Dave Gahan and Depeche Mode will make a rare conference appearance at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, later this month. It will mark the veteran British rock group's very first visit to South by Southwest and one of their first public appearances since signing a high profile deal with Columbia Records last year.

A statement this week confirmed Depeche Mode for an exclusive conversation with KCRW music director Jason Bentley at the Austin Convention Center on March 13, covering the group's past, present and future. There's no word yet on whether the group will perform at SXSW, though.

In a statement issued today, organizers promised the March 13 conversation at the Austin Convention Center would cover Depeche Mode's past, present and future, though there's no word yet on whether Gahan, Martin Gore and Andy Fletcher will perform a concert during the week.

Last December, the acclaimed group ended their 30-year association with Mute Records in the UK and Warner Music labels Sire and Reprise in the U.S, by signing a deal to release their new album 'Delta Machine' on Columbia in March. Depeche Mode's last record, 'Sounds of the Universe' in 2009, peaked at No.3 on the Billboard 200 and scored the top spot in 14 countries.

The band begin a huge world tour in Nice, France, on May 4, before passing through cities including Athens, Sofia, Bucharest, Istanbul, Budapest, Bratislava, London, Munich and Frankfurt. The tour wraps up in Minsk on July 29. 

Heaven, the lead single from Delta Machine, was released on February 1, 2013. Watch a live studio session below: