Depeche Mode

FORMED: 1980, Basildon, England

Composition of Sound was formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex, by guitarist/vocalists Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore and keyboardist Vince Clarke. After recruiting David Gahan, the group abandoned their guitars for synthesizers, changed the band's name, and became an all-electronic band entitled Depeche Mode. For this unusual approach, Depeche Mode earned a loyal London following, and within a year of their formation, were signed to Mute Records. Depeche Mode's first single "Dreaming of Me" was a minor U.K. hit. It was followed by "New Life", which climbed to No.11, and by "Just Can't Get Enough", which cracked the British Top Ten. Speak & Spell, Depeche Mode's debut album, was released in November of 1981.

Signed to Sire Records in the U.S., Depeche Mode found initial exposure for their music with club audiences. "Just Can't Get Enough" became a major dance hit, receiving airplay on American alternative radio stations. After a tour of England and Europe, Vince Clark left Depeche Mode to form Yazoo. Alan Wilder then joined the band as the group released its fourth single "The Meaning of Love". A second hit album titled "A Broken Frame" was then released in 1982. In 1983, Depeche Mode released "Construction Time Again", which contained the dance favorite "Everything Counts".

With the release of "People Are People" in 1984, American audiences discovered what their European counterparts had known since 1981. "People Are People" was Depeche Mode's first North American success, which Depeche Mode built on with their fourth release "Some Great Reward". "Catching Up With Depeche Mode" and "Black Celebration" followed in the next two years. It became evident with the "Black Celebration" album that Depeche Mode were starting to, as Martin put it, "make harder sounding records". But "Black Celebration" was not an easy album to make; Martin had a very fixed idea of how he wanted it to sound. The songs on this album reflect on how painful it was for Depeche to record this album. As Dave put it, "If there was ever a time that Depeche Mode would break up, it would have happened during the making of Black Celebration". Depeche also showed a distaste for corporate manipulation; when Sire flipped the "Stripped" single - which Depeche had spend three weeks perfecting - to take advantage of it's B
-side, "But Not Tonight", (a throwaway song that was recorded in one day), the band's displeasure was evident. Following the Black Celebration Tour, their most successful American tour to that date, the band followed it up with "Music for the Masses".

Released in 1987, Depeche Mode went with David Bascombe as their new producer, wanting a fresh start after almost aborting the "Black Celebration" sessions. "Strangelove", the album's first single, had no less than 14 different remixes. "Music for the Masses" itself had struggled to reach the UK Top Ten, and "Little 15", released only in Germany, scraped no higher than number 60, as a foreign release. But still, Depeche Mode continued to have higher concert attendance figures than album sales. After an extensive world tour, Depeche Mode played their 101'st concert at a sold out Pasadena Rose Bowl in front of 70,000 fans. A live album and video, entitled "101" was then released in 1988, warming fans up for Depeche Mode's breakthough album "Violator".

"Personal Jesus", the first single from this album, was a huge success, becoming one of the largest selling CD singles in U.S. history, and gave Depeche Mode their first U.S. gold single. Then followed "Enjoy the Silence", a massive hit, which has become Depeche Mode's trademark song. Depeche even whipped 17,000 fans in L.A. into a near riot at a in-store autograph signing to promote the release of Violator. As fast as the ticket offices opened, the demand for the "World Violation Tour" swamped them. In New York, Depeche sold 40,000 tickets for their Giants Stadium show within 8 hours and 48,000 tickets to the Dodger Stadium show in L.A. were sold within one hour of going on sale. But not all was well, frayed nerves, the wear and tear of touring, and internal battles caused Depeche Mode to part company at the end of the Violator Tour, not knowing if they were ever to work together again.

Dave re-located to L.A. while the other members concentrated on their families. But in 1992, when Dave felt he didn't want to make another "dance" record with Depeche, Martin sent a demo comprised of "electrifying, bluesy" songs for the next album, which Dave described as "a total relief, soaring, majestic, beautiful". Not only did these songs match Dave's dreams, it equalled them. Dave had now felt that Depeche was pushing the limits of their music further, which he had been wanting for a few years now.

In 1993, after a three year period between albums, Depeche Mode released "Songs of Faith and Devotion", a much more rock oriented approach to their music. This would be the first Mode album that would utilize live drums, as well as outside musicians. With "I Feel You" as the first single, and a much anticipated album release, SOFAD debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top 100 and on the British charts as well. It was the first truly "alternative" album to ever achieve this distinguished double. It remained on top for just one week, and by November, it had slipped so swiftly that "Rolling Stone" had spotted the album in the bargain bins. But none the less, Depeche set out on a extensive 14 month world tour, leading the band to such places as South Africa, Australia, Hong Kong, and South America. Even with the quick demise of Songs of Faith and Devotion, Depeche Mode continued to sell out shows in North America and Europe.

The band has somewhat become a permanent attraction, in which album chart positions don't affect their concert attendance figures.

On June 1st/1995, keyboardist/drummer Alan Wilder decided to leave Depeche Mode, stating unsatisfactory internal working conditions as the reason why he left the band. Fletch, Martin, and Dave continued on as Depeche Mode and they completed recording a new album with producer Tim Simenon in London. On February 3/1997, Depeche Mode released their first single in more than three years; "Barrel of a Gun", along with it's b-side track "Painkiller". Depeche Mode released their new album, "Ultra", on April 14/1997, debuting at Number 5 of the US Billboard Record Charts.

The album gained platinum status in Spain, Sweden, Germany, France, and the UK, along with gold status in Italy, Hong Kong, and Canada. Deciding not to tour in support of 'Ultra', Depeche Mode spent from November of 1996 to July 1997 promoting the album, giving over 250 interviews, along with playing live on various television shows in Europe and the US. Other promotional appearances included playing live on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno' on May 15/97, as well as answering questions on a live Internet broadcast from the House of Blues. Along with this, Depeche Mode unveiled their own website, www.depechemode.com. The band conducted two album launch parties, one at Adrenaline Village in Battersea on April 10/97, and the other at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles on May 16/97. The band played the same song set for both shows, consisting of four tracks from Ultra (Barrel of a Gun, It's No Good, Useless, and Home), along with Never Let Me Down Again.

In September of 1998, Depeche Mode returned to the studio to work on a few new tracks, which were to be included on the 2 disc singles compilation "The Singles 86>98". Containing the new track "Only When I Lose Myself", the compilation also included 20 other tracks, consisting of all the bands releases from Black Celebration to 1997's Ultra. Deciding not to pass up another opportunity to tour, and the fact that all band members were now ready to take up touring again, Depeche Mode embarked on an extensive 4 month tour of Europe and North America, their first in five years. This tour marked the first time that the band have ever played live to audiences in Latvia, Estonia, and Russia, ending their 18 year wait for the band to play a concert in their countries.

The setlist heavily consisted of the band's singles from 1986 to 1998, but also included a few old surprises, like Somebody and Just Can't Get Enough. The tour marked a few firsts for the band, not only did they played for the first time in Russia, but the band also performed at the "1998 KROQ Almost Acoustic X-mas" in Los Angeles, and on the "Late Night With David Letterman Show" in November. After ending their tour in Anaheim on December 22, 1998, Depeche Mode are currently working on a new album with producer Mark Bell, and we should be expecting a release sometime in the Spring of 2001. Stay tuned!!!

source:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Depeche-Mode-Biography/D5498342353EDA11482568B70033FB07

Delta Goodrem

Mistaken Identity


MUSIC has always been there for the good times in Delta Goodrem’s life.

And it was music that was there yet again during the bad times. Indeed, music was one of the main comforts for Delta during the most testing period of her life.

Songs kept whizzing around in her head: melodies, harmonies, lyrics – many deeper and darker than those that helped her debut, Innocent Eyes, find its way into over a million homes – and hearts – in Australia.

Her second album, Mistaken Identity, is the multi-layered product of that well-documented year.

“It’s a more grown up album,” Delta, notes. “My music changed because my life had changed; the whole world around me had changed. My music had to reflect that.”

The childlike fantasies that fuelled Innocent Eyes were replaced by a new and often harsh reality that provided endless fuel for lyrical inspiration.

‘Extraordinary Day’ (July 8) freeze-frames the day Delta was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (“who would have thought when chance came calling that this would be my defining story”), ‘The Analyst’ captures the hours of self-analysis the singer conducted (“trying to make sense of her life, digging round in the dirt, she’s a slave to the work”), ‘Be Strong’ is a rallying call for confidence while ‘Mistaken Identity’ is Delta stating for the record exactly where her head is at.

“There are a lot of lyrics I wouldn’t have used on the first album,” Delta admits.

“In ‘Mistaken Identity’ I sing `I played the role of the nice girl next door who gets cut like a knife’, I mention `emotional suicide’ in Electrical Storm: there’s some intense lyrics in there. It was an intense year. I mean, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t acknowledge what went on; everyone knows what went on. I feel like I know people personally – even though I don’t, but I feel I had to go into depth; get things out of the way, go through the journey and end with ‘You Are My Rock’, which is a thank you song.”

Every note, every lyric and emotion has been placed on the album precisely that way for a reason: plenty of outsiders have told their side of Delta’s story – this is hers.

“There are dark songs on there like ‘Extraordinary Day’, but if I’d brought out an album that was all happy and had only songs about how great life was people would think `What is she talking about?’ It wouldn’t make any sense.

“But while there are some intense tracks on there it’s still a very listenable record. There are some really relaxed songs on there, some motivational songs and there’s some really heart-wrenching music that still makes me cry when they come on. And there’s songs that make you want to get up and dance around. I think there’s a really nice mix. I’m really proud of the record.”

It was a record whose gestation was completely different to Innocent Eyes.

In those days, Delta would film Neighbours from early morning to late at night, then zoom into a studio from 9pm to 4am to get those songs out of her head and onto a CD.

This time around Delta had nothing but time. Her illness and subsequent recovery cleared out a ridiculously busy schedule. She could concentrate on her first love: music.

“This time around I had time to think `What kind of song do I want to create here?’,” Delta says.

“I really felt the sky was the limit with this record, you could do anything in a song. I didn’t feel limited at all. There were a lot more options, a lot more paths I could go down, more directions I could choose. “

One of the key changes in the songwriting personnel was Delta meeting Guy Chambers; the British songwriter/producer behind most of Robbie Williams’ best songs. He’s also worked with everyone from Jewel to Charlotte Church to Andrea Bocelli.

Chambers had been keeping an eye on Delta’s career – impressed with her songwriting skills and heartfelt vocals. The partnership resulted in several of Mistaken Identity’s key tracks – including the No.1 hit ‘Out Of The Blue’.

“'It's really unusual to work with somebody so talented, young, and brave. Who's not scared to take risks and who has the most emotional voice in pop music,” Chambers says. ”You cannot help but believe every word Delta sings.”

“Guy’s such a classy producer,” Delta says. “He was such an inspiration to work with. I felt we had a really good connection on a musical level; he does a lot of classical music as well. We tried to make sure we found a sound together, to find what we could both bring out of each other to create something unique and special. Once we had ‘Out Of The Blue’ we knew we’d found it and we took it from there and wrote ‘Sanctuary’ and ‘Electric Storm’.”

Other songwriters Delta co-wrote with include Billy Mann on ‘Mistaken Identity’ and ‘Last Night On Earth’, Cathy Dennis (who co-wrote Innocent Eyes’ Throw It Away) on ‘Sanctuary’, Matthew Gerard (who wrote Delta’s second No.1 Lost Without You) on the emotional ‘Be Strong’, Gary Barlow and Elliot Kennedy (who co-wrote Not Me Not I) and Delta’s close friend Vince Pizzinga (co-author of Innocent Eyes) on ‘Extraordinary Day’.

“This album has more different colours and shades, it’s got more colours of me than the first album did,” Delta says.

It also houses her first duet: (Only) ‘Almost Here’, with former Westlife singer Brian McFadden. “I loved singing that,” Delta says. “It’s a break-up song where we’re talking to each other – the girl’s saying when she’s with him he’s almost there and that’s not enough. I just loved that song. I think it’s a really important element to have on the record.”

Overall, Mistaken Identity is the ultimate statement on the highs – and lows – of the last two years of Delta Goodrem’s charmed life.

“There’s a definite story in the tracklisting,” Delta says. “I felt I had to be really honest. Songs that people could still relate to but songs that also confronted issues. This past chapter of my life has been such an intense one and I wanted people to know my thoughts.”

Get ready to listen, learn and fall in love with Delta all over again.


Thanks to littlegoldenprancer@msn.com for submitting the biography.


source:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Delta-Goodrem-Biography/BCC28928DD94ECDB48256C7D002A483D

Daniel Powter

"I never really know what I'm playing. I just follow what sounds good in my head and keep going." -- Daniel Powter

Different.

That's a good word to begin with as you get into Daniel Powter, the debut release from this singularly unique talent. Sure, it doesn't sound "different" -- i.e., weird, spooky, bizarre -- when you listen casually at first. If anything, it sounds like superbly crafted, edgy pop: The songs are catchy, the rhythms infectious, the chords rock-solid beneath hooks that dig into your brain and don't let go. It's upbeat, though Powter does pound those changes aggressively. ("It's keyboard music on steroids," he explains.)

Ah, but listen again, a little closer. Dark lyrics thread through those happy melodies, some of which he sings with a hint of sarcasm and anger tightening the quiver in his falsetto. He focuses on everyday life, though he doesn't miss the dirt swept under society's rug. It surfaces on "Free Loop," in which a low-life jerk suggests to a girl that they both cheat on their partners. It lurks beneath the elegant flow of "Styrofoam," in a bleak self-portrait that even asks, "Isn't this an ordinary song?" (Answer: No.) It's wrapped in polyester and spun out onto the dance floor on "Hollywood," about as nasty a depiction of showbiz sleaze as you've ever heard.

All of these songs are mercilessly catchy. If you didn't understand English, you'd be left with a grin on your face and a hum-along riff in your head. And if you do, your response will be the same -- except a minute or two later, you'd be thinking, "Wait a minute. Did he just sing what I thought he did?" (Answer: Yes.)

If you break Daniel Powter down to the basics, the key elements are two: brilliant musical skills and wicked candor. Maybe this comes from the contradiction of being raised in the pastoral splendor of the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia), yet coming to believe that as an artist he has nothing to lose. The lesson began sinking in between ages four to thirteen, when he spent a lot of time at home, practicing violin, as his mother accompanied on piano. Daniel never joined a youth hockey team in order to bash into a bunch of other kids. He didn't have to: other kids, spotting him with his violin case, would bash into him instead.

"I had played at this talent show at my school," he remembers, "probably in grade five or six. I was walking across a field with my violin case when a couple of bullies from the school just beat on me. That was my turning point. I went back home with a black eye and announced, 'You know what? I'm not doing this anymore.'"

There were other reasons why the violin lost its appeal. "I was dyslexic," Powter says, "and my teacher focused very much on being able to read. I remember her looking over at me during one lesson and saying, 'You know, your music is upside down.' That's when I realized I had to break off from that structured idea of music and find my own way."

His parents' record collection lured him from the classics. "I used to listen to their Beatles and Fleetwood Mac albums until I'd absorbed them and it started to make sense. I heard a lot of the Motown stuff that my mom played. And Duran Duran was massive for me; even now, I have to turn up the radio when 'Hungry Like The Wolf' comes on. More than that, though, I was into Prince. I even had Dirty Mind as a kid; my parents had no problem with that."

Soon he was spending most of his time at his mother's piano, picking out original tunes. "I'd always messed around on it," he recalls, "but when I made the shift from violin I realized that it was so great to be able to play multiple notes at once in the bass, the midrange, and the high range. Also, girls loved it; they'd never go out with me if I were still playing a violin."

Still, Powter didn't start performing until late in high school, when he got his first band together. It was, he admits, not exactly a triumph: "Gigs petrified me. I was the lead singer but I had to turn my back to the audience; I couldn't even look at them, it was so terrifying."

That didn't take long to change. By their second gig he was beginning to channel the energy of the audience. Before that night was over Powter had committed himself to music. His first record, which he cut while still living in the Okanogan Valley, won airplay in Rocktoria, a radio contest held in Victoria, British Columbia. And as his senior year wound down, he got himself admitted as a music student to Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton.

There, the issues that had derailed his career as a violinist resurfaced. "I got A's all the time in ear training. But in theory I got an F because I didn't read well. After a while I started to hate school -- and I realized it was better for me to create on my own."

Dropping out after two years, Powter moved to Vancouver, where he hooked up with a collaborator named Jeff Dawson. "Jeff and I bunkered down in this apartment with a little studio. I started writing songs, and he and I would come up with these great production ideas. I got so addicted to it that I was working on these songs all day and all night. It was like a door opening. Everything became easy. Before, when I was making a record, one song would take me a week. Now I would have the song written in just a day, and Jeff and I would get all these bass parts down and start making loops. It just encouraged me to keep going."

Over the next year, Powter wrote a body of songs, from which the material on Daniel Powter would be drawn. When he and Jeff started sending out demos, response was strong. Major -- even legendary -- executives flew him to New York to audition. Unfortunately, in polishing his writing and recording, Powter hadn't worked on his stage act -- the idea of performing still made him nervous -- so, at this stage, nobody bit. "I wasn't ready," he shrugs. "I got killed. And once a record company says no, it's difficult to come around again. So I decided to forget about it, get back to Vancouver, and keep writing songs."

Credit an enterprising manager, Gary Stamler, for saving the day. After getting Powter's demo to Tom Whalley, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Records, he set up a meeting in L.A. It was, as someone once said, the beginning of a beautiful friendship -- or two. Like his search for the right label, Daniel?s choice of Mitchell Froom to produce Daniel Powter owed more to hanging out than to aggressive pitching. "It was tense until I got together with Mitchell," he explains. "After two or three days, just before Christmas a year ago, I knew that he was the guy I wanted. Tom asked us to do three songs together, and when we turned them in he gave us the green light."

Working with Froom is a special treat if, in addition to being an idiosyncratic artist, you're a keyboard player. Before earning production credits on projects with Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Crowded House, Paul McCartney, and other giants, Froom made a name for himself through session work and a series of his own albums. This partially explains the textures throughout Daniel Powter -- richly varied yet never, as keyboards can be, gloppy or superfluous. "I got to play all of Mitchell's collection," Powter enthuses, like a kid back from Halloween with a bagful of treats. "That guy has got old Chamberlins, Wurlitzers, B-3s -- it's unreal."

The connection between Powter, Froom, and Jeff Dawson strengthened as the recording sessions began. "Mitchell helped me arrange parts," Powter says. "For instance, there's a part in the middle of 'Lost In The Stoop' that's from the original demo; we changed the progression but the vocals stayed the same. I just fell in love with this kind of attitude. Most people are protective and territorial, but I was comfortable from the start with Mitchell and the way he works."

Froom knows that the key for a producer is to stay out of the way except when he can help the artist bring an idea to life. Daniel Powter, then, is all about Daniel Powter: All the idiosyncrasies, the bursts of brilliance and volatile collisions of innocence and irony, mark this young man from the North Country as an original, whose debut is only the first of what should be many mini-masterpieces to come.

"I'm a realist. All I really want is to connect with an audience that feels the way I feel. Of course, if that happens on a bigger scale and I'm massively successful, that's okay too." -- Daniel Powter

I took this info from this site: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=16949311&Mytoken=20050804023204

Thanks to Eky for submitting the biography.

source:http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Daniel-Powter-Biography/BDE679C21E376E1948257051000A416A