Depeche Mode fans may have noticed that “Memento Mori”‘s tracklist has a few surprises in store on the songwriting and production side. Among other things, the name Richard Butler, known as the singer of The Psychedelic Furs. He is credited as co-writer on four songs – in addition to the already released “Ghosts Again” also for “Don’t Say You Love Me”, “My Favorite Stranger” and “Caroline’s Monkey”.
Things not seen in the Depeche Mode team. Martin Gore wrote 5 songs solo, 4 songs with Richard Butler from Psychedelic Furs, Dave and Martin co-authored one song, Dave also composed with Gorden and Eigner, but also with Marta Salogni and James Ford. pic.twitter.com/hwAySitibd
— Museo Depeche Mode (@MuseoMode) February 10, 2023
Who is Richard Butler?
After studying painting in London, Butler, together with his brother Tim, founded the post-punk group The Psychedelic Furs in 1977, with which he continues to tour to this day. One of their biggest hits came out in 1986: “Pretty in Pink”, the title track of the John Hughes film of the same name.
Their current, eighth album “Made of Rain” was released in 2020, as the first record in almost 30 years. This long hiatus began with a band break between 1991 and 2001. They had just released World Outside. Since the restart after the turn of the millennium, they have given regular concerts again.
During the hiatus, Butler and his brother formed Love Spit Love with Richard Fortus and Frank Ferrer, now part of the Guns n’ Roses cast. The quartet broke up around 2000 after completing two full-lengths by 1997. Butler also began collaborating with Jon Carin on his first and only solo musical effort with the return of Psychedelic Furs. “Richard Butler” was released in 2006. Among other things, Carin was a songwriter for Pink Floyd after Roger Waters left. Around the same time he rediscovered his love for painting. His works have been exhibited regularly since the late 2000s, including in New York, London, Miami and Florence.
In 2020 he stated in an interview that the artists he would like to work with are Robert Smith, Nick Cave and Martin Gore. Part of this wish has now apparently been fulfilled. However, there has been a rather weak connection between Butler and Depeche Mode since 2004. The singer produced the song “Work it Out” together with former member Vince Clark. So far, however, it has only been published as a snippet on YouTube and was originally created as the soundtrack for an episode of the animated series “Johnny Bravo”.
Little is known about the background to the joint efforts for “Memento Mori”. The album will be released on March 24th.