Depeche Mode are into their 4th decade as a touring and recording band, but the band are coming to terms with the loss of their bandmate Andy Fletcher.

With Fletcher passing away in May, band members Dave Gahan and Martin Gore have made the decision to carry on as a duo so they can honour the memory of their bandmate.

Speaking to NME, frontman Dave Gahan said the passing of Fletcher in May was "the last thing we expected to happen."

"Fletch was probably, let’s just say, the least of all of us in terms of excesses," Gahan commented.

"That was always the knowing joke – that Fletch was going to outlive all of us. ‘He’s still here, isn’t he?’ Now he’s not, and it still doesn’t feel real."

Gahan said that former bandmate Alan Wilder, who left the band in 1995 under acrimonious circumstances, texted him expressing surprise at Fletcher's death as he thought Fletcher would outlive his bandmates.

"He sent me a text but made some comment like most people did, saying we all thought Fletcher would outlive all of us; especially in our kind of lifestyles."

Recording for the bands 15th album, 'Momento Mori' was under way by the time Fletcher passed away in May at the age of 60 from an aortic dissection.

Fletcher's parts on the album hadn't been recorded by the time he had passed, and Gahan said he was sad the keyboardist didn't get the chance to play on the album.

"He never got to hear any of it, which is really sad to me because there are songs on this record where I know he’d be like, ‘This is the best thing we’ve had in years’,” said Gahan.

"I can hear his voice. I can also hear him saying, ‘Does every song have to be about death?!’"

Gahan admitted he's still coming to terms with Fletcher's passing, saying "I don’t know what that’s going to be like and I don’t know what that’s going to be like without Fletch there. Listening to him ranting and shouting down the hallways before a show, saying the wine’s not right, all the shit that Fletch would do which I already miss a lot.”

Gahan recalled the last time he saw Fletcher in person, with the pair meeting at a concert Gahan was playing in London in 2020.

“He came along with his childhood friend Rob Andrews and we got to talk a little bit, thank god,” Gahan remembered.

"Martin didn’t get to do that with his old school friend. I will forever wish I’d been a little bit kinder to Fletch as I go forward."

Discussing their relationship, Gahan alluded to their realtionship being somewhat strained.

"I was always a bit of a dick with him, he was always a bit of a dick with me too - that was the relationship we had. That’s what was good about him."

"He would also be the first person to call me if I was going through something, saying ‘You alright Dave? I hear you’re not feeling so good’. He was that guy too.”

Depeche Mode are gearing up for their biggest ever Irish show, with tickets on sale now for their gig in Dublin's Malahide Castle.

'Momento Mori', the groups first album since 2017's 'Sprit', will be released next March.