BV Interviews: Vince Clarke, Neil Arthur & Benge Discuss Doublespeak, Synthpop, and More

“I approach these tracks in the same way when I do remixes,” Vince Clarke says of the 11 cover versions that make up the debut album by Doublespeak, his synthpop supergroup trio with Blancmange ‘s Neil Arthur and producer Benge ( Cabaret Voltaire, Jon Foxx ). “You take the track and then there’s the melody there, which is the foundation of the track and the chord changes. And then find parts and rhythms around that. I like that process, it’s all about the actually doing it.”

Vince Clarke and Neil Arthur go back more than 40 years: Blancmange opened for Depeche Mode before Vince left the group to form Yazoo and then Erasure, and they’ve remained friends ever since. “Vince and I just started chatting via email and had this idea that we could maybe cover a couple of songs and see how we worked together,” Neil says. And it developed from that really.”

This project began in 2019 and was delayed by the pandemic, but really kicked into gear when Benge, who had worked on a few Blancmange albums, was brought in to shape these covers into an album. Doublespeak is a lot of fun, with ’80s-style electropop versions of songs by ABBA, The Magnetic Fields, Young Marble Giants, Glen Campbell, Fad Gadget, David Essex, and more.

I talked to Vince, Neil and Benge about how Doublespeak came to be, how they picked which songs to cover and which were the most difficult to do. We also discussed the project’s future, including writing and recording a few Doublespeak originals, plus updates on new albums from Erasure, Blancmange, and Benge’s band Wrangler, not to mention a little food talk, five records they think everyone should own, and more.

You can check out my whole conversation with Vince, Neil and Benge on the June 1 episode of BV Interviews which is available wherever you get your podcasts. Listen and subscribe HERE and below.

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/bv-interviews-vince-clarke-neil-arthur-benge-talk-doublespeak-synthpop-covers-more/)._