VINCE CLARKE
The synth pop maestro on sequencing hits
“When I heard OMD and The Normal, I thought, ‘I can do that. I can write songs like that’. Obviously, I’d lived through punk, and I’d heard the Sex Pistols and the Stranglers, but that still sounded a bit ‘rock ’n’ roll’. Synths sounded different. They sounded interesting. When you’re a kid, that’s what you’re looking for; something that captures your imagination.
“We need to go back before the computer and talk about the sequencer. That was the real revolutionary step for me… that was the eureka moment. Daniel Miller introduced us to the sequencer when we signed to Mute and, after I left Depeche Mode, I started writing with a Roland MC-4.
“For me, that was more important that the computer or the synth, because it was the first time I’d been allowed to make music that I couldn’t physically play. I wasn’t limited by how good a musician I was. Like I said, I was never a great keyboard player, but with the sequencer, I could play anything I wanted. That was when the electronic door really opened and I got a glimpse of what was possible. Even after I started working with the BBC Micro, I would occasionally switch back to the MC-4. It’s just so tight.”
On writing so many hits
“If you do sit down and say, ‘I’m going to write a catchy single’, it’ll never happen. I don’t know how to explain it. I loved music and I’d been listening to it all my life. What I had worked out was how to ‘make’ a song… a strong song. I didn’t know anything about harmonies and all that kind of stuff. I learned about that as we went along. Every time I went in the studio, I’d learn something new, and that gave me the opportunity to try different things.
“When I moved to the US and found myself with nothing more than a guitar, a laptop and Logic. We were getting ready to start work on a new album, so I had to learn Logic and I had to start writing songs. I’m crap at just trying to sit down and learn something, but if there’s something I need to do, I’m very good at getting stuck in. The main problem was programming with a mouse, but once I’d mastered that, things settled down. I still wrote my songs on the guitar, but instead of transferring them to a hardware sequencer, I transferred them to Logic.”
“The softsynths didn’t sound as good. I know this is very personal for each musician, but we did do one album entirely with softsynths and it felt different to me. The quality of the sounds was… just not as good. I have done the comparison test with some basic models like the Moog, and there’s no doubt that the sounds are getting better all the time. I guess it’s a bit like when Yamaha first introduced a digital synth, the DX7. At first, digital synths sounded quite crude, but technology pushed the sounds further and further.
“I’ll never stop using analogue synths, though, no matter how good the software gets. They’re tactile… they don’t always do what you want. I like that.”