Play Mode

The most successful electronic band in history, New Wave giants Depeche Mode on Tuesday announced plans for a world tour, kicking off next May on the heels of a new album release.

The British trio, whose last tour dates back to 2010, will launch the new tour on May 7 in Tel Aviv, heading from there to Europe for 34 dates across 25 countries, they told a packed Paris press conference.

European gigs are to include Britain — with a single date in London on May 28 — Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Germany and France, as well as festivals such as Spain’s BBK in Bilbao.

Bandmates Dave Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher expect to play to some 1.5 million European fans before heading to North America.

Depeche Mode have sold more than 100 million albums since the band was founded in 1979, winning over a global audience with such hits as Personal Jesus or Just Can’t Get Enough.

The new tour will come on the heels of their 13^th studio album, the first since Sounds of the Universe in 2009, set to hit shelves next year. The album title and release date have yet to be unveiled.

“We feel very fortunate that so many people are still interested in what we do, even before hearing it,” the 50-year-old singer Gahan told a scrum of international media at the press conference, beamed live on the Internet.

On the contents of their new album, they offered a few clues in an interview.

“Lyrically, the songs are about relationships, the relationship to the world, politics, feeling like you belong or don’t belong,” Gahan explained.

“Musically, it’s somewhere in between the sound of Violator, electronically, and Songs of Faith and Devotion in its blues-gospel influence,” the band’s 1990 and 1993 albums.

For the new album, Gahan — until now an occasional songwriter for the band — took on a large share of the writing.

The singer — who lives in New York — said the album was inspired partly by Barack Obama’s election, and came out overtly in support of giving him four more years in power at next month’s US presidential vote.

“We were very pleased to have a president that finally we felt was thinking about the everyday person and wanted to change things. Change doesn’t come easy, it doesn’t come without a price and it takes time,” Gahan said.

“I’m keeping my fingers crossed because I’m much more interested to see what will happen in the next four years if we have President Obama over governor Mitt Romney. I don’t want that for my children.”

Quizzed about the politics of playing in Russia — where they have two dates planned — Gahan said he firmly believed the decision to jail the members of the P***y Riot girl band was “just wrong.”

“Nobody should be put in jail for what they say or where they say it,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s in Moscow or in a Catholic church, or a Greek Orthodox Church.”

Depeche Mode’s tour also comes amid a revival of the New Wave genre, with cutting-edge young artists seizing on the 1980s sound, among them British band Savages and Lescop in France.

Do they fear the competition? Not one bit.

Asked at the press conference if he was still the best on a synthesiser, the 51-year-old Fletcher replied: “Naturally”.

By way of proof the trio unveiled a new song, with a black-and-white video to match, faithful to their trademark sound with heavy bass, synthesisers and saturated guitars.

Laid-back and relaxed with reporters, the band members spoke candidly of returning to the stage, and of their wilder excesses of youth.

“Personally it’s changed a lot for me because I used to be drunk all the time,” joked Gore, also 51. “For the last two-and-a-half tours, I really enjoyed it, I actually felt what it was actually like to be on stage.”