Dave Gahan: biography, creativity, personal life

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Dave Gahan's name is widely known to fans of heavy electronic music. In 1980, he founded the legendary band Depeche Mode, and in 2007 he was included in the top 100 singers and greatest frontmen according to Q magazine.

Dave Gahan's songs are hugely popular among fans of electronic and dance music, because the Depeche Mode vocalist has always put his feelings and soul into them.

Biography

David Calcott was born on May 9, 1962 in the small village of North Vill, Essex, UK. His father was the bus driver Lin, and his mother was the conductor Sylvia. The family of the future vocalist was extremely religious, and young Dave was subjected to serious drills from childhood, undergoing various hardships and humiliations from relatives.

Soon, Dave's father left the family. Sylvia began to live with Jack Gahan, who worked at Royal Dutch Shell and brought good money to the new family. This allowed not only to move from the village to the city of Basildon, but also to send Dave and his sister to the Barstable private school, which was considered quite prestigious for people of their we alth and social status.

Study was difficult, and instead of attending classes, the young man preferred to hang around, draw graffiti on the walls, and also sell light drugs.

Early years

No wonder Dave Gahan soon got in trouble with the law. At the trial, it turned out that the future musician also stole and set fire to other people's cars, came into conflict with law enforcement officers and illegally traded in alcoholic beverages. Only the fact that at the time of the investigation he was still a minor saved the musician from criminal prosecution. The court sentenced him to serve his sentence in a special center for difficult teenagers in Romford. Dave came there every weekend for a year and did various dirty and hard work.

Gahan understood that if he committed even one more illegal act, he would be sent to prison, so he dutifully served his sentence, thinking about who he would become in the future. Most employers refused to take the young man to work, only after learning about his criminal past.

After serving his sentence, Dave returned to school, graduating a few years later with pretty good results.

This inspired the future star to continue his studies, and in 1979 Dave Gahan became a lecturer at Southend University of the Arts.

In 1981 he graduated with honors from the university with a diploma in design and layout.

Depeche Mode

1980 turned out to be a great year for Gahan. The guy who dreamed of making music met VinceClark and Andrew Fletcher. The year before, they had formed a small band with Martin Gore and rehearsed in a garage. The group had no name and played mostly instrumental music until Gahan took matters into his own hands, coming up with a new concept, name and logo for the band.

Since 1981, the band became known as Depeche Mode, and the chosen musical direction was heavy electronics with an active bass line. Thus began a new story.

Thanks to the innovative approach to writing music, as well as the memorable appearance of the members, the group instantly gains popularity, with each new album only more firmly securing the title of "group of the future" and "geniuses of electronic sound". Depeche Mode are considered the founders of a new genre - "synth-pop", as well as the ideological inspirers of many now famous bands.

He alth problems

In the late 90s, Gahan's drug addiction manifested itself especially sharply. He does not come to rehearsals, disrupts concerts, shows signs of deviant and inappropriate behavior.

Under pressure from the US government, which threatens to revoke the singer's residence permit, Dave Gahan, his wife and children move to a more comfortable area for family living, and also undergoes a three-year course of drug addiction treatment and rehabilitation. The constant joint presence with the family became a good incentive for the musician, and in 2004 he not only continued to actively engage in creativeactivity, but also began to write songs for Depeche Mode, sharing this responsibility with Martin Gore.

Solo work

There are not so many albums recorded by Dave Gahan. As the musician himself admitted, working in Depeche Mode took almost all the time and most of the energy, so they simply didn’t have any left for solo work.

Most of Dave's compositions were recorded during treatment or breaks in concert activities, which, of course, affected the quality of the material.

Below is a list of the musician's albums released both solo and with the participation of the Soulsavers team:

2003 - Paper Monsters

2007 - Hourglass

2012 - The Light The Dead See (with Soulsavers)

2015 - Angels & Ghosts (with Soulsavers)

Dave Gahan's individual work has not received wide recognition and failed to place high on various music charts. Critics noted a sharp discrepancy between the image of the musician and the topics he touched on, as well as the insufficient modernity of the sound of the instruments. According to authoritative music publications, Gahan's solo work sounds like "rough sketches for a not-so-successful Depeche Mode album".

The musician does not react in any way to the attacks of the music community. He notes that he creates primarily for himself. He tries to express what he has felt for many years, and finds the most correct ways for this. The opinion of the people around him does not bother him at all.

Personallife

Gahan has been married three times. In 1985 he married Jo Fox. With her, he did not live even six years, marrying Teresa Conroy in 1991. Three years later, the woman leaves Gahan due to the singer's severe drug addiction.

1999 becomes a turning point in Dave's life: he marries Jennifer Skliaz, with whom he still lives.

Family photos of Dave Gahan are extremely rare. The performer treats his relatives with trepidation and does not allow journalists into his personal space. So he protects the family hearth from the curiosity of reporters.