By Keith Walsh
Leading Depeche Mode Tribute Act “Strangelove” have brought their show to all corners of the world, but competing in the new E! Series “Clash Of The Cover Bands” will be an experience like no other, says Brent Meyer, who is the musical director and plays the role of Martin Gore. “The format of the show is a band versus band,” he says. “It’s a one episode, two band challenge, under the heading ’80’s icons.’” Meyer says the other band was a Poison tribute band, “which was an interesting pairing.”

And though Meyer isn’t allowed to disclose the results of the E! matchup for the series which launches on October 13, he did reveal some tantalizing bits of info. “It’s basically all on a soundstage in Hollywood,” he says,” very much like a ‘Voice’ or ‘American Idol.’ The judges are Adam Lambert—from a little band called Queen – and Meghan Trainor, Ester Dean, and the show is hosted by Twitch.” The latter emcee/host also goes by ‘Stephen ‘tWitch Boss.’ Meyer said that Strangelove will appear on the series on or after the third episode.

Strangelove is considered the most authentic sounding of the Depeche Mode tributes, even acknowledged by Depeche Mode and their management, whom Meyer calls “very supportive.” The secret sauce in their sound is that the members of Strangelove are all fans of the band. “It’s basically us as Depeche Mode fans,” Meyer says. “We’re just doing wish fulfillment for everyone, ourselves included.” Strangelove features Leo Luganskiy on lead vocals (as Dave Gahan) , Julian Shah-Tayler on synths and guitars (as Alan Wilder), James Evans on synths , percussion and backing vocals (as Andrew Fletcher), and Brent Meyer on synths, guitars, and vocals (as Martin Gore). Meyer and Shah-Tayler also do sequencing work for the shows. In recent years former Berlin drummer Chris Olivas has joined the band for live performances.

‘Lights Up The Room’
Meyer has acted as musical director of various iterations of his Depeche Mode tribute project since 2006, though judging by public reception  Strangelove is by far the best. “Every time someone would quit,” he says, “I utilized that as an opportunity to upgrade, because the trajectory of the project was always going upward with larger shows and bigger crowds, and a greater number of shows. It was easier to attract better musicians and people that want to be involved.”

As the musical director, Meyer compiled all the tracks used in performance, augmented by live performances on an array of synths, guitars and drums, featuring three Roland Fantom FA-06 synths (Strangelove is a Roland endorsee). For their live shows, Strangelove does a two hour show of songs from Depeche Mode’s 41-year-long career. I asked Meyer how he feels about some of the earlier, more lightweight pop songs in the catalog. Do they stand the test of time as fun synth pop classics?

“Oh, absolutely,” he says. “We in the group favor the later, more mature compositions, just because they are more sophisticated and therefore more challenging, They keep us engaged more as just players and performers, but the undeniable charm of that early stuff, when it’s played live, it just lights up an entire room of people. You can’t help but respond to that energy — we’re just a vehicle and a mechanism for that. It has this charm and naivety to it. There’s basically early John Foxx, Gary Numan, –all that happening around– but nothing else was happening in the total ‘Top Of The Pops’ context where it was just very mainstream.”

‘A Symphonic Iteration’
Meyer says Strangelove has “80 or 90” songs in their catalog, that they bring out for different shows, and occasionally they will perform an entire album, say Black Celebration, at a performance. I asked him, as “Counterfeit Martin,” if he performs any of the songs from Martin Gore’s solo works. “I get occasional requests,” he says, “but our problem – and it’s a great problem – is that Depeche’s catalog is so deep, with so many big hits and fan favorite songs that we can’t even cover those live. It’s wonderful to have that problem  — it’s music that everybody knows every word.”

As for future projects, Meyer says “At this point we’re working on a symphonic iteration.  We’re bringing in some other orchestrators. In fact, one of Julian’s friends is an orchestrator for Hans Zimmer on his scores…What we’re doing is working up basically MIDI orchestra scores, and then in turn we generate sheet music. The concept is, for example, ‘Atlanta Symphony plus Strangelove presents an evening of Depeche Mode.'”

As for the inevitable demand for Strangelove that will come from the E! series, Meyer says: “Every time we play a city that we haven’t been to before, we encounter all these Depeche Mode fans that are just elated that we exist because they had no idea that something like what we do exists….I harbor no illusions about our own brand recognition. I’m well aware that only a small percentage of Depeche Mode fans even know we exist. And so I’m hoping that this show will change that.”

‘Clash Of The Cover Bands’ is  executive produced by Jimmy Fallon and offers competitors a chance to win cash prizes and appear on Fallon’s “Tonight Show.’ Stayed tuned for details.

Header left image by Tom Keene, LADigitalPhoto.com

Strangelove Official Site
Strangelove On Facebook
Brent Meyer On Facebook
E!  Online: Clash Of The Cover Bands
Roland Official 

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