DMK are a Depeche Mode

tribute band A tribute act, tribute band or tribute group is a music group, singer, or musician who specifically plays the music of a well-known music act. Tribute acts include individual performers who mimic the songs and style of an artist, such as ...

formed in 2010 in Bogotá, Colombia, featuring

Dicken Schrader Dicken Schrader (born December 4, 1973) is a Colombian-American creative director, director, video artist and musician. He is most noted for his YouTube viral videos featuring himself and his two children, Milah and Korben, performing cover versio ...

(lead vocals, keyboard, xylophone, ukulele, percussion), his daughter Milah Schrader (background vocals, recorder, melodica, ukulele, percussion) and his son Korben Schrader (background vocals, toy keyboard, xylophone, toy accordion, percussion). DMK is noted for crudely emulating the sounds of Depeche Mode using an old keyboard and various toys and household items as instruments. The band became an

internet sensation Social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet include Internet memes, such as popular themes, catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly and become more widesp ...

in January, 2012, following the release of their third

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

video, "

Everything Counts "Everything Counts" is a 1983 song by the English electronic band Depeche Mode from the album ''Construction Time Again''. A live version of the song was released in 1989 to support the band's live album '' 101''. Background and themes The sin ...

." Since their viral success, DMK have been invited to perform in front of live audiences in Colombia, the

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and

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. DMK have been nominated for “Favorite Web Personality” at the 2015 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Colombia, featured in MTV Iggy's "10 Colombian bands on the rise" article, and in

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´s list of 10 weirdest cover bands. Their remake of “Everything Counts” has been noted by

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as one of the most transformative cover songs and by

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as one of the ten best Depeche Mode covers ever made. DMK are featured in the film

Spirits in the Forest ''Spirits in the Forest – A Depeche Mode Film'' is a live concert film, documentary, and album by the English electronic music band Depeche Mode. Directed by award-winning filmmaker and long-time artistic collaborator Anton Corbijn. The fil ...

, directed by Anton Corbijn, as one of the six selected stories from fans across the world who attended the last show of the Global Spirit Tour at the Waldbühne in Berlin on July 25, 2018.

History

Formation (2010–2012)

Dicken Schrader had been a Depeche Mode fan since he first heard them in 1987, as he was studying high school in Bogotá. In late 2010, as he was going through the separation from his first wife and the mother of Milah and Korben, he decided to recreate their 1985 classic “

Shake The Disease "Shake the Disease" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released as a single on 29 April 1985. "Shake the Disease" was one of two new songs on the 1985 compilation albums '' The Singles 81→85'' and ''Catching Up with Dep ...

” as an act of psychomagic because he felt a connection with its lyrics at that point in his life. To create his cover version of the song, Schrader used an old Yamaha PSR-150 keyboard that was given to him by his mother, a

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

kazoo The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modifie ...

and several bottles, cans, tambourines, and toys. He invited Milah (then 7) and Korben (then 4) to perform some of the sounds present in the song. In the video they recorded at home and uploaded to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, the screen is split in four sections and Schrader appears to play all instruments simultaneously with both hands and feet. Actually, the screen sections were recorded separately. The video was seen by family and friends, and as the three of them enjoyed the experience, they decided to create a second Depeche Mode cover in the same style as the first, “ Strangelove” in mid-2011, in which the participation of both kids became more musically challenging. Since the children could not read sheet music, Schrader devised a color-coded system to label the instruments and write down the notes for the kids to learn.

"Everything Counts" (2012)

On December 23, 2011, the trio uploaded a third Depeche Mode cover, this time for the song “

,” expecting it to be seen by the small group of family and friends who enjoyed the previous two. But in late January, 2012, the video was suddenly picked up by news outlets and blogs around the world, like

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and

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, quickly becoming viral, making the trio an

almost overnight. In February 2012, the band adopted the name DMK, which stands for “Depeche Mode Kids” but also refers to the initials of the band members’ names.

Artistic growth (2012–2018)

After the release of "Everything Counts" the band released two more Depeche Mode covers in the same four-screen format: "

Black Celebration ''Black Celebration'' is the fifth studio album by English electronic music band Depeche Mode, released on 17 March 1986 by Mute Records. The album further cemented the darkening sound created by Alan Wilder, which the band later used for thei ...

," released in June, 2012, and "

Enjoy The Silence "Enjoy the Silence" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. Recorded in 1989, it was released as the second single from their seventh studio album, '' Violator'' (1990), on 5 February 1990. The single is certified Gold in the ...

", released in December, 2012. Then, in May, 2013, they released " Just Can't Get Enough", as a live version especially recorded in the streets of La Candelaria, Bogotá, for the BAS 2013 festival in

Basildon Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159. It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...

, UK. Since their online popularity exploded they have been invited to perform in front of live audiences, first in local events like the Festival Tecnológico Texun 2012 in Medellín and the Fantástico! Festival Internacional de las Artes 2013 in Barranquilla, and then festivals outside Colombia, like the Échale Latino Music Estyles festival in

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, on May 9, 2014, and the ¡Pachanga! Latino Music Festival in Austin,

, on May 10, 2014. They also headlined Sónar Kids in

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, on May 24 and 25, 2014, where they performed in front of a crowd of over 5000 people. On December, 2014, DMK released their seventh cover video, "

But Not Tonight "Stripped" is a song by British electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from their fifth studio album ''Black Celebration'' (1986) on 10 February 1986, through Mute Records. Written by the band's lead songwriter Ma ...

," their first professionally made music video, recorded in a studio in Bogotá and inspired in Depeche Mode imagery and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s novella “

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...

”. On March 13, 2015, DMK opened the second day of Festival Estéreo Picnic in their hometown of Bogotá. The show was a success despite the fact that Korben broke his right elbow two days before the festival and had to play only with his left hand. On May 2015, after 5 years of recording Depeche Mode covers, DMK released their first original composition entitled "Pale Blue Dot," a homage to the famous photograph taken by the

Voyager 1 ''Voyager 1'' is a space probe launched by NASA on September 5, 1977, as part of the Voyager program to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. Launched 16 days after its twin ''Voyager 2'', ''Voya ...

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and, incidentally, to Carl Sagan's thoughts about it expressed on his book by the same name. They also announced that the kids would move with their mother to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, but that this separation would not break up the band. In 2016 DMK were invited to perform at the Tauron Nowa Muzyka festival in Katowice,

, gathering one of the largest and most enthusiastic audiences in their career. On March 20, 2017, they were chosen to take over Depeche Mode's

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page as part of the Takeover campaign, becoming one of

Martin Gore Martin Lee Gore (born 23 July 1961) is an English songwriter, musician, singer, record producer and DJ. He is one of the founding members of the electronic rock band Depeche Mode and is the band's main songwriter. He is the band's guitarist a ...

's favorite entries, who publicly expressed it in a video posted on Depeche Mode’s Facebook page. DMK released on YouTube their first 360° video, recorded in their Bogotá home, for the 1982 classic “The Meaning of Love” on October, 2017, followed by a similarly-recorded video for

Personal Jesus "Personal Jesus" is a song by English electronic music band Depeche Mode. It was released as the lead single from their seventh studio album, '' Violator'' (1990), in 1989. It reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the ''Billbo ...

on early 2018. On March 16, 2018, two of the band members, Dicken and Korben, were finally able to meet Depeche Mode at a meet-and-greet in Bogotá during their

Global Spirit Tour The Global Spirit Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English electronic music band Depeche Mode in support of the group's 14th studio album, '' Spirit''. During the summer 2017, the band played to more than 3 million fans in total. This is th ...

''Spirits in the Forest'' (2018-2020)

On November 21, 2019, ''Spirits in the Forest'' was released in theaters worldwide, featuring the stories of six life-long Depeche Mode fans, including Dicken Schrader and DMK. Sources vary on the total gross of the movie's one-night release, with one claiming about US $2.5m while another claims US $4.5m. It reached Number 3 on the box office charts in Mexico and Number 2 in both Germany and the UK.

Permanent hiatus and compilation album (2021-2022)

On February 26th, 2022, DMK released their last video, "Enjoy The Silence'22" and announced their decision of going into "permanent hiatus" through an online Zoom event hosted by the Depeche Mode Global Fan Club, and on December of the same year they released their only album, "Songs of Tiny Devotion: A Family Tribute to Depeche Mode 2010-2022," compiling all of the covers they created during the past 12 years plus an original song. The album was released on all major music streaming services including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Amazon Music, and Pandora

Discography

* ''Songs of Tiny Devotion: A Family Tribute to Depeche Mode 2010-2022'' (2022)

Videography

*''Shake The Disease'' – DMK (2010) *''Strangelove'' – DMK (2011) *''Everything Counts'' – DMK (2011) *''Black Celebration'' – DMK (2012) *''Enjoy The Silence'' – DMK (2012) *''Just Can't Get Enough'' – DMK (2013) *''But Not Tonight'' – DMK (2014) *''Pale Blue Dot'' – DMK (2015) *''Live in Poland''– DMK (2016) *''The Meaning Of Love'' – DMK (2017) *''Personal Jesus'' – DMK (2018) *''Live in NYC'' – DMK (2019) *''Precious'' - DMK (2020) *''Enjoy The Silence '22'' - DMK (2022)