Depeche Mode Head Out on World Tour to Support New Album
Depeche Mode will embark on an extensive stadium and arena world tour next year.
The announcement came at a recent press conference in Paris, where the group also announced that they will release a new album in 2013. Thus far, no North American dates have been announced.
The first show will be held at Hayarkon Park in Israel on May 7, and the initially released dates are scheduled to run through July 29 when the group will perform at the Minsk Arena in Minsk, Belarus. Most of the announced shows will take place in Europe, and will include a few summer festivals, as well.
“To be making music for more than half our lives… it’s pretty incredible to still be able to do that,” frontman Dave Gahan said at the press conference. “Performing onstage is really what it’s all about these days. It’s very different from what it was 20 years ago. You get the energy from the performance.”
He continued that touring is “really an emotional thing,” and that, “It’s really raw and emotional to the point where at the end of tours, it’s hard to say goodbye.”
Martin Gore, the principal songwriter for the group, said the group just finished recording songs for the upcoming album “a couple of days ago.” He said that in total they recorded “about 20 songs,” but that the final track listing will not include all of those.
“I think there are three or four songs that are up there with some of the best we’ve ever done,” Gore said about the new album, though no title or release date was mentioned during the press conference.
The album will be the group’s 13th studio album, and will be the first record of original music since 2009’s Sounds of the Universe. The group released their first album, Speak & Spell, in 1981
