In 1989, Depeche Mode came to Detroit to hang out with Derrick May and Juan Atkins. The two early techno pioneers had been mixing the band’s songs into their sets at clubs in Detroit like the Music Institute.
So Depeche Mode’s David Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher ventured from Essex in the UK to Detroit, it was the meeting of two electronic music’s biggest luminaries.
Keyboardist from Depeche Mode Andy Fletcher told the Free Press. “We were just mobbed by beautiful black people, young girls and boys. It was kind of weird — we always thought we were the whitest of the white. But I think the way we made music was in a similar vein to the way they made music.”
Derrick May explains their synchronicity at the time. “They’ve set the standard in what they do. In America they’ve been able to please almost everyone, from a guy like me who’s a hardcore dance addict, to the stadium crowds. They’re right on time, right in synch, and they can’t even help it.”
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