The Guardian is a daily English magazine that I like reading, mostly because what is written about music says a lot more to me than what is published through the NME and Q, for example. This weekend is no anomaly, with two interesting articles. I'll start with bits from the simple Q&A with Depeche Mode, funny and tidbit-y.

[...] which new album track, for example, would provide the best soundtrack to .. [...] Falling in love with someone a) unexpectedly and b) somehow harder than ever before

Dave: "The song Peace sounds like that. For me it represents the joy and ecstasy of everything looking better, tasting better, sounding better. It's like the first time you shoot heroin. (Guffaws) That feeling of 'OH! Exactly...' Well, after you've thrown up. (Pause) I don't know why I said that. But there you go, I've said it. So... yeah."

Punchline courtesy Martin Gore's daughter, from another part of the article:

Dave: "Kids in New York are wearing these T-shirts with, 'What happened to all the junkies?' across them, as part of some sort of East Village chic. My son's not into them; he's more sussed on that stuff than I was at that age. Actually he's a lot more sussed than I am at this age." Martin: "My daughter likes things like My Chemical Romance, so I thought she might like the Stooges, too. I got laughed at."

But the real kicker is here: in this splendid interview, Pete Doherty speaks open-heartedly (as almost always) about his debut solo album and his life in general. The article includes cross-examining of some of Pete's words with Stephen Street, and is generally light-years from the above with DM. From the interview with Pete:

Only when Doherty is clean will his father talk to him again. To that end, it has been reported that if Doherty passes a drugs test at the end of this month, his dad will meet him at a vegetarian restaurant in Brighton.

I ask Doherty how that plan is proceeding. He doesn't reply. Hunched over the small table between us he stays silent for a while. He stirs a spoon round and round and round at speed in an espresso cup (he drinks two espressos, ladled with sugar; he had looked in vain in the minibar for some brandy to splash into the tiny cup). Then I notice the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Do read the interview. It's worth it. His words on Kate Moss, further on his father, his art in all of its forms and manifestations and his future are foreboding good things to come - I hope!