Doublespeak.
credit: Doublespeak
The first time that British keyboardist Vince Clarke and singer Neil Arthur met was around 1981, when Clarke’s then-band, Depeche Mode, was touring with Arthur’s group, Blancmange, as the support act.
“We got to know each other quite well,” Clarke says today. “We all went on vacation together. It was to Tenerife, as I recall, in Spain. And Neil and I have been sort of keeping in touch off and on for all this amount of time.” Adds Arthur, “We [Blancmange] were involved with Steve-O, who put together the Some Bizzare compilation album, which we were lucky enough to be on along with Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Illustration and The The…We went on tour after Depeche Mode signed to Mute. So I got to know Vince kind of around that time.”
More than 40 years later, Clarke and Arthur have formed a supergroup called Doublepseak with musician-producer Benge. The trio’s self-titled debut album, due out this Friday, is a collection of eclectic covers of songs by such artists as ABBA, David Essex, the Carpenters, Glen Campbell and Fad Gadget — all rendered with an analogue-sounding electropop feel. The project started informally almost a decade ago between Arthur and Clarke, long before the idea of making a record.
“I think neither Neil nor I really were thinking about it ever being released,” says Clarke, who went on to further success with Yazoo and Erasure after leaving Depeche Mode in 1981. “I was just thinking, ‘Well, we’ll just keep doing this.’ So we were trying different song ideas, different cover ideas, and we were exchanging those ideas. But I don’t think there was any real plan. It wasn’t until London Records got involved.”
Doublespeak.
credit: Benge
Arthur concurs, saying, “It was just some friends doing some music and seeing what happens, really. We knew we were doing covers. We weren’t at that point talking about doing anything other than that. And a couple of years in, we decided to invite my very good friend Benge to get involved.”
Benge had previously collaborated with Blancmange (the synthpop act co-founded by Arthur and the late Stephen Luscombe), and with Arthur on their side project Fader before completing Doublespeak’s lineup. “It just seemed like a good way of getting a very exciting new project on the way,” Benge says, “because I have a music studio where I can mix stuff and pull all the sounds together in a way, and make them all sound like they’re all done in one place or something.”
Arthur says that it was probably he who suggested a majority of the cover songs for the new album. “What was really important was that the three of us agreed that they’re worth doing once they were kind of offered into the kind of Doublespeak room, once they were kind of let in,” he says. “Benge and I have the same manager. He suggested “End Credits” [by Laptop] and “Smoke and Mirrors” [by the Magnetic Fields].”
Doublespeak.
credit: Benge
Clarke says that he wasn’t familiar with most of the songs, which made the project appealing to him. “I was almost approaching it like remixes. I could see the spaces, so I could see where I could perhaps embellish the song and also hopefully bring out a different version. So those tracks being unknown to me was a real inspiration.”
“A lot of the songs I’d never heard before,” Benge adds. “So I was approaching it like they were new Blancmange tracks or something, that it was just some really nice piece of music to start working on and see what I could bring to the table and not treat it like a cover version; treat it like a new piece of music.”
The first single issued ahead of the Doublepeak album release was Fad Gadget’s “Back to Nature,” which is fitting because the song was one of the first singles released by Mute Records, the original label home of Depeche Mode.
“When I was growing up, he was a real hero to us,” Clarke says of the late Gadget, whose real name was Frank Tovey. “So when Neil suggested it, I was thinking, ‘Well, can we make this any better, or can we make a different type of version?’ But Neil has such a different voice. That’s been the case for all of the tracks, really, because him bringing that kind of personality and that distinction in his voice already made the songs different, and hopefully interesting for people.”
It was Clarke who recommended ABBA’s “The Visitors”, which is also apt given that Erasure recorded the 1992 ABBA-esque EP, and Blancmange previously covered the Swedish quartet’s song “The Day Before You Came” in 1984. “I was always in love with that kind of futuristic-y kind of vibe, even though they weren’t using synthesizers,” Clarke says of “The Visitors.” “They were using loads of effects and stuff. And obviously, the massive vocals in the chorus. So I thought that might be an interesting one for us to try to do. Neil’s very distinctive voice has made it into something completely different.”
Another unique cover off the album is “Gentle on My Mind,” the popular country song made famous by Glen Campbell. “That song has been a part of my life since the very first time,” Arthur says. “I probably heard John Hartford’s version of it first. But the Glen Campbell version was something that got played a lot in our house when I was growing up. The lyrics are great. It’s a beautiful kind of song.”
The 1973 glam rock classic “Rock On” by David Essex is given the synthpop treatment; one could almost envision the early Depeche Mode lineup covering it. “I bought that one that came out on 45,” Clarke recalls. “It’s such an odd song and such an odd arrangement. And that really made it stand out, I think. But that was a cool one. Actually, the thing that really shaped that track when we were recording it was Benge, because he got involved later on in the whole process. He gave it this real kind of edgy sound, which I love.”
Not all of the tracks on Douplespeak are by famous acts – there are some obscure ones from the post-punk era, including “Day Breaks, Night Heals” by Thomas Leer and Robert Rental and “I Can’t Escape Myself” by the Sound. “They were a great band,” Arthur says of the Sound. “I used to go and see them play quite a lot. And I like a lot of their music. But one album in particular, which this song comes from, Jeopardy, is an amazing album. And Adrian Borland was a fantastic writer and a great performer. They were a big influence on early Blancmange, as were the Young Marble Giants and Thomas Leer and Robert Rental. Many of us coming out of punk [were] into that kind of new wave post-punk period. It was so exciting.”
While Doublespeak is primarily a studio project, the collective is looking at possibly recording more music, including original compositions. “We were asked to write some to provide two B-sides for the two singles that are coming out for the album,” Benge says. “We decided to write our own new material for it. So there are two original Doublespeak tracks out there that are going to be revealed at some point soon. I think maybe that is a direction we’ll go.”
“I would like for us to collaborate again,” Clarke says. “I really enjoyed doing it. The way that we worked just seemed — I mean, I’m very into it being efficient. It was very, very efficient, and it worked well. So should Neil or Benge has the inclination to do more tracks in that way, then I think that I would definitely do it.”