Don’t call us a nostalgia band
OMD’s Andy McCluskey on why they’re still writing new songs 40 years after Enola Gay
ORCHESTRAL Manoeuvres in the Dark are one of the pillars of 80s synth pop.
But while most of the contemporaries’ Yahama DX7’s are gathering dust in their attics, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys are able to look forward and back.
Next Friday they celebrate the 40th anniversary of their anthem Enola Gay with a Hot Chip remix, while lockdown has seen Andy writing music for their 14th studio album, a followup to 2017’s The Punishment of Luxury which reached No4 in the UK charts.
Here Andy, 61, tells us about the past and the future of OMD.
Have you always been fascinated by history?
I’m a failed archaeologist. My career teacher took great delight it telling me I couldn’t do an archeology degree because I’d dropped Latin in the second year and, at the time, you needed a classical language. He’d been my Latin teacher, so this was a great revenge. Paul and I were a right pair of teen geeks. He had a model railway set and I collected Airfix aeroplanes and had them hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom. Being interested in World War II aeroplanes and the mortality of warfare brought me to Enola Gay. It’s inevitable. What made you write a song about the B29 Superfortress, which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II? The song wasn’t wholly antinuclear, it was exploring the moral dilemma of warfare. I don’t praise or cherish warfare but I’m fascinated by the moral dilemma. You are actively encouraged to do things at time of war you’d be arrested for at times of peace. Until he died, pilot Paul Tibbets was convinced he’d brought the war to an earlier end and saved millions of lives. I wrote to him but never received a reply.
To celebrate Enola Gay next Friday, there will be a digital release and a 12” coloured vinyl release with a Hot Chip remix as well as OMD’s extended remix. Are you fans of Hot Chip? They were targeted by us. We are fans and delighted by their remix. People get so vexed about remixes. A remix isn’t over-painting the original. The original is still there to enjoy. Enola Gay was the only single from Organisation, your second album released in 1980, which features the Marsco peak in the Isle of Skye. Why was that chosen? It was created by Peter Saville, who listened to the album and saw it as being quite dark, moody and melancholic and got this photograph by Richard Nutt. We thought it captured the mood of the album quite well. I don’t think we could ever do a gig there as it’s a bit far away for people to travel but next year we have two gigs in Scotland as part of the Architecture & More Tour in November at the O2 Academy in Glasgow and the Usher Hall in Edinburgh which is exciting.
How has lockdown been?
One of the few positives of Covid is, with no concerts, I’ve been so bored there’s going to be a new OMD album. It probably won’t land until 2022. Because next year, assuming everything gets back to normal at some point, we have a lot of festivals in the summer and then the Architecture & More tour, Australia and New Zealand in December and then back to UK in early 2022. You caught Covid, how are you now? I was achy and tired for about
three weeks after final symptoms. I had to take nana naps in the afternoon. But maybe that’s because I’m old.
Is it better as a band who have been going since 1978 to have new music?
I wouldn’t criticise bands who choose to just celebrate their catalogue. But we are conceited enough to think we can still write great songs. We are not a nostalgia band, we are a functioning band who have hit albums. We are in the beautiful position of creating new music and being able to celebrate what we’ve done in the past.
How have you kept your relationship with Paul going?
We’ve known each other for 53 years. We are like brothers. We squabble but respect each other and our different personalities and musical sensibilities gets the best of both of us.
OMD’s 40th anniversary release of Enola Gay is out next Friday. The Architecture & More 2021 tour starts at Glasgow’s O2 Academy on Nov 1 and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall Nov 2.