Vince Clarke Never Writes With Synths

Vince Clarke Never Writes With Synths

Vince Clarke never writes songs with synthesisers.

The multi-instrumentalist - a pioneer of electronic pop music, who was a founding member of Depeche Mode and has since enjoyed huge success with bands Yazoo and Erasure - said he writes the basics of all of his songs with other bandmember, Andy Bell, on guitar as synthesisers are "too distracting".

He said: "I started off playing guitar and writing on guitar, and still do actually, when myself and Andy write for our albums then we'll invariably use acoustic guitar and sometimes piano.

"So the electronics and the synthesisers are the tools of the trade really, it just so happens that's what I enjoy using.

"But when it comes down to it the songs that we write now, you can play them on guitar and they're still pretty good songs. We never write with n synthesisers, it's because it would be too distracting.

"Before we go it to turn it into a record, the song has to be great and you always have to keep the song in your head while you're making sounds for it."

Vince, 49, whose hits include 'Just Can't Get Enough' with Depeche Mode and 'A Little Respect' with Erasure, also talked about how he reckons tension helps create the best pop records.

He added: "The perfect song has a catchy chorus, but something that has a bit of tension in it, either with the lyric, or with the disharmony that then it's almost like you get an emotional release when that goes away. That for me is great writing."