Andy Fletcher, better known as Fletch, is an English keyboardist who once founded an electronic band called Depeche Mode. He knows how to play the synthesizer and bass. The musician knows how to cook, owns his own restaurant and currently lives in London.
Biography
Andy Fletcher was born on July 8, 1961 in the city of Nottingham, England. He has four brothers and sisters, among whom he is the eldest. When the boy was only two years old, he and his family moved to Basildon from Nottingham. There, from early childhood, he was a member of the international interfaith Christian youth organization created specifically for boys.
Here Andy Fletcher played football. It was in this organization that the guy met the future member of the Depeche Mode group - Vince Clark. Later in their joint interviews, they recalled how they were engaged in missionary work together and sang in the church choir. Andy Fletcher is 191 centimeters tall.
Group formation
In the 70s, Andy Fletcher and his friend Vince Clark created a music group in China called No Romance, which did not last long. There, Fletch played bass.
In 1980, the musician met Martin Lee Gore at Van Gogh's Basildon Pub. Together with him, the guys formed a new group, “Composition of Sound, ” where the founder played on a synthesizer. Martin was a songwriter and provided lead vocals until Dave Gahan was accepted into the group at the end of that year. After replenishment of the participants, it was decided to rename the group to Depeche Mode, initiated by Dave. His proposal was approved by all musicians.
In 1981, the band released their debut album Speak & Spell. After this event, Vince Clark decided to leave. A year later, the guys released their second album, which was recorded by the three of them with Martin - before that he was only the songwriter.
At the end of 1982, they were joined by the English musician and composer Alan Wilder. The music group worked with him until 1995, in which Alan left the band. After that, Andy Fletcher, Dave Gahan and Martin Gore performed only three of them.
In 2005, the band released their eleventh album, Game of the Angel. In 2017, they released their third album, after the release of which the guys went on a world tour.
In one of the documentaries, Fletch said that after leaving Vince Clark, each of the remaining ones did something new that suited him most: Martin composed words and music, Alan became a musician, Dave was engaged in vocals. Andy Fletcher jokingly noticed that he himself was a loafer. However, he is considered an important member of the group. He often took on non-musical duties, was engaged in the legal and business interests of the group before it acquired a personal manager.
Andy Fletcher also announced the guys news about the tour and albums. It is he who manages to maintain a friendly working team and a pleasant atmosphere. Once he managed to reconcile the arguing Dave and Martin, accepting a compromise between them. Fletch is also the only member of the group who does not sing, but only plays keyboards. Although at concerts you can hear his voice, but usually he is very mixed with others. Moreover, since 2013, the musician has not used vocal microphones on his keyboard station.
Albums and own label
According to members of the Depeche Mode band, Andy Fletcher's comic solo album Toast Hawaii is named after his favorite dish - the Hawaiian toast, which he tried in the cafeteria of the recording studio. It was recorded in Berlin while working on the fourth studio album of an electronic English band.
In 2002, Andy Fletcher went into his own label, where the "Hawaiian Toast" originates from. He formed a new electronic music group called CLIENT. The musician worked on the release of their albums and singles of the same name. Andy Fletcher's band left the label in 2006 and has not returned to it since.
DJ career
Andy Fletcher, in order to support the performance of his label, tried himself as a DJ. Later it became his hobby, and when Andy is on vacation from work as part of the main group, he performs in clubs and festivals in Europe, Asia, South America, as well as in places that he had wanted to visit for a long time, but could not for any reason. His DJ set in Warsaw, which the musician spent in 2011, is widely known. In 2015, he even went on a small European club tour.
