Martin Gore doesn't think he'd be in Depeche Mode if he hadn't bought a synthesiser.
Martin Gore
The 'Personal Jesus' group's multi-instrumentalist has recalled how he came to be a member of the industrial trio - which is also comprised of Dave Gahan and Andy Fletcher - in 1980, and admitted that if he didn't fall in love with the instrument and end up buying himself one when he was a teenager, he may have not been asked to join the band.
He told Rolling Stone: "Well, I think I must have been about 18, and one of my friends had a synthesiser. He lent it to me for a week, and I just fell in love with it and just loved the different sounds you could make with it. So I bought one. And I think if I hadn’t done that, I probably wouldn’t have been in Depeche Mode, because at the time, Vince [Clarke, former member] and Andy [Fletcher] were just starting a band. And Vince played guitar, and
Andy played bass. And when they heard that I had a synthesiser, they asked me to join. So had I not bought it, I might not have made it into the band."
Elsewhere, Martin - who releases his new solo EP, 'The Third Chimpanzee', on Friday (29.01.21) - admitted it was a huge "honour" being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year with Depeche Mode.
He added: "It’s obviously a great honour. Yeah, it’s nice to be recognised. And believe it or not, I was kind of sucked into music by the original rock & roll, the early pioneers, because that’s what my mum had in our record collection. When I was 10, that’s the music I discovered. I used to play those records to death for years and years until I left home. I think [Depeche Mode] is just about old enough to catch the coattails of it. So it’s nice to be inducted into the same Hall as all those people that are listened to so much."
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