ANDY MCCLUSKEY
OMD mainstay on the electro duo’s latest offering
Tell us a bit about your latest album.
Bauhaus Staircase references the German school of architecture and design of 1919-33 and is a metaphor for the power of art to feed our souls during difficult times.
If you could re-visit any of your albums, what’d you change?
I’d seriously reduce the length of Hard Day on Junk Culture. It’s at least 90 seconds too long. Our first album was recorded in two weeks in our own studio and it still bugs me [laughs].
I’ve often wanted to remix it.
Is there anything still unissued?
Every time that we believe that we’ve exhausted the archive, we find more unreleased tracks. In the early days, we wrote onto tape, so there are old multitrack masters with names of demos that we can’t even remember. Every tape has to be ‘baked’ to preserve the magnetic information, as the tapes from the 70s and 80s tend to shed their oxide.
What was your favourite record shop when you started out?
Every Saturday, I headed to Liverpool Probe Records with my paper round money. The people there were even cooler than the records and would give you withering looks and sarcastic comments if they didn’t approve of your intended purchase. Pete Burns worked there. Need I say more? I bought all my German import albums there: Kraftwerk, Neu!, LA Dusseldorf, Can, Faust,
Cluster, Harmonia.
What were your first records?
Single, Harry Nilsson’s Without You. Album, David Bowie Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars, on my mother’s old mono Dansette record-player. One of the reasons that Paul Humphreys [co-founder of OMD] and I became friends was that he was studying Electronics and built himself a stereo. I’d go to Paul’s house on Saturday afternoon and listen to records loud.
What’s the last album that you bought?
Walt Disco Unlearning. They’re supporting us on tour this year. Fabulous
Glasgow glam.
What record was most influential on your style? Kraftwerk Autobahn. I heard it on the radio in summer 1975, age 16.
I saw them at Liverpool Empire that 11 September, and it was the first day of the rest of my life. We also were heavily influenced by Neu!, LA Dusseldorf and Brian Eno’s early solo work.
Have you kept studio notebooks? Absolutely. Every OMD album has a ring-binder of ideas, lyrics, title notes and crazy thoughts. When I wanted to write a song about a particular subject, I’d go to the library, grab some books, and make notes, like
I was planning to write a thesis! What’s your most prized music item?
My 1974 Fender Jazz bass, played on Electricity, Enola Gay, Messages, Souvenir, Joan Of Arc. My first bass, which was for my 16th birthday – a left-handed Wilson Rapier – got nicked at our first gig, at London Acklam Hall, with Joy Division.
What record are you looking for? Our first Electricity single on
Factory.
What backstage incident makes you laugh most?
Hammersmith Odeon, 1983. Sat on the loo, the window above my head was slightly ajar and a voice outside called, “Andy, would you mind signing this?” An OMD album sleeve and a pen came through. I signed it! [laughs].
With whom would you most like to record?
ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. They told me that they stole my bass moves for their videos!
Was there a lifechanging Sliding Doors moment at some point in your career?
Yes, indeed! We met Tony Wilson’s wife, Lindsay Reade, a few years ago, and she said that she got into the car with Tony once and asked him why there was a shopping bag full of cassettes in the passenger footwell? He replied that it was rejected bands who were trying to get onto his Granada Reports TV show or onto his new record label, and it was going to the tip. She reached into it and exclaimed, “That’s a weird name, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark!” She played the cassette on the car stereo, and it had Electricity on it. Tony said that we’d played the Factory Club a month earlier and that he didn’t like us. Lindsay told him that the song was a hit and that he should sign us. He grudgingly agreed to and that’s how we got a record deal!
Which of your former homes should have a blue plaque?
Paul Humphreys’ mother’s house in Meols, the Wirral. The back room is where Electricity,
Messages and Enola Gay were written.
Dying peacefully on your deathbed, what’d you like to hear?
Joy Division, Atmosphere.
“THERE ARE MULTI-TRACK DEMOS THAT WE CANNOT REMEMBER”
OMD Bauhaus Staircase CD, LP, yellow, red LPS, cassette, 2CD are out via omd.uk.com.