Exactly 20 years ago, on his 36th birthday, Alan Wilder announced his departure from Depeche Mode. He played a very important part in the band in multiple ways: he was the only trained musician, who was also great at production, arrangements and creating atmospheres, he was the one who enjoyed working endlessly in the studio until every single sound was in its right place, he was a perfectionist, and obviously his taste and opinion also influenced the end result. No wonder that fans weren't happy to see him leave, and since then he (unwillingly) plays a very odd part in Depeche Mode: whenever something's not up to fans expectations, it's because "he's no longer there". Although he issued a statement that made things quite clear, some people aren't sure why he left, so I'll take a look at that (I have to point out that I have no special insider info, just observations and assumptions), and briefly at what happened since.
Not enough reasons to stay
By 1995, Depeche Mode have achieved pretty much everything way beyond their expectations. They weren't the most ambitious band to begin with, they didn't set out goals like wanting to sell this many records or win that many awards, they surely didn't mind getting laid, earning "tons of money" and playing to huge adoring crowds all over the world though. They have proven all their critics wrong, influenced legions of artists, been incredibly successful without any big compromise, and done so for more than a decade, so there wasn't too much left to achieve.
On a personal level, things didn't seem that great. After finishing the World Violation Tour in late 1990, the band took an extended break for the first time in their career. During that break, they all entered their 30s, some of them started families, one of them turned into something he's not too proud of now, and they grew apart. When they got together to record the next album, they were no longer a proper unit, the gang mentality was gone. The recording process became extremely difficult, and the 14 month long world tour that followed made everything even worse.
Wanting to leave
Alan was quite honest on a few occasions about not wanting to spend his entire adult life being part of the same band. The state they were in may have helped him to make the move, but it's worth noting that he didn't only quit Depeche Mode, he left the whole pop star lifestyle behind. He moved to the country, got married and had kids. There were some rumours about him being asked to join The Cure, but that was definitely not what he wanted: he had no intention to tour anymore, and joining a band where he would have had even less say (in Depeche Mode the band members had equal votes, while The Cure had a clear leader in Robert Smith) would have been a step backwards. He even abandoned the traditional pop song format, which no longer intersted him, and his preferred method of working was to be completely in control, doing most things by himself, and inviting collaborators to add lyrics and vocals to his songs.
A touch too much optimism
Alan was fully aware that the music he wanted to (and did) make had limited appeal, but I think he expected a better response than what he actually got. He knew that a certain part of Depeche Mode's fanbase would be interested in whatever he was going to do, but it was hard to see how large that part would be: although he'd already released 3 solo records under the name "Recoil" while he was in the band, those - especially the first 2 - were only done as a side-project, and now he was able to devote all his time and attention to do it properly, and even promote it. The musical landscape also seemed somewhat promising, not the boybands at the top of the pop charts obviously, but Massive Attack and Björk were doing so well even Madonna wanted to (and did) work with them, Nine Inch Nails took the US by storm (with Trent Reznor even supervising the soundtrack album for a big Hollywood movie) and toured with David Bowie, who was making electronic music at the time as well, Radiohead and Portishead both had hits, and the list could go on. Of course these acts aren't necessarily very similar to Recoil musically, but they were good examples of making quite experimental and dark music and selling loads. What he may have overlooked was that these were all touring acts, and some of them had the support of large record companies. By the time he completed and released the next Recoil album "Unsound Methods" in 1997, the world wide web started to gain momentum (and web piracy was still in its infancy), and it hinted at the possibility of reaching an audience without the use of usual promotional methods (touring, TV appearances, press campaigns, etc.). Although the album was an incredible masterpiece, it didn't do as well as it should have.
A touch too little optimism
The 5th Recoil album, "Liquid" arrived in 2000. It seemed like a direct continuation of the previous LP, mostly concentrating on spoken word storytelling pieces (set to music obviously), and although Nine Inch Nails used the album as warm up music on their tour, Alan grew so disillusioned with the overall reception - and perhaps mostly with the lack of proper support from his record company - that he practically gave up music for a while. It's been 15 years now, and he only released 1 studio album since ("subHuman" in 2007, not his finest work in my opinion). A compilation album was put together in 2010, and he finally took the project on the road - he never called the gigs concerts though, they were "presentations", sort of a mixture between a DJ set and a live act. He was also heavily involved in a Talk Talk tribute album (contributing 2 songs himself) and did a few remixes (including one - and a "half" - for Depeche Mode), but that's pretty much it, and there's no word on any future projects at the moment.
And finally
However good or bad things seem to be, I doubt Alan has ever regretted leaving Depeche Mode back in 1995. Luckily the band survived as well, and we'll always be grateful for all his contributions. Also, "Bloodline", "Unsounsd Methods" and "Liquid" are all great albums I still listen to, and hopefully there are some more to come.
Happy birthday, Mr. Wilder!
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