Chords for Motherboard Electric Independence - Vince Clarke the Temple of Synth

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_ _ [Bm] _ _ I think that your environment affects you in so much as you know you're
feeling good and you know you're in a pleasant place then that's gonna [E] come
out in your songwriting.
I'm not gonna start writing songs about [G] trees or you
know or the countryside.
You know if you're at peace somewhere, that definitely affects your songwriting.
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ Hey welcome [B] to Electric Independence.
This episode we've taken a special road
trip up Maine to talk to synth pop legend Vince Clark.
[C] He's a founding
member of Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure and today he's gonna show us around his
studio called The Cabin which contains all of his old analog synths, a whole
bunch of drum machines and [Bb] we're also gonna talk to him about how to write [Bbm] the
perfect pop song. _ _
Well my move to America came about because I got married to an American.
We moved to New York first because I thought it would be really exciting and just got fed up with it you know.
It was just too much and then that's when we came here.
The studio I had in the UK was purpose built and everything was built into the walls and it was it
was a really good working environment but as I got more gear you know I just
ran out of space so I decided this time to have to build it like a workshop so
that I have access to the backs of all the synthesizers so I can plug stuff up
you know and [G] also it means that I'm not sitting on my ass all day.
I'm actually running around doing things so it keeps me fit.
99% of the stuff I use and stuff I realized I wasn't using I've gotten [D] rid of.
Do you consider yourself like a gear hound?
Not so much now no I mean I used to.
I got a bit obsessed probably in the late 90s you know.
But I'm over that now.
That was a phase.
I'm grown up.
_ Well back in you know in like kind of 1980 you know people like Gary Newman and the
Human League and Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark were kind of happening in the
charts and it was the first time really that pop music was being made on
electronic instruments so it was really really exciting you know the punk thing
had happened and that kind of didn't interest me much because that seemed to
be a rehash of everything else but when the electronic pop scene exploded I mean
it was just I was just you know it's just so exciting.
_ _ [G] Well Depeche Mode started out as a [D] duo it was kind of myself and Fletcher.
He was playing bass and I was playing guitar and then his friend Martin got hold of a
synthesizer so then we decided to get synthesizers [A] because they seemed to be
easier to play and then we got hold of [D] Dave to do the singing.
Alright ready?
Okay this is the Boss Dr.
Rhythm DR-55 and this was the machine that we used on the Depeche shows.
I don't know if you can see but it's got like these little numbers that we've labelled on there.
It was Dave's job, Dave the singer, to start the drum machine.
He would dial in the [E] correct song number four which would be that tempo [B] go bang
start the drum machine for the songs.
And that's [C] the exact one that was_
Yeah they're the [G] exact numbers still.
We used to have nine songs in our set [A] up.
Cool.
What happened was then we were supporting an artist called Thad [D] Gadget
who was on Mute Records in a pub in the [Dm] East End of London.
And Daniel Miller from Mute [D] Records came backstage and said
do you want to make a record to make an album?
[D] It was just like everyday [G] seemed like Christmas.
Just incredible.
On the first album Speak and Spell Daniel Miller from Mute Records produced that record
and I think he's the person that kind of pulled it all together and made it cohesive.
And also introduced some different sounds into the tracks that we couldn't perform live.
For instance using a sequencer which we'd never done before.
Getting some decent drum sounds from an ARP 2600.
Stuff like that.
I've heard that you like to build drum sounds out of synthesizers a lot.
Most of the drum sounds that Eurasia fused have been synthesizer sounds.
[Ab] I _ just get a lot of satisfaction out of getting sounds from nothing and not using presets.
So this is the famous System 100?
Yeah so this is a Roland System 100.
This is the first modular synth I got.
What's the thinking behind having six of them?
I don't know.
Just because you can make the sounds more complex.
_ _ _ _ This is kind of the same system really.
This is the Roland System 700 and it's kind of the forerunner of that.
It's a bigger version.
But you can mix and match.
So I can use the filter on that, the VCO on that.
The envelope is from somewhere else and try and get a different sound.
Obviously with soft synths it's even easier to do that now.
But I like the physicality of doing it as well.
I like the idea of using two hands to create a sound rather than just using a mouse.
How do you come across these?
They're not super easy to find.
This I bought new.
Because that's how old I am.
Is that the Pro-1?
Yeah.
I [B] feel like I'm a car salesman or something.
This is lovely.