Vince Clarke

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Vince Clarke" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Vince Clarke
Clarke performing with Erasure at Delamere Forest in Cheshire, England, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Vincent John Martin
Born	(1960-07-03) 3 July 1960 (age 64) South Woodford, Essex, England
Origin	London, England
Genres	Synth-pop electropop new wave dance
Occupations	Musician songwriter remixer DJ record producer
Instruments	Synthesizer keyboards guitar vocals
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Mute Reset VeryRecords
Member of	Erasure
Formerly of	Depeche Mode Yazoo The Assembly VCMG
Spouse	Tracy Hurley Martin ​ (died 2024)​
Website	erasureinfo.com

Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously the main songwriter for several groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and the Assembly. In Erasure, he is known for his deadpan and low-key onstage demeanour, often remaining motionless over his keyboard, in sharp contrast to lead vocalist Andy Bell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics.

Erasure have recorded over 200 songs and have sold over 28 million albums worldwide.^[1][2] Clarke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of Depeche Mode.^[3][4]

Vincent John Martin was born on 3 July 1960 in South Woodford, Essex; he later moved to Basildon, Essex. He initially studied the violin and then the piano.^{[citation needed]} Clarke's early musical influences included Sparks, Paul Simon, and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who inspired his interest in electronic music.^[5] Clarke also cites electronic influences such as the Human League, Daniel Miller and Fad Gadget.^[6]

In the late 1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andy Fletcher formed a short-lived band called No Romance in China, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass guitar. In 1979, Clarke played guitar in the Plan, an Ultravox-influenced band, with friends Robert Marlow and Paul Langwith.^[7]

In 1980, after the Plan dissolved, Clarke and Fletcher formed Composition of Sound, and were soon joined by Martin Gore.^[8] Clarke provided vocals until lead vocalist Dave Gahan joined the band, which was renamed Depeche Mode. At that time he adopted the stage name Vince Clarke, by which he is currently known. The band initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the studio album Speak & Spell and the Clarke-penned singles "Dreaming of Me", "New Life", and "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981.^[9]

Clarke left Depeche Mode shortly thereafter. He commented on Depeche Mode's later material as being a little dark for his taste, but good nonetheless.^{[citation needed]} Clarke also stated that he did not enjoy the public aspects of success, such as touring and interviews, and found himself frequently at odds with his bandmates, particularly on the tour bus.^[10] He also stated: "I think everybody in the band, especially myself, imagined that the reason we were doing so well was because of themselves ... We were pretty young and very lucky, and things had happened very quickly for us, and I don't think we were really mature to handle the situation."^[11] Clarke was replaced by musician Alan Wilder.

Clarke then teamed with lead vocalist Alison Moyet (at the time known by the nickname of Alf) to form the popular synth-pop duo Yazoo (known as Yaz in the US), which produced two studio albums and a string of hits, including "Only You", "Don't Go", "Situation", "The Other Side of Love" and "Nobody's Diary".

Yazoo disbanded in 1983, and Moyet had a successful solo career. Yazoo reformed in 2008/2009 for a series of live dates to celebrate 25 years since the duo's split.

Clarke teamed up with Eric Radcliffe in 1983. Their idea was to collaborate with different artists on each new single, under the name the Assembly. With singer Feargal Sharkey, former lead vocalist of the Undertones, they scored the top 5 UK hit "Never Never". Meanwhile, Clarke founded the label Reset Records with Radcliffe. During 1983 and 1984 he produced four singles, "The Face of Dorian Gray", "I Just Want to Dance", "Claudette", and "Calling All Destroyers" for his friend Robert Marlow, which were released on this label. They also produced a studio album, at first shelved but later released in 1999, under the name The Peter Pan Effect. In 1985, another collaboration took place with Paul Quinn of Bourgie Bourgie; the result was the single "One Day" by Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn. However, the project never took off, and Clarke moved to other projects.^[12]

In early 1985, Clarke placed an advertisement in Melody Maker for a singer, and one applicant was Andy Bell, who was a fan of his earlier projects. He teamed with Bell to form the group Erasure, and the duo became one of the major selling acts in British music with international hits like "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Chains of Love", "A Little Respect", "Drama!", "Blue Savannah", "Chorus", "Love to Hate You", "Take a Chance on Me", and "Always".

As of November 2022, the duo have released 19 studio albums and have enjoyed a long string of hit singles spanning their four decades together.

In 2011, Clarke collaborated with his former Depeche Mode colleague Martin Gore for the first time since 1981, as techno duo VCMG, on an instrumental minimalist electronic dance album called Ssss, released on 12 March 2012. The first EP, entitled Spock, was released worldwide exclusively on Beatport on 30 November 2011.^[13] The second EP, Single Blip, was once again first released exclusively on Beatport on 20 February 2012. Their third EP, Aftermaths, was released on 20 August 2012.^[14]

In July 1984, Clarke teamed with Stephen Luscombe of Blancmange, Pandit Dinesh, and Asha Bhosle. The group, West India Company, released a four-track, self-titled EP.^[14]

Clarke worked with synth-pop producer Martyn Ware (of Heaven 17 and The Human League) in 1999 as The Clarke & Ware Experiment^[15] and released the album Pretentious. The duo collaborated again in 2001 for the album Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, which was created with "3D music technology" specifically designed for listening in headphones. That same year also saw the release of the Clarke-produced album Erasure's Vince Clarke, which featured The Peter Pan Effect, an album that he and Eric Radcliffe produced for his long-time friend Robert Marlow.^[14] Clarke wrote "Let's Get Together" for the pop girl group Girl Authority for their second and final studio album Road Trip (2007). The song was originally meant to be for Depeche Mode but was never recorded by them.^[14] Clarke also co-wrote "What Do I Want from You?" with Freeform Five, for their debut studio album Strangest Things (2005).^[14]

Clarke participated in a 2000 project called Family Fantastic.^[16] They produced the album Nice!.^[17] In 2008 Family Fantastic released a second album, entitled Wonderful. In 2001, Clarke founded Illustrious Co. Ltd. with Martyn Ware, to create new forms of spatialised sound composition using their unique 3D AudioScape system, collaborating with fine artists, educational establishments, the performing arts, live events, corporate clients, and educational settings round the world.^[18] In 2004, Clarke provided additional music for an episode of Johnny Bravo titled "The Time of My Life". This was a collaboration with Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs.^[14]

On 21 May 2009, Clarke was awarded with an "Outstanding Song Collection" prize, during the Ivor Novello Awards ceremony of the same day, in recognition of 30 years in the music industry.^[19] Clarke was featured in the BBC Four documentary Synth Britannia (2009).^[6]

In 2012, Clarke produced a cover of the Depeche Mode song "Fly on the Windscreen" featuring Ane Brun.^[14] Clarke also did DJ sets in various locations in North America and Europe and also continued his production work of remixing songs for Dido and Chad Valley. ^[20]

On 14 July 2015, Clarke announced a collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre called "Automatic", released as a part of the studio album Electronica 1: The Time Machine on 16 October 2015.^[21] On 10 June 2016, in collaboration with Paul Hartnoll, Clarke digitally released the album 2 Square on his new record label, VeryRecords.^[22]

Since 2017, Clarke has hosted The Synthesizer Show with VeryRecords artist Reed Hays on Maker Park Radio, a non-profit community streaming radio station from Staten Island, New York.^[23] Clarke's first solo album called Songs of Silence was released on 17 November 2023.^[24]

When Clarke started making music, synthesisers were predominantly analogue; digital synthesizers were rare and would remain so until the launch of the Yamaha DX7 in 1983.^[25] In order to connect analogue synthesisers, analogue drum machines and analogue sequencers together, multiple CV/gate cables were required between each device. This system was not standardised, so inter-operability between instruments from different manufacturers was not always straightforward. In addition, some manufacturers used their own proprietary interfaces. When an industry-wide standard called MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) was introduced in 1983, Clarke, like most other electronic musicians, gradually migrated to the new technology. However, he continued to prefer his older analogue instruments:

"... CV and Gate is tighter. I can hear and feel that it's tighter than MIDI – we can even prove it using 'scopes'. Because everything is clocked simply, it arrives bang on the beat. The whole production starts to 'tick over'. Just look at Kraftwerk's stuff. I think that 'feel' has been lost with MIDI sequencers. No matter what you do with MIDI, the music will never sound as good as it did in the good old Futurist days. That's why our tracks sound the way they do."^[26]

For Erasure's fifth studio album Chorus (1991), he gathered together his collection of analogue synthesisers from various recording studio locations in London and set up a small studio in Amsterdam. This led Clarke to assemble an intricate patch system to more easily enable the control of his analogue instruments:

"... the secret is having a good patch system – not as in patching to the mixing desk, but in patching CV and Gate. Because we don't use MIDI at all, you have to run three or four cables between each synth module – CV, Gate, Filter, Amplitude or whatever – and you've got to have a really unique system to do that."^[26]"

In 1993 Clarke described his approach to songwriting:

"Andy [Bell] and I get together with a guitar and a tape recorder, I'll strum some chords, he'll sing a melody, and we work in little sections, four or eight bars long. Then we'll try stringing the sections together. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. I find it very hard to relate songwriting to synthesisers, actually – we write songs in a very traditional way. The electronic side of things is just to create the atmosphere. It's mostly just messing about..! Once we've worked out a song, I start programming up the arrangement on the BBC UMI sequencer, which lets me run 16 synths simultaneously. That way you get a better idea if parts are working together or not. Then we start refining the individual sounds. And finally the whole lot is transferred to my Roland MC4, piece by piece, so it's being run in CV and Gate. Once we've got that, it's a case of Andy sketching out vocal ideas – in the studio we use two 48 track digital tape machines, which gives Dinger 24 tracks just for his voice!"^[26] "

Clarke continued to expand his collection of analogue synthesisers and in 1994 set up "37B", a recording studio built adjacent to his custom-made home, "Ammonite", in Chertsey, Surrey. From 1994 to 2003, all Erasure studio albums were either wholly or in part recorded at "37B".^[27][28][29]

In 2004 Clarke moved to Maine. While waiting for his studio equipment to be shipped from the UK he began using an Apple Mac laptop with Logic Pro, Max/MSP, and various software synthesisers (many of which were analogue emulations). Since then he has continued to use Logic Pro, along with both software and analogue synthesisers:

"Nowadays, you can take the best bits from digital and analogue. On certain projects – say, if I'm doing library music – where you need to have instant recall all the time, then it's obviously much more convenient to use the computer. When it comes to writing a new song, though, I still like to have the old analogue gear there, too. But, a lot of soft synths have a character of their own, too; the Moog Modular V is just crazy! I think that analogue has an inherent sound to it – it's like the old argument over vinyl versus CD. It seems that you hear more frequencies coming from an analogue synth than you do from a software synth, but the great thing about the latter is that you can do far more complex modulation, both within the synth itself and on the keyboard. To emulate any of those really complex modulations on an analogue ... well, you'd need a mile of cable."^[30] "

As of 2009, Clarke has installed his analogue synthesisers alongside his Logic Pro-based workstation in a custom-built commercial studio called "The Cabin" in Maine.^[31][32][33]

Current & past studio equipment: Dave Smith Instruments Mopho, Roland System 700, Roland System-100M, Roland Jupiter-8, Roland Jupiter-4, Roland MKS-80, Roland SH-1, Roland VP-330, Roland JP-8000, Roland Juno-60, Roland Juno-106, Roland Super JX, Roland D-550, ARP 2500 Modular, ARP 2600, PPG Wave 2.2, Waldorf Microwave, Waldorf Pulse, Moog Modular, Minimoog, Moog Source, E-Mu Modular System, Buchla 100 series Modular, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Oxford Synthesiser Company OSCar, Synton Syrinx, Korg MS-20, Korg MS-10, Korg 700, Korg M1, Korg DVP, Serge Modular, Polyfusion Modular, Oberheim Xpander, Oberheim SEM System, RSF Kobol, Casio CZ-101, Casio CZ-1000, Electronic Music Studios VCS 3, Matten and Wiechers x2 48 track sequencers total 96 track, Sennheiser Vocoder VSM201, Apple iPad 2, Apple Power Mac G5, Apple MacBook Pro.^[34][35]

Current & past software: Apple Logic Pro, Cycling '74 Max/MSP, Arturia ARP 2600 V, Arturia Minimoog V, Arturia Moog Modular V, GForce impOSCar, GForce Oddity, LinPlug Octopus, Muon Tau Pro, Native Instruments Absynth, Native Instruments Reaktor, Native Instruments FM7, Native Instruments FM8, Vienna Symphonic String & Choir Libraries.^[35][36]

Clarke was married to Tracy Hurley Martin (the twin sister of Tonya Hurley) who was a booking agent and publicist to various entertainment artists.^[37] Among the musicians Tracy served as a publicist for included Prince, George Michael and Clarke's former band Depeche Mode.^[37] She also represented “Goosebumps” and the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen brand.^[37] Several films she produced were screened at the Tribeca and Edinburgh film festivals.^[37] Tracy died in January 2024 after two years of stomach cancer.^[38][39] She is survived by her twin sister Tonya, Clarke, and their son Oscar.^[37][40][41]

• Vince Clarke at AllMusic
• Vince Clarke discography at Discogs
• Vince Clarke at IMDb
• Erasure Information Service, the official Erasure website
• Vince Clarke Feature by Cold War Night Life