Electric Independence: Vince Clarke and the Temple of Synth

Posted by Motherboard on Wednesday, Mar 17, 2010

Vince Clarke is a man synonymous with synth pop and a legend in the history of electronic music. He’s famous for founding three of the most popular and lasting musical acts in history: Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure. But his distinct sonic output depends upon another feat: he has spent the last 30 years amassing one of the world’s most impressive collections of rare, ‘holy grail’ analogue synthesizers.

In 2004, Clarke left England for the unsynthesized woods of Maine, where he constructed a temple for these monolithic machines he calls ‘The Cabin,". and began branching out into (gasp!) software synths too. Recently Motherboard made a pilgrimage to Clarke’s purpose-built digital/analogue studio to meet the musical titan, hear the story of his musical journey, learn how to make the perfect pop song, and get a little demonstration of one of his signature moves: building a drum pattern from a wall of modular synths. To Clarke, music is still magic even now, an alchemy in which he gets to make “something from nothing.”

Watch more Motherboard videos, including our piece on the legendary Stylophone and other episodes of Electric Independence. You can also be our friend on Facebook, and get our updates via Twitter

Rating:
rate 1
rate 2
rate 3
rate 4
rate 5
(204 ratings)3

Filed under:

Ricardo84 about 1 month ago

Yo. what's up.
eric 2 months ago

Im impressed, you know what youre talking about. I like the concept very much. http://easyhired.com http://justfreemp3.com http://pdf-searchengines.com Very informative and trustworthy blog. Please keep updating with great posts like this one. I have booked marked your site and am about to email it to a few friends of mine that I know would enjoy reading.
Medical2001 3 months ago

Maybe a reason lite with some added goodies might be a reality not to far from now. :) Peter2001 www.themedicalquestions.com
Vixsin 4 months ago

I have been a HUGE fan of Vince Clark's for many years now and I still, to this day, love his genius in music! Great vid.
ForemanHunk 4 months ago

Yeah theBrennan it looks like one, maybe it is too new to vince but I think it's a great machine anyway, maybe he likes..
theBrennan 4 months ago

01.42 on the table to the right with the goose neck mic showing, looks like a micro korg to me, then again i am prob wrong,
theBrennan 4 months ago

fantastic vid Vince is so cool, did i spot a micro korg ,isnt that a bit new for vince?
Robodick 4 months ago

Where? I've watched this 2.5 times and didn't notice it.
ChrisAgnelli 4 months ago

Awesome vid, never seen Vince so chatty
HotPockets 4 months ago

Thank you. This is great, what an astounding collection of synths. I'd just hole yourself up in that cabin and never leave.