Before forming Erasure, Vince Clarke was already an established synthpop legend, having founded Depeche Mode in 1980 before leaving that group to form Yazoo (known as Yaz in America) with Alison Moyet a year later. But while those projects were obviously highly influential, for Clarke they were short-lived. Conversely, his duo with Andy Bell, Erasure, is about to release its 18th album, The Neon, after 35 years together and an incredible 25 million records sold worldwide. Here, the two discuss their partnership, and Bell also opens up about how the band’s fans supported him when he came out as HIV-positive.