Vince Clarke

Vincent John Martin (born 3 July 1960), known professionally as Vince Clarke, is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously the main songwriter of several groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and the Assembly. In Erasure he is known for his deadpan and low-key onstage demeanour, often remaining motionless over his keyboard, in sharp contrast to vocalist Andy Bell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics.

Erasure have recorded over 200 songs and have sold over 28 million albums worldwide. Vince Clarke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of Depeche Mode

Early life
Vincent John Martin was born in South Woodford, Essex; he later moved to Basildon, Essex. He initially studied the violin and then the piano, but he was inspired to make electronic music upon hearing Wirral synth band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD). Along with OMD, other early influences included The Human League, Daniel Miller, and Fad Gadget.

Personal life
Clarke has been married to Tracy Hurley since 2004. They have a son named Oscar and live in Brooklyn, New York City, with another home in Maine. Tracy Hurley is co-founder of the Morbid Anatomy Museum (now closed) in Brooklyn. Her twin sister, the American author Tonya Hurley, is married to Michael Pagnotta, the former manager of Erasure. In 2012, Clarke and his family moved into a new house in Brooklyn, to which he also relocated his Cabin studio and synthesizer collection.

Early bands
In the late 1970s, Clarke and schoolmate Andy Fletcher formed a short-lived band called No Romance In China. In 1980, he teamed up with Robert Marlow and Martin Gore to form French Look.

Depeche Mode
Another band, named Composition of Sound, followed in 1980; it featured Gore and Fletcher. Clarke provided vocals until singer Dave Gahan joined the band, which was renamed Depeche Mode. At that time he adopted the stage name Vince Clarke, by which he is currently known. The band initially adopted a slick synthesised electropop sound, which produced the album Speak & Spell and the Clarke-penned singles "Dreaming of Me", "New Life", and "Just Can't Get Enough" in 1981.

Clarke left Depeche Mode shortly thereafter. There were many rumoured reasons for his departure. He commented on Depeche Mode's later material as being a little dark for his taste, but good nonetheless. Clarke also stated that he did not enjoy the public aspects of success, such as touring and interviews, and found himself frequently at odds with his bandmates, particularly on the tour bus. He also stated: "I think everybody in the band, especially myself, imagined that the reason we were doing so well was because of themselves ... We were pretty young and very lucky, and things had happened very quickly for us, and I don't think we were really mature to handle the situation." Clarke was replaced by musician Alan Wilder, and Depeche Mode went on to achieve international stardom.

Yazoo
Clarke then teamed up with singer Alison Moyet (at the time known by the nickname of Alf) to form the popular synthpop band Yazoo (known as Yaz in the U.S.), which produced two albums and a string of hits including "Only You", "Don't Go", "Situation", "The Other Side of Love", "Nobody's Diary", and "Walk Away from Love".

Yazoo disbanded in 1983, and Moyet went on to have a successful solo career. Yazoo reformed in 2008 for a series of live dates to celebrate 25 years since the duo's split.

The Assembly
Clarke teamed up with Eric Radcliffe in 1983. Their idea was to collaborate with different artists on each new single, under the name The Assembly. With singer Feargal Sharkey, lead vocalist of The Undertones, they scored the top 5 UK hit "Never Never". Meanwhile, Clarke founded the label Reset Records with Radcliffe. During 1983 and 1984 he produced four singles, "The Face of Dorian Gray", "I Just Want to Dance", "Claudette", and "Calling All Destroyers" for his friend Robert Marlow, which were released on this label. They also produced an album, at first shelved but released in 1999, under the name The Peter Pan Effect. In 1985, another collaboration took place with Paul Quinn of Bourgie Bourgie; the result was the single "One Day" by Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn. However, the project never took off, and Clarke moved on to other projects.

Erasure
In early 1985, Clarke put an ad in Melody Maker for a singer, and one applicant was Andy Bell, who was a fan of his earlier projects. He teamed with Bell to form the group Erasure, and the duo became one of the major selling acts in British music with international hits like "Oh L'amour", "Sometimes", "Chains of Love", "A Little Respect", "Drama!", "Blue Savannah", "Chorus", "Love to Hate You", "Take a Chance on Me", and "Always".

As of March 2021, the duo have released 18 studio albums and have enjoyed a long string of hit singles spanning their four decades together.

VCMG
In 2011, Clarke collaborated with his former Depeche Mode colleague Martin Gore for the first time since 1981, as techno duo VCMG, on an instrumental minimalist electronic dance album called Ssss, released on 12 March 2012. The first EP, entitled Spock, was released worldwide exclusively on Beatport on 30 November 2011. The second EP, Single Blip, was once again first released exclusively on Beatport on 20 February 2012. Their third EP, Aftermaths, was released on 20 August 2012.

Collaborations and other work
In July 1984, Clarke teamed up with Stephen Luscombe of Blancmange, Pandit Dinesh, and Asha Bhosle. The group, West India Company, released a four-track, self-titled EP.

Clarke worked with synthpop producer Martyn Ware (of Heaven 17 and The Human League) in 1999 as The Clarke & Ware Experiment and released the album Pretentious. The duo collaborated again in 2001 for the album Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle, which was created with "3D music technology" specifically designed for listening in headphones. That same year also saw the release of the Clarke-produced album Erasure's Vince Clarke, which featured The Peter Pan Effect, an album that he and Eric Radcliffe produced for his long-time friend Robert Marlow. Clarke wrote "Let's Get Together" for the pop girl group Girl Authority for their second album, Road Trip. The song was originally meant to be for Depeche Mode but was never recorded by them. Clarke also co-wrote "What Do I Want From You?" with Freeform Five, for their album Strangest Things (2005).

Also in 2001, Clarke founded Illustrious Co. Ltd. with Martyn Ware, to create new forms of spatialised sound composition using their unique 3D AudioScape system, collaborating with fine artists, educational establishments, the performing arts, live events, corporate clients, and educational settings round the world.

In 2004, Clarke provided additional music for an episode of Johnny Bravo entitled "The Time of My Life". This was a collaboration with Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs.

Clarke was an essential component of a 2000 project called Family Fantastic. They produced the album Nice!. In 2008 Family Fantastic released a second album, entitled Wonderful.

On 21 May 2009, Clarke was awarded with an "Outstanding Song Collection" prize, during the Ivor Novello Awards ceremony of the same day, in recognition of 30 years in the music industry.

Clarke was featured in the BBC Four documentary Synth Britannia.

In 2012, Clarke collaborated with the band The Good Natured on a track called "Ghost Train", available as a free download on their website, in exchange for a Tweet.

Also in 2012, Clarke produced a cover of the Depeche Mode song "Fly on the Windscreen" featuring Ane Brun.

Clarke also did DJ sets in various locations in North America and Europe and also continued his production work of remixing songs for Dido and Chad Valley.

In October 2013, Clarke announced on his Twitter page that he was providing assistance to musicians BT and Christian Burns for their All Hail the Silence project.

On 14 July 2015, Clarke announced a collaboration with Jean Michel Jarre called "Automatic", which was released as a part of the full album Electronica 1: The Time Machine on 16 October 2015.

On 10 June 2016, in collaboration with Paul Hartnoll, Clarke digitally released the album "2 Square" on his new record label, VeryRecords.

Since 2017, Clarke has hosted The Synthesizer Show with VeryRecords artist Reed Hays on Maker Park Radio, a non-profit community streaming radio station from Staten Island, New York. The first episode aired Dec 20, 2017.