Dear music community, dear friends,
May 26th, 2022 was a sad day for countless music fans around the world. On this day Andrew Fletcher, founding member of Depeche Mode, embarked on his last journey, aged 60. Millions of us seem to have sat in grief and shock for months and we shared our condolences with the remaining members Martin Gore and Dave Gahan, Andy's friends and especially his wife Grainne and children Megan and Joe.
Just a few days after the sad news about Andy, I started this project and over the last almost four months I have not only had an inspiring journey, but also met great people with a common spirit who spontaneously joined this journey. Not only were there 29 wonderful artists and acts, but also many helping hands that made this cover song compilation possible with almost endless enthusiasm.
It's something special that not only musical companions and well-known artists who were influenced by the sound of Depeche Mode are there, but also friends and colleagues like Brian Griffin, who submitted one of his alternative pictures he made for the album cover of Construction Time Again, Gareth Jones, who worked for years as producer with Depeche Mode, Atlantic Popes (incl. Bernhard Lloyd ex Alphaville), Polly Scattergood, Watershed, Kirlian Camera, Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb, Renard (incl. Markus Reinhardt ex Wolfsheim), Nico Wieditz of And One with his project Starlights Live, Jean-Marc Lederman (ex Fad Gadget musician & Front 242 collaborator) and many, many more.
A very special thanks goes to Carlos Peron with his incredible energy, Enrico Janke with his positive tenacity, Reto Bühler, Janos Janurik and Sebi Koch, the former editor of the well-known fan magazine New Life.
In Andy's spirit, the project has a charitable purpose which is why 50% of the profits are donated to a charity in the UK and to the German Children's Cancer Trust who officially partners this project. A few days ago I was there personally and got a lot of information about their important work. A highlight was Thomann's offhanded donation of a drum set to the Children's Cancer Trust for their children's village within the frame of this project, where children play theatre and make music for other children while they are recovering.
And it is not to be taken for granted that the famous Abbey Road Studios support the mastering with none other than Simon Gibson, who has already mastered several Depeche Mode albums, or that Blitzed Magazine, Orkus!, Bigs Satsuma Radio, Northern Art Music, ReBach and depechemode.de sponsor the project.
There is still a lot to do before the official release of the double CD on November 25th, 2022 with 28 wonderful new interpretations of well-known Depeche Mode songs. But I already say thank you to all helping hands, sponsors, acts and artists.
Stay tuned. Updates will be published frequently with some background stories and little surprises. Meanwhile, just if you like, you can safe your copy of the CD by placing your pre-order on Amazon and JPC (next week) or right now directly at Timezone Records. The linke is online.
Best, Daniel
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