Martin Gore

Martin Gore is an English musician who founded the electronic band Depeche Mode and became its principal songwriter after Vince Clarke left in 1981. Born in London and raised in Basildon, he taught himself keyboards and played guitar in a local band before joining Clarke and Andy Fletcher in Composition of Sound, which became Depeche Mode with Dave Gahan on lead vocals. Gore wrote two tracks on the debut album Speak & Spell and took on most of the songwriting for A Broken Frame (1982), his lyrics growing darker and more political over time. He plays keyboards and guitar and sings lead on several ballads, his tenor contrasting with Gahan's baritone. His solo releases include Counterfeit EP (1989), Counterfeit² (2003), MG (2015) and The Third Chimpanzee (2021), and he formed the duo VCMG with Clarke. He won an Ivor Novello Award in 1999 and a Moog Innovation Award in 2019.