Dave Gahan isn't a first-timer when it comes to solo endeavours. His first album under his own name, 2003's Paper Monsters, was well-received by both critics and fans. But Hourglass, his second solo album, follows on the heels of a successful Depeche Mode release and an equally lucrative world tour ("probably one of the best tours we've done," according to Gahan). So why put out a new solo album now, at one of Depeche Mode's highest points in years?

"That's a good question, actually," Gahan muses. "Well, about a month after the tour, I started writing, mainly sort of coming up with loose lyrical ideas. Then I just called up Andrew [Phillpott] and Christian [Eigner]. We'd written together for the songs that were on Playing The Angel, and just made plans to come in to my little place in New York and write.

"There was no sort of record company involvement. It wasn't like we were making demos for something. For the first time in years, there was no agenda, which was quite refreshing. And we quickly realized that we were doing much more than making demos: we had become a working team. After a few weeks, Daniel Miller from Mute got wind I was working on songs, so he wanted to hear what I was doing. He came here to New York and listened, was really excited, and said to me, 'You should make another record.'"

Comprised of 10 moody, deeply personal songs about loss, mortality and self-discovery, Hourglass truly reflects a body of work untouched by the pressures of a recording contract or inter-band spats. Gahan says that the creative freedom was the biggest benefit to the album.

"This was quite different than Paper Monsters. When I did that album, it was definitely more like the usual sort of process of demoing songs, then thinking about producers, thinking about how we're gonna record it in the studio, what studio we're going to record it in, all that stuff. To me, Paper Monsters was me needing to step out of the role that I'd made for myself within Depeche Mode, which was starting to feel sort of limiting. That was just from myself, though. No one was really limiting me from anything, but I really needed to get out of that to gain some confidence. I can't explain it, but I knew in my heart it was something I had to do."

Of course, it's hard to avoid the usual alarm that's sounded once a band's frontman announces a solo effort: the imminent group break-up.

"There'll be nothing like that," Gahan scoffs. "I actually feel a lot more settled now.

"I had a couple of conversations with Martin [Gore] recently, who incidentally told me to tell journalists that this is his album of the year — which is funny coming from Martin because, when I finished Paper Monsters, I never heard anything from him at all. It was a little harsh, but that's just Martin's way. So for him to go against his usual way and say how much he loves this record was really nice.

"But we're planning on coming together next year to talk about making another Depeche Mode record, though I wouldn't imagine we'd do that until probably about the end of next year. Right now, I'm just excited to see what's going to happen with Hourglass, though I know for certain that we've made a really great record together that represents where I am right now. And I know that all these years of working with Depeche Mode, that's what we were doing as well. We never tried to be in that position where we've got to come up with a hit song or we've got to be part of something that's going on."

You can hear the contentment in Gahan's voice as he finishes, with 27 years of being a rock star finally leading to satisfaction.

"That's something I've learned from years and years of doing something that works. You really have to follow your heart."

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