Depeche Mode’s big plans

Depeche Mode has finished recording work on the band’s forthcoming studio album, its first since 2005’s “Playing the Angel.”

“We’ve completed the record,” the band’s frontman, Dave Gahan, said via phone from New York. “There might be a couple of bits and pieces we’ve got to clean up, but I feel really good about the fact that we’re finished. I think we’ve made a great record.”

Gahan said the still-untitled album, slated for release this spring, will have about 12 tracks. “We’ve been spoiled for choice with this one because we recorded more songs for this record than we ever had for any [other] record,” he said. “Maybe I’m old school or whatever, but once you start going over 12 songs, I think it becomes a little weird.”

Gahan confirmed the disc will contain the tracks “Wrong” and “Peace,” snippets of which have been circulating on the Web. Gahan, however, clarified that the actual title of “Peace” is “Peace Will Come to Me.”

Additionally, he unveiled the titles of three more new tracks -- “Hole to Feed,” “Comeback” and “In Chains,” all co-written by Gahan -- that are likely set for inclusion on the album. Gahan added that the recording sessions, which took place over the last several months in New York and Santa Barbara, were productive and that he and the act’s principal songwriter, Martin Gore, are working well together.

“We have about 18 songs,” he said, even hinting that the band will release a special EP or online-only add-on with the extra material next year.

But Gahan stressed that the EMI release will be just that -- a proper record that doesn’t run too long. “I’ve been listening to the current play list, and I’m always still thinking of an album like Side 1 and Side 2. It’s like when you see a movie . . . and it goes over two hours, and you’re like ‘OK, I get it.’ ”

So what will the new material sound like? Rolling Stone last month ran a story on the band, in which Gore was quoted saying the set has a “spiritual” feel.

“I know what [Martin] means by that, but if anyone’s thinking that the record will have a gospel feel, it couldn’t be further from that,” Gahan said. He added that he feels like the record is about “looking outside and a yearning for somehow coming together. The world is changing. Watching Obama getting elected was great. We watched it on TV in Santa Barbara and I get goose bumps thinking about that still. It’s going to take a long time, but I think some of that same feeling, that sentiment is in the work.”

The band increasingly has grown fond of using guitars, but the new disc could see a return to Depeche Mode’s analog synth roots -- at least on a few tracks.

“Martin’s got this new fetish, which is basically buying gear on EBay,” Gahan said. “He must have bought up half of the analog equipment around the world. We’ve got all these old drum machines from the 1970s, and even some of the stuff that we used in the ‘80s as well, like old Moogs and Arps.”

Gahan noted that one of the new album’s stars is a piece of gear dubbed “The Colonel” -- a vintage 1970s-era Steiner Parker synthesizer. It’s an instrument, said Gahan, “that makes crazy noises. We found it really inspiring and used it in a lot of things” on the new record.

Depeche Mode announced portions of its 2009 “Tour of the Universe” earlier this year and is set to reveal U.S. dates in the coming weeks.

As fans await the new music and tour dates, they have been busy bemoaning the fact that the band’s music has turned up in a Hilary Duff song. Her “Reach Out” heavily samples the band’s “Personal Jesus.”

“I don’t know what I think about it. . . . It’s a little weird,” Gahan said, laughing. “I think it was something that Martin didn’t really have any choice over, they kind of did it anyway. But, you know, it is what it is. Look, my daughter loves it. You know what she said to me? ‘But it’s not the same, Dad.’ ”

--

charlie.amter@latimes.com