by Mark Kadzielawa

Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark (or OMD for short) is one of the pioneering British synthesizer new wave bands of the early 80s. The band began as an experimental duo, strongly influenced by Germany's Kraftwerk. Singer/bass player, Andy McCluskey, and keyboardist/vocalist, Paul Humphreys formed OMD back in 1978. By 1980, drummer, Malcolm Holmes, and keyboardist/saxophonist, Martin Cooper, joined OMD. This particular line up lasted nearly a decade, and produced many great records.

Apart from the experimental, almost cold wave sounding material, OMD had a gift to write very catchy songs. The band's pop side made the charts swell on numerous occasions. As the hits began to follow, the profile of the band grew and grew. OMD quickly made their name on both sides of the Atlantic, and continued to be incredibly successful and influential throughout the 80s. In 1989, Humphreys quit OMD, and was followed by Holmes and Cooper. The three ex-OMD members eventually regrouped as The Listening Pool, and released one record. McCluskey with the aid of various side players soldiered on as OMD, and released a couple more records before disbanding the group in 1996.

McCluskey, Humphreys, Holmes, and Cooper, came back as OMD in 2007. The band began a reunion tour in their native Britain playing their "Architecture and Morality" album in it's entirety. The buzz quickly spread through the rest of the continent, and the band was once again in demand, drawing large crowds. "History of Modern" was released in late 2010, to great reception, and even more sold out tours. With a hot new album under their belt, OMD is back in a big way. Currently regaining its ground in America, OMD is selling out shows left and right.

Paul Humphreys is quite excited about the turn of the events in the last four years. He appears to be calm but enthusiastic about the new album, tour, and the current state of affairs. Humphreys is relaxed, as he smokes another cigarette, chats the about the past, and already hinting about the future.

What events lead to an OMD reunion?
Paul Humphreys: There was a serious of events. Andy and I never fell out, we’ve always kept in touch, and I remember back in 2000, I went back to see him in Liverpool. I was doing a lot of things at that time, but I popped in to see him, and I suggested that maybe the climate is changing for us to do something again. The reason why we stopped making electronic music together in the 90s was because the musical climate was changing. When we first started out, we saw electronic music as the future, and then we got to the 90s, and even the late 80s turning into the 90s, electronic music was going into the past. The future at that time seemed to be like Britpop, and this sort of unibrow- Mancunian music like Oasis and stuff. The future was like the 60s again, and it was sort of confusing. There wasn’t really the space to do OMD, but the climate was changing again into 2000s. We sort of sensed the people were getting bored with that, and they wanted something with a little bit more thought.
And look what happened since you’ve reunited. We get band like Ultravox and Blancmange coming back. OMD might have influenced these bands to reunite as well.
Perhaps we did. It’s been interesting really because there is been a lot of kids to our shows, and a lot of young bands who sort of rejected the rock dinosaur thing to do something slightly more intellectual, and slightly more interesting musically. And they kind of looked back in our area, bands like us, Human League, and Kraftwerk even. And so many bands had been citing OMD as an influence to their music, which is very flattering to us. But it also created a new climate where we can exist again.
When you reunited, it wasn’t only you and Andy, you brought back Martin and Malcolm. How important was it to have the original band together?
Well, it was really important because we knew the prime focus of OMD was to play live. We had a real chemistry together, we did so many shows together. We’re all school friends, we’ve always been mates since school. When Andy and I decided to do OMD again, our first thought was to give Martin and Malcolm a call. They were a huge part of our life, sound, and chemistry.
Judging from the live DVD (OMD Live-Architecture & Morality & More) from the reunion tour, the public was more than ready to see and hear OMD again. Were you surprised by the reception?
Totally surprised. I mean, when Andy and I decided we were gonna do it. We thought, lets sort of dip our toes in the water, and not try to overdo it. Let’s see what the interest is, if any. We didn’t know if there’ll be any interest in OMD. So we put nine shows in the UK on sale, just to see what would happen. And they sold out in like a day or two. So, we put out few more shows, and those sold out too. We ended up doing forty shows in the UK. We were like, "hold on a minute, this is really working." So, we’ve toured through Europe, and we've not looked back since really.
I was bit jealous seeing all of those UK and European dates, and nothing here in America.
Well, we're back, we're here. We're really excited to be back in America. We've selling out shows on this tour, people really want to see us. This is great considering that we've had a hard time getting promoters to put up the money. So Andy and I just said "why don't we put up the money then." We booked the shows, and basically did it ourselves.
When you came back on the live circuit, you treated the fans to "Architecture & Morality" in its entirety. Why did you pick that particular record to perform live?
Well, I think it was suggested to us to legitimize us going out on the road, rather than just do kind of collection of our greatest hits. We wanted to do something more interesting. "Architecture & Morality" was mine and Andy's personal favorite of all the albums we've done. There were songs on that album that never been played live. So, we thought it would be an interesting idea to just walk on stage, play the entire album, and then after that play all the hits, and see how that worked. And the crowd just loved it.
Was writing a new record something you planned upon reforming, or something that resulted after a couple of successful tours?
It just seemed like a natural next step really. Having sort of dipped our toes in the water to see what the live thing was like, and that was incredibly successful. But also, when we were on that first reunion tour Andy and I started hatching some ideas on the bus.



Were there any existing ideas already? I mean even though you didn't release any records, I assumed both of you kept on being creative through the years.
Well, that's the thing. I think that's what we had to our advantage, really. We stopped writing in the voice of OMD, but we'd still been writing separately for many different projects. We never really stopped writing. So, we kind of hadn't got out of the swing of writing, and forgotten how to write songs. So, it was just a natural thing for us to go back in the studio, and write at ease.
"History of Modern" has the freshness of a new band, really. You know, when you have all the time in the world to write, and are not pressured by any labels or deadlines.
Well, we did make the time. We took two years to write the album, which wasn't the luxury we had in the later part of the 80s. Which kind of drove Andy and I into knots. We've toured for nine months, and then we get home completely exhausted, and the record company would say "write!" "You got three months to write the next album." And we were like "we haven't even had a holiday." And so the first ten ideas Andy and I had coming to us, had to be the album. The quality control had gone out of the window. We did some good things in that period, but when we did the first four albums, we've had as much time as we wanted. We were in total control of those four albums. I think, all the way up to "Dazzle Ships," they were albums where we had plenty to say.
It's funny you've mentioned the first four records. Just this morning I've listened to them, and one impression kept coming back at me continuously. OMD was not afraid to take plenty of right and left turns at that time.
That's right. I think...."Dazzle Ships" is a beautiful album. Andy and I are really proud of that record, but commercially it was a disaster. We've just come from selling four/five million of 'Architecture & Morality" albums to selling a couple of hundred thousand of "Dazzle Ships." And the record company freaked! We were kind of panicky because we've had all these financial commitments. All of a sudden we've bought houses, and we've had mortgages, and we were not making a great deal of money out of those early records up until little bit later. There were all these new financial pressures, and so we decided that we had play safe with "Junk Culture," and the record label was telling us that we needed to write three hit singles. So, we went incredibly commercial to try to find three hit singles.



You're right, "Locomotion" and "Tesla Girls" were very commercial songs, good but commercial, very much aimed at the radio.
Well crafted songs, but commercial. I mean there was always a pop side to OMD, but we've always had a balance to do some really odd things, and pushing the boundaries. We've always wanted to push the boundaries as much as we could, but we felt we stopped at that time.
"History of Modern" is a very clever album because it draws from all phases of OMD. A lot of it is coded, and you may not get it upon first few listens, but it's all there. Was that done intentional, or was it just the way OMD naturally works?
It's coded, exactly. It was done intentionally. When Andy and I started talking about it, we were like "what should OMD sound like in 2011?" And we came to the conclusion that we should sound like OMD. What we did was, we analyzed what we liked about OMD. The sound pellets, because we've used many different kinds of sounds over the years in OMD. And so we kind of restricted our sound to pellets of the colors that we would use to make this record to specific areas of our career.
The creative process of making a record, can be very tense. The tension can be very enriching or it could be very destructive. Which of the two did you experience?
Yeah, we've got both in OMD (laughter.) In OMD there has always been a bit of a tension because Andy and I are two completely different people, but we've always seen it as a healthy thing. Because we approach things from different areas, the sum of the parts are better than the individual bits if you know what I mean. We both bring something completely radically different to the table. Sometimes we clash over it for little while, but then we usually sit and say "you know what, you were right on that." Just because we bring something radically different, that may as well be the OMD sound. Although with the new album, we were remarkably in agreement with most of the stuff we did. The difficulty we've had was that we had a geographical problem. I live in London, Andy lives in Liverpool. We're 250 miles apart, so we can't just be together when we want to. He's got a great studio in Liverpool, and I've got a great studio in London, we thought we've got all the same equipment, we thought, why don't we be very modern and send files to each other. We've realized we wrote three songs in a year that way, and that was never the way OMD worked. Particularly, when we did the first four albums, we've had our own studio in Liverpool, and we used to just go in there in the morning. We used to commute, like going to work, and we used to walk in there in the morning, throw some ideas, and we used to bounce them back and forth until something good happened. You can't do that via the Internet. Here is what we've decided. Andy has younger kids, and my kids are already in the university, so I'm a bit more free. Andy'sn still got young kids in school, so I said "I'll come to you." I went there for five days a week, and all of a sudden the album started to come together quickly.

In "History of Modern (part 2)" you sing about making a mistake of breaking one's own rules. Did OMD ever break any of their own rules or norms?
We've always been breaking our own rules. "Dazzle Ships" was a hugely broken rule, because the rule after "Architecture & Morality" should've been: make "Architecture and Morality" number 2, and sell a bazillion records. That should've been the rule, but Andy and I broke that. We were like "fuck it, we've done Architecture & Morality already, let's go over there!" Let's try this, and see what it brings to us. So we went all kind of industrial and political. We were looking to the East actually. It was at the height of the Cold War. And for us on the western side of the Iron Curtain, it was fascinating what was going on the other side, because we didn't hear too much about it. So, we used all these short wave radios to find out.
When it comes to vocals, how you decide who gets to sing what?
Well, Andy is the lead singer. I'm a reluctant singer really. The only time I've sung OMD songs was when Andy would be taking a holiday when I haven't, and I get really impatient. And I go "I'm not gonna wait until he comes back, I'm gonna sing it myself." And then Andy comes back, and says "I really like that." And I go "now you go and sing it," and he goes "I like it just how it is." So all the songs that I ended up singing happened because I was too impatient to wait for Andy to sing them.
I'm quite intrigued how you combined Aretha Franklin's vocals and OMD sound on "Save Me," How did that come about?
That was Andy's idea actually. He was just messing around in the studio. There was a period of time where mashups were really hip to do. Just to try to take two completely different songs and try to merge them. He was just experimenting in the studio, and I think he just accidently found the track "Save Me." We've always been big fans of Aretha Franklin anyway. I mean, what a voice.
Would you say you are satisfied with how "History of modern" turned out?
Well, you're never satisfied. Because if you are totally satisfied, you don't make another record. It kind of spurs you to do better all the time. Andy and I are total perfectionists, but that keeps us working because we always want to do better. We always want to write a better songs, we always want to make a better album than the last one we've done.

Let's hope there'll be more records to come.
There will be. There is definitely going to be another OMD album because we've already got a couple of songs for it. We even have the album title.
Your CD booklet lists what is considered modern, and what is questioned as modern. Controversial rock band, Oasis, had their modern approach questioned. Have the Gallagher brothers gotten the wind of it yet? And if so, was OMD exposed to any verbal lashing yet?
(laughter....) There hasn’t yet, but I’m still waiting for it. You’re the first person to mention it actually. It’s really funny. You’re the first journalist to mention it, which I find amazing really. We put that in there to be provocative to see what happens. These are the little details the artist has bothered to put in there for other people to pick up on. And you expect the journalists to do it. We keep expecting something to happen though, or Liam coming into the room and giving it to us (continuous laughter.)
So if something like that happens, I suppose I’m to take the blame for opening the can of worms, right?
That’s right (more healthy laughter on both sides follows.)
You left OMD back in 1989, but Andy kept the band going until 1996. While you were gone, did you keep up with what Andy did as OMD?
Yeah, OMD was like my baby as well as Andy’s. We created this monster together, so I kept my eye on it. But, I think Andy did a pretty good job on it really.
In fact, you were involved in some song writing on OMD’s last original studio record “Universal.”
I did. I wrote a couple of tracks with Andy. You see, we never really fell out, I just needed a break from OMD. We were in it from kids, from school. And all of a sudden I found myself in it in my 30s, without a life. I had a wife that I’d hardly seen. I saw Andy far more than I saw my wife. He was my wife really. I wanted to start a family. I wanted to just live a bit. And I think we’d run out of ideas. Because we ceased to live in a way, we were just this band that sort of lived on the bus, saw backstage areas, travelled on airplanes. We’d run out of things to say and do.
It’s lonely on the top, isn’t it?
Yeah, it really was. So, I wanted a change of life. We were fortunate enough where I could afford to do it. I didn’t need to continue OMD just for the money.
As you were away from the band, you had a very interesting project called The Listening Pool. It was a band that not only included you, but Martin and Malcolm from OMD. You released one album, which is now very hard to find. Will there be a re-release in the near future?
We were talking about this recently. We might re-release it soon actually.
There were some songs you did for the second album, but that album never really materialized, right?
Yeah, it never materialized. Martin, Malcolm, and I, we set up a label in Liverpool to help local bands, and to launch that label we’ve decided to do an album. I mean I didn’t leave OMD to do The Listening Pool. It was just a collection of songs we’d written over the period of time. And we thought, we’d just use that to launch our label, Telegraph Records really.
So when it comes to OMD, is the sky still the limit?
It is still the limit. Absolutely. One thing about Andy and I, is that we’re very driven. We’re very ambitious, and I think it’s good to have one or two people in the band that are incredibly ambitious. We just keep pushing ourselves to try to do better really, and I think that’s why we’re still selling out venues around the world 33 years after the band started.

Links:
www.omd.uk.com