I was actually grateful for being arrested, for the judge that promised me that I would go to prison if I didn't stay clean, because I listened to him and something clicked. Those two years when we were making album "Ultra" and I had to go back and forth to court to prove to the judge that I'd stayed clean, it gave me this time to suddenly realize, "Oh, I can do this, I can crawl my way back, I can get better. And I do want to be here."

Really, what I'm always drawn to is the voice - PJ Harvey , Björk . If the voice interests me, then I'm interested to listen to what's happening.

I was actually grateful for being arrested, for the judge that promised me that I would go to prison if I didn't stay clean, because I listened to him and something clicked. Those two years when we were making album "Ultra" and I had to go back and forth to court to prove to the judge that I'd stayed clean, it gave me this time to suddenly realize, "Oh, I can do this, I can crawl my way back, I can get better. And I do want to be here."

I go to a very visual place when I'm singing. It's very cinematic and I get this feeling of space. I love when music does that.

I'm not that type of musician where I can sit down at the piano and work out a song; I actually really enjoy that process of sitting with somebody and having nothing and then suddenly something starts appearing. You struggle with it, and then suddenly a song starts to appear. Then, you've got to try and muscle it - there's that word again - into something and you do. You tussle with it and play with it and roll around with it and suddenly, magically, something appears.

The thing about Depeche songs is that they’re so descriptive. For me, they tell some kind of story about a character who’s trying to redeem himself or to find something to believe in-some kind of faith or hope.

We seem to be in a really interesting time, a time of weird change and values and choices, and "Who are you really? Where's the revolution, and what does it mean to you? What are your choices?" To me, America is built on immigrants - everybody coming here and making America "Great," as Donald Trump would say. And that's what New York is, a melting pot for all these different races and religions. We all live on this little island together and somehow get on, some days. But most of the time it's proven to have worked, right? So I don't know what the f - k he's talking about.