MOJO WORKING
OMD RETURN – BUT IS IT THEIR LAST STAND?
Synth you’ve been gone: (left) OMD’s Andy McCluskey with his trusty Korg;
Paul Humphreys at work in his studio in France.
IN ANDY McCLUSKEY’s Northern Electric studio – based at his home on the Wirral – there is Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s first, still-functional Korg M500 Micro Preset synth from 1979. “It sits on top of a chest of drawers,” says McCluskey, “reminding me of where I came from. When the band re-formed [in 2006] we bought another one to cannibalise for parts, but we forgot to tell each other we were bidding against each other on eBay for it…”
McCluskey and OMD partner Paul Humphreys, who works out of his Bleep Works set-up in the south of France, have got over greater hurdles during their 45-year-with-theodd-hiatus career in synth-pop. In fact, they shouldn’t be readying new album Bauhaus Staircase at all. “Myself and Paul had swore blind to each other that we were done after [warmly-received 2017 LP] The Punishment Of Luxury,” says McCluskey. “We wanted to have fun smelling the roses planted throughout our lives instead…” Then, in 2020, came the pandemic. Frustrated and with a newly boosted computer set-up ideal for remote working, McCluskey started working on songs. Over the next 12 months an album formed. “Covid made me rediscover the creative power of total bloody boredom,” he laughs. “It ever was that the bulk of the work comes from me – I’m a control freak – and once I’ve wrestled something into a final shape, Paul will give me things. There are 12 tracks on the album, I think seven or eight Paul has contributed to in terms of writing.”