Client B: Someone said, "Listen to this." And we went, "Oh gosh, we're so similar."

Client A: But I think we're different than Ladytron, because we've actually toured with them. We're much more... human. Because we haven't so many keyboards, it's much more rock and roll; it's much more sexy on stage.

Client B: They sort of make a barrier across the stage with keyboards, whereas I just want to reach out and grab the crowd. I sing from the heart, whereas they sort of deliberately sing cool.

Splendid: Client is a lot different than any of your past work, like Dubstar and Frasier Chorus.

Client A: I think it's a step beyond, yeah, because we were doing pop with those bands. And I think we actually wanted to make a record that people couldn't get in most record shops. (laughs)

Client B: We wanted to make an underground, cool record. We didn't want to be in the market where we're passed around the school playground, like all that airbrushed, bubblegum pop thing.

Client A: Also, we've been on major labels before. We wanted to do something totally opposite. We didn't want to have loads of money given to us to make a record in a studio. We wanted to just do it with nothing. Originally we did all our own artwork, and we were going to put it out on our own label. It was like a reaction to all the manufactured rubbish out there. We can't compete with those 18 year-old girls. We're not 18 anymore. We're not writing bubblegum hits. So the way to do it is cut our heads off and write dirty electronic music.

Client B: And have a really good image at the same time. The actual pitch is, I think, really strong and really interesting. It's far more interesting to see something like that, that's like, "Oh, she's showing a little ankle." As opposed to getting full on tits, ass... it's just like, "Great, seen it before, it's boring. It's not sexy any more." It's nice to have a bit of mystery, rather than give everything on a plate. It's nice to keep a bit back.

Splendid: Is it a pretty nice situation signing with Andy Fletcher, considering you've been on major labels before?

Client A: I think it was quite meant to be, really. With the whole Technique tour, I'd written a letter to Andy. I didn't really know him at all, but I asked, "Can I support you on one gig in Germany?" And they said, "Actually, you can do the two German gigs, because we're looking for third support and you're perfect, just the two of you. You're easy." And we ended up doing 15 gigs with them.

Client B: And they're like, "Do you fancy going to Istanbul? Do you fancy going to Croatia?" We're like, "Yeah!"

Client A: And then, Andy asked us what we were doing. And we'd already started planning Client. We wanted to do something different than Technique. We gave Andy one of our CDs that we'd made, thinking, "He's going to hate it." He didn't tell us anything for two months. Two months went by, and then finally, one day, we met him in the pub and he's like, "I want to talk to you."

I think it's been a really good partnership with Andy, because we've become friends. And it's been great for us, obviously. And it's really nice for Andy as well, because he's now DJing and he's got a different role now. It's been good for his creativity. He's buying loads of new records, all the time. I think it's healthy.

Client B: We hear him practicing his DJing.

Client A: Yeah, he doesn't do it with headphones. We watch the windows shake when he's practicing.

Splendid: He's Client F, right?

Client B: Yeah. (laughs)

Splendid: Does he ever join you guys on stage?

Client A: No. We talked about it from the start, and we just thought... maybe, next summer, when we do more touring, he could come out for an encore and do some bass. At the moment, we have a four piece band that we've been touring all over Europe.

Splendid: Was the tour a large scale thing?

Client A: We've done some quite-big festivals where we're at the bottom of the bill. We did Berlin at 5:00 o'clock in the morning, with people passed out on the field.

Client B: We got there when the sun was coming down, and then we got on stage as the sun was coming up. (laughs)

Client A: And then we did Prague, and that was really good. We did Belgium. We did a tour with Ladytron as well -- we did five dates with them. Germany's where we seem to get the biggest response, really.

Splendid: How do you guys click when it comes to songwriting? Your songs are real tight, and I love the simplicity and the catchiness.

Client A: I've been writing songs longer than Sarah.

Client B: I just started.

Client A: So, I wrote all the songs in Technique. I actually wanted to find someone to write with, so, some of them are like, I've written most of them, but then Sarah's sung them and added little bits. Like, "Price Of Love", "Love All Nite", some of "Rock And Roll"... Sarah wrote the words on that, and the verse, which is a really cool part of the song. But on things like "Happy", we kind of wrote in the studio together. I tend to do most of the music because I write on the computer. I do all the music, but then Sarah will come up with... (she hums a one-note melody).

Client B: I was just fiddling. (laughs) Sometimes, Kate will go, "Oh just fiddle. Write a bassline."

Client A: I quite like to write on my own, so on the instrumentals I'll just write on my own. I suppose I'm more of the songwriter now, but Sarah has started writing. And she'll write more.

Splendid: The lyrics have sort of a wry, biting style. I really dig them.

Client A: Thank you. We try to work with the lyrics. The track "Client", that was actually quite funny -- Sarah came up with the words from job adverts, and then we just made a track. Then I said, "This track is missing something. It doesn't have the edge that it needs. It's a little bit boring." I said, "Let's make it so that it's about being a prostitute. And, in the end, you can give the client what he actually wants.

Client B: Because it was already working as a double entendre. I just think it was just hilarious looking through job adverts. It's, "Window Cleaner: Satisfaction Guaranteed." And it's just like, "Hang on." It's a bit like those films, Confessions of a Taxi Driver.

Splendid: I didn't know it was about prostitution.

Client B: (laughs)

Client A: The last line goes, "Fuck off. Don't touch me there." You're not allowed to touch me but I'll give you satisfaction guaranteed. A lot of the songs are kind of about the underbelly of things like prostitution, drug addiction, people on Prozac, people who should be on Prozac who are unhappy all the time. They can't get off drugs. Not talking about heroin and coke but the stuff you can get over the counter.

Splendid: "Price Of Love", is that about a relationship?

Client A: Yeah, a sort of S&M relationship that's gone a bit too far. What price is love? There's different prices of love. Love can be many different things. You can buy it from a prostitute. You can be in a really loving relationship that has an edge to it -- the S&M thing. "Sometimes we are not alone / realize the things you've done."

Splendid: How are the singles doing? Is "Rock And Roll" next?

Client A: Yeah, that's when we come out in Europe. It's nice to have a European release, not just England. In England, it's not the time now for electronic music. Everyone's into King Of Leon and White Stripes. Electronic music is really underground. We've had really good reviews for it, but no radio play. In Germany, we've had loads of radio play, and in Australia as well. Spain, Italy... It's great having a European thing. It's not just England. Germany's our biggest market, really.

Splendid: Right now, there's a bit of resurgence in electronic pop in America. Is that happening in Europe, as well?

Client B: It's happening everywhere in Europe, apart from England.

Client A: In Germany, it's happening everywhere. In England, it's a terrible music scene. It's a great underground scene, but unfortunately we are getting a lot of American stuff that's big here. They get priority. Those awful, awful bands.

Splendid: So, we're ruining your music scene -- is what you're saying?

Client A: No.

Client B: No...

Client A: Well, yeah. It's the McDonalds of music that's getting shipped to us. It's not the good stuff.

Splendid: What, Britney Spears?

Client B: Yeah, Christina Aguilera. Justin Timberlake... go away!

Splendid: With the electroclash kind of thing coming to the forefront, what do you think of the timing of everything? Do you think it's helpful?

Client A: Yeah, it's helpful. In Europe, it's definitely helpful. Bands like Ladytron and the whole electroclash thing haven't really happened so much in Europe. There's been a buzz, but I think Europe has always had a big electronic background. It's much bigger in Europe. England is, of course, three years behind. In about two years, electro will be massive.

PART TWO: CLIENT "F" (Andy Fletcher)

Splendid: How is the publicity circuit going so far?

Client F: We've been working very hard in Europe, doing gigs and DJing and stuff, so we've doing lots of press over there. We're getting a good reaction, you know, to what we're trying to do at the moment.

Splendid: How long have you had the idea of starting a label?

Client F: It's always been something that's been on my mind, to do something different. With Depeche working pretty much constantly over the past 20, 23 years, I haven't had much time, really, to find the right artists during the time I do have off. It's very difficult. And this has been an opportunity that we have had a bit of time off, and I managed to find an artist I got to know personally first. We used to meet in the local pub, basically, and then (after) listening to demos we decided to take it a bit further. Even then, to a certain extent, I wasn't sure what to do -- whether to manage them, to start my own label, or just to sign them somewhere else. I wasn't sure, really. In the end, after discussions with Daniel Miller, who encouraged me to start my own label... it's been really, really interesting. Everything Depeche does is always so big and massive. We're one of the biggest bands in the world. It's very refreshing for me to work on a sort of baby band level. It sort of reminds me a lot of the early days of Depeche, which in some ways were the most fun. It really is. We're travelling around Europe on budget airlines, busses, whatever we can get around in, and playing these venues and festivals and things like that. I'm really on a ground level basis, and it's very refreshing.

Splendid: Was finding Client part of the impetus for starting the label, then?

Client F: Yes. I didn't think I wanted to start a label and then, "I wanna find someone." It was just basically on a really organic level -- just finding someone and literally meeting them down at the pub, listening to demos and working on the demos a bit, and then saying, "What should we do?"

Splendid: Were you familiar with their past work at that point?

Client F: They were in a band called Technique that had done some shows with Depeche in Europe, although Sarah wasn't the actual on the record for that. I've always had a lot of fun working with women; I'm doing it for the first time, as I was in one of the original boy bands. It's quite nice working with women, and the different emotions that women have compared to men. That's quite refreshing to me, 'cos obviously I've worked with blokes all my life.

Splendid: Was the initial marketing of Client -- the uniforms, the faceless pictures -- something that you were involved in?

Client F: Yeah, we're a partnership. With Depeche, we and Daniel Miller were partners. We were all involved in everything we did, and it's the same with Client. I'm involved in every aspect of their career and encourage them to be involved in every aspect of their career, which I think is missing a lot with many of today's artists with big producers, big managers, and such. They lose track -- they're sheltered from what the industry is really about.

Splendid: So you sort of model your style after Daniel Miller...

Client F: He's my role model, and I think he's a very good role model to have, you know? The image, and stuff like that, it's not something that hasn't been done before. The girls, they'd been in different bands and they didn't want every biography to list different bands they'd been with. So, in today's bland pop market and in the way women are sometimes misrepresented, we thought we'd go for a more mysterious approach. It seems to be working quite well. Although we don't totally go along that route. They are normal people with normal names and personalities, but it does make it a bit more interesting, I think.

Splendid: Back to the label. It seems quite natural for you to want to start a label. You've always seemed more comfortable behind the scenes, and more on the business end...

Client F: Well, we had to. We didn't have a manager. We managed ourselves till the last five or six years, and because of the way we worked with Daniel, we had no choice to be involved. And I was the person in Depeche who was most interested in that side of it. Martin concentrated on songwriting. Dave concentrated on singing and I concentrated on the rest of it. So we always saw ourselves as the modern group because of that. Unfortunately, I think we are the only one. No-one else has really done the same thing. We were way ahead of our time, or just a one-off, I think. (laughs) I do encourage bands and artists all the time -- people give me demos all the time, which I find very exciting. I encourage them to do more and more things yourselves, just to get involved in their careers, because it can be done these days.

Splendid: As far the next band on Toast Hawaii, is it kind of open right now?

Client F: Well, it's a bit unfortunate, really, because the way I work is giving my all to artists, and Depeche is likely to start probably in March in the studio, and that's going to be two years. I think I can handle next year, certainly a new Client album and a new Depeche album, but, with regard to signing new artists, it's going to be difficult. I'm sort of interested in some one-off stuff.

Splendid: Like twelve-inches?

Client F: Yeah, I've got a few ideas on that level. I think I'd be able to do that. But obviously, as you'd expect, the Depeche project is the best part of two years, including the tour. And Client, as well, we're going to very busy with a second album. It's going to be hard to do...

Splendid: Especially with you being so hands-on.

Client F: I'm very hands-on. I don't want to diminish what I give to Client or Depeche, you know.

Splendid: I know you've been asked this a million times, but can you tell me the origins of the label name, Toast Hawaii?

Client F: Yeah, it's ham, cheese and pineapple on toast in Germany. But it comes down to recording in the famous Hansa Studios in the mid-'80s, right by the Berlin Wall in those days, where Bowie recorded his best stuff, and U2 and we did most of our best stuff there as well. And there was a restaurant underneath, and that's where we used to eat every day. And I sort of did this joke album, this solo album called Toast Hawaii. (The name) sounds good. It's quite exotic. (laughs)

Splendid: Yeah, it sticks in your mind.

Client F: It's quite a funny reason and I wanted something that does stick in your mind. I had all of these pretentious names that sounded really awful.

Splendid: You're going to be DJing tonight. How long have you been doing that?

Client F: About nine months, really. I've been doing loads of gigs recently -- all different stuff in Europe, and I do it because of Client. The show we've got going is I DJ, they play live. Tonight, obviously, with visas being very difficult to get these days for British bands who are just starting... we're just reverting back to them DJing and me DJing. They're probably going to go on first. It's quite good fun. I'm not a natural DJ. I'm not technically brilliant, but I play good songs. I try to establish the roots of the music of Depeche Mode and Client, and go back a bit -- not just with electronic music. I try to play songs from the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s, all with a vein leading to an act like Depeche Mode or Client. So it's quite interesting. Technically, I like to call it classic electro plus modern electro.

Splendid: Human League and Kraftwerk?

Client F: Yeah, a bit of that. I play some interesting Depeche mixes. Not tonight, in particular, but I play a lot of mixes that haven't been heard before. I play a few Depeche songs, but I go back along way. I play a couple of tracks off the first album you don't really hear much. But like I said, I'm not a technically brilliant DJ, so anything can go wrong, and that's the problem. (laughs)

Splendid: I'd rather hear someone play good stuff than hear a perfect beat matcher.

Client F: I'm not a beat mixer. I'm a fade-up and fade-down merchant, which I think is coming back a bit more now. People are wanting to listen to more song-based stuff, and the beat is coming down to my sort of range... about 120 beats per minute rather than 140, 145. So it's quite good for me, especially with my age at the moment and the condition of my heart.

Splendid: What about the timing with Client coming out? There's a resurgence going on... some call it electroclash.

Client F: There always is, though, isn't there, these days? There's a resurgence of everything, all the time. What I like about Client is the songs. I think they play is good songs. What I'm into with Toast Hawaii is good songs. I'm not just interested in electronic music. I would sign someone who was not electronic if they wrote good songs. There is a resurgence, but how far that will go I don't know. I just have to concentrate with Client that they continue to write good songs, and write better songs, and hopefully they can last by themselves.

Splendid: What would you be doing this summer if you weren't working with Client?

Client F: I haven't got a clue. Probably on the beach in Spain. But you can't really say that. In the '80s, I always thought, "What would I do if Depeche suddenly stopped?" And after a while I thought, "Well, Depeche isn't going to stop." And now it's been 24 years. I think life is a roller coaster and things happen all the time.

Splendid: Everybody seems to be doing their own thing this year. Do you have any reaction to the other two guys, Martin and Dave, and their solo efforts?

Client F: I'm very proud of Dave. He's done his own album (Paper Monsters); he's written his own songs for the very first time. I think it's a good debut. He's been touring. Martin's album (Counterfeit) was really good, perhaps a bit too indulgent. I think, personally, that he should have let his hair down a bit. I think he could have let his hair down a bit more, which he can do, and done a bit more, shown his talents off a bit more and the range of his influences a bit more. But he's starting writing next month for the next Depeche album. We're hopefully starting that March or April in the studio. That's going to be very exciting. Depeche is still the big love of my life. It's the thing we created from nothing to become something, and we still feel like we have another album or two left in us.

Splendid: I can't wait.

Client F: Actually, I think that... I'm hoping that all of these things that we've all individually done will come together to make a better Depeche Mode album. That's what I'm hoping, you know.