead singer after seeing him sing "Heroes" by David Bowie. David is credited with the name "Depeche Mode" after seeing the phrase in a French fashion magazine.

Vince Clarke was chiefly responsible for the material on Depeche Mode's first album, Speak & Spell (1981). Gore contributed only two tracks; the instrumental "Big Muff" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!". When Vince Clarke announced his departure from Depeche Mode in 1981, citing the pressures of fame as the reason, Martin took over the main songwriting and composition duties for the band. Gore had been writing material since the age of 14.

The songs that he provided for Depeche Mode's second outing, A Broken Frame (1982) were vastly different in sound and lyrical content from Vince Clarke's lyrically lightweight offerings on Speak & Spell. The predominant themes were unrequited love and naïvety, with a dash of everything from politics to religion. This set a precedent for the darker tones in both the lyrics and the melodies for the group.

When Alan Wilder was finally introduced as a permanent member of the band (c. 1983), Gore let all production and arrangement responsibilities rest with him. This is especially evident when comparing the solo church organ demo of "Enjoy The Silence" with the epic synth pop masterpiece that it eventually became.

Because of their easily felt "real-world" subjects and cynical, almost borderline nihilistic takes on the human race (and prominently, love), Martin's lyrics have appealed to a wide and varied audience, despite (and maybe even because of) their relative simplicity. As a result, Depeche Mode have retained an extremely loyal fan base for more than two decades.

In 2003, Martin released Counterfeit², a solo cover album follow-up to his 1989 Counterfeit EP. Both of them feature his takes on other people's material, and he has stated publicly before that he considers himself not the most prolific songwriter, and prefers to keep his own material for Depeche Mode albums.

The first Counterfeit featured covers of bands such as The Durutti Column and Sparks. Second one contained an eclectic barrage from David Essex to Lou Reed, John Lennon and even Nick Cave.

Solo discography

• Counterfeit (EP) (Mute Stumm67, 1989)
• Counterfeit² (Mute, 2003)

Singles

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