In a rare and intimate conversation, I had the privilege of sitting down with Andy McCluskey, the visionary frontman of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), ahead of their highly anticipated performance at the Cruel World Festival.
With a career spanning over four decades, McCluskey opened up about his enduring partnership with co-founder Paul Humphreys, the highs, lows, and unbreakable bond that has defined OMD’s legacy, their pioneering synth-pop roots, and the timeless allure of vinyl and how it continues to shape their artistry.
The fourth annual Cruel World Festival has an incredible lineup of iconic artists. How does it feel to be part of such an event, and what does it mean for OMD to perform alongside other legends from that incredible era?
We are really, really excited and happy to be doing this. We’ve talked to Cruel World on a couple of occasions and we’ve never managed to actually get the thing sorted out. We’re thrilled to be on the bill with such an incredible and diverse lineup.
Are there any bands on the bill you’re excited to play alongside?
We’re excited obviously to be on the same bill as our old friends New Order because we remember them as Joy Division back in 1979 when we were on Factory. I can remember seeing Devo when they played their first ever concert at Eric’s Club in Liverpool, they were amazing and I have not seem them live since. Fun fact—their first album, Q. Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, is still one of my most played records. And the list just goes on and on and on. From our era, you’ve got Madness and you’ve got Blancmange and you’ve got Midge Ure and The Go Go’s. Unbelievable.
When preparing for a festival like Cruel World, how do you approach crafting a setlist that satisfies both lifelong fans and newer listeners who might be seeing you for the very first time?
It can be difficult, because we normally play our headlining sets for over an hour and a half. During those shows, we take the audience on a journey through our classics as well as some deep dives into our catalog—things that the hardcore fans are going to want to hear. But as you know, if you’re lucky enough to have had a handful of hits, you really need to play them. Because, when I go and see bands I like, I want to hear their hits. A few deep cuts are fine, but I am truly there to hear the hits.
So, we’ll be playing pretty much that type of set that people will know. I think when you go to a festival like Cruel World, you just get out there and basically hit people between the eyes with your best shots. And if they want to hear OMD’s deeper cuts, they’ll come and see us at one of our headlining gigs when we’ve got more time to explore that history.
The last time I saw you live it was at Darker Waves in Huntington Beach, and you absolutely crushed your set. However, I thought you were misplaced in the lineup and should have been one of the top acts of the day based on your incredible performance. Any thoughts as to why you ended up where you did on that bill?
To be honest, we were not happy with Darker Waves. We thought we should have been higher up the bill. Their reasoning apparently was they wanted to get people in early by letting people know that we were going to be on in the middle of the afternoon. The plus side was that we basically had the entire beach watching us because we were the biggest artists on the stage at that time. The negative side obviously was that we weren’t near the top where we felt we should be.
The resurgence of vinyl has created a renewed appreciation for music as a tactile, intentional experience. What are your thoughts on vinyl’s comeback?
OMD is still old school in the sense that when we put together a running order for an album, we would always think about the A side and the B side. And you know what, an awful lot of people buy our records on vinyl—our fans love it. But back in the day, they were making very poor, very thin, flimsy vinyl that wasn’t very well cut and the sound wasn’t that great. Now we’re in an era where the vinyl has been cut at 50% the speed, giving you a much better sound. You get a deeper cut, it’s fatter, it’s more bass heavy.
So, in that respect, it’s great that vinyl has made a comeback and they’re treating it with a certain dignity now that it deserves. Of course, when CDs initially came out, vinyl was cheaper. Now, nobody buys CDs and people who want the vinyl will pay considerably more for it. As a result, OMD creates special edition vinyl for the collectors which are very often limited edition packages. In fact, one of the craziest things we’ve learned over the years is that some people will keep on copy in the shrink wrap and then they’ll buy another copy to actually take out and play. It’s wild.
Are there any OMD albums or singles that you feel resonate particularly well in the vinyl format due to their sound or conceptual design?
If you’re talking about conceptual design, absolutely. Ever since our first record on Factory, we have been blessed to work with Peter Saville designing our sleeves—a true legend within the industry. Peter did some incredible sleeves for us, the first being our initial self-titled album released in February 1980. It had a die cut sleeve. At least 50% of the people who bought that album bought it for the sleeve alone because it was truly unbelievable. It was so visual, it had cutouts, and it was 3D.
Were there any drawbacks to the packaging being so cutting edge at that time?
Yes. The packaging deduction murdered us. We lost so many royalties from the packaging deduction because record companies loved it when you did something different because they’d package deduct whether that’s actually what it cost to do or not.
Any other benefits to early vinyl that most fans might not realize?
One of the other things we liked about creating a 10-inch or 12-inch extended mix album was that you could spread it over a wide space. We could cut it deep and it would sound really good. I used to love going into the cutting room because you could say to the engineer, “I want you to scratch this on the runoff in the middle.” And it was fun to add cheeky messages from the band on that runoff.
What are your thoughts on the analog sound of vinyl vs. current digital formats available to us today?
Early digital was a bit like the emperor’s new clothes. People would excitedly say, “Oh, there’s no tape hiss.” But the end result was a sound quality that was seemingly letterboxed. It didn’t really have the top end, a bottom end, and the overall result typically sounded metallic and tinny. At the end of the day, it really does not get much better than analog tape and vinyl. Valve amplifiers sound better than digital ones, and this will always be the case.
Your musical journey with lifelong friend and OMD co-founder Paul Humphreys spans over four decades. What do you think is the key to your creative partnership, and how has it evolved over the years?
I think we were very, very fortunate to have grown up knowing each other since the age of seven. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and strange enough, both of us were self-taught musicians who were quite shy when we were younger—going into a room full of really good musicians and to try to jam with them was out of the question.
Both Paul and I had to learn to play really simplistically. The first song we ever wrote once we got keyboards was “Electricity.” We actually learned to play writing songs. So, it was just fortunate that the two of us lived in the same suburb of Liverpool on the other side of the river and that we’d known each other since we were seven.
Did you think that OMD would be successful at that time?
We were probably the least likely guys to be in a band that would be successful, but we had the freedom to do exactly what we wanted because there was nobody else in our space. There were no drummers complaining that they wanted two bass drums and more cymbals. There was no lead guitarist who wanted to drown everybody out.
And honestly, we’re very different people. I’m kind of the very artsy guy who’s a bit wild and has crazy ideas. Paul is more technical and specific, and he would hone my crazy ideas into something that sounded more musical. When we write together on Pro Tools, he will send me some ideas, and I would brutally cut them together. Then, he would take back my changes and fix them again. Paul calls me the butcher, and I call him the surgeon. But it’s a combination that works brilliantly. And we’re blessed that we can still write songs together.
I recently went to a Howard Jones/ABC show where Richard Blade opened the evening with an amazing history of New Wave music. OMD was mentioned. How did he impact OMD and your career?
I’ve known Richard Blade for a long, long time from his days back on 106.7 KROQ. When we first starting releasing records in America, we were with Epic. They didn’t really want us and probably could give a shit about our distribution in America. We were not getting promoted and we were not getting played on the radio.
We were having hits all over Europe, but the only stations that played us in America were stations like KROQ and university college radio in general. To have somebody like Richard from way back championing us from the beginning was life changing. So, we’ve always been indebted to him.
Can you share a specific moment in your career that made you realize the lasting impact OMD would have on the music world at large?
One of the most amazing things was getting to know Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode/Yazoo/Erasure fame. Early on, the guys who would ultimately become Depeche Mode were all in a club in Basildon where the DJ played “Electricity.” Vince told them that he wanted to do something similar, “Get rid of the guitars, we need to do that.” He actually said that Depeche Mode started because they heard “Electricity,” which is truly incredible.
And people use nice words like influential and iconic, and all of those compliments are lovely to hear. More important are when fans say that you’ve made a difference to them or you’ve changed their lives. That is the ultimate amazing feeling and a true blessing.
Looking back, what bands or musicians would you say influenced you down your incredible musical journey?
As you know, I was shy, very spiky and opinionated teenager. I wanted something different. I wanted something special. I wanted something that was not a rock and roll cliche, but I didn’t know what it was. And then one day in 1975, I heard “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk for the very first time and that changed my life. I went out and I bought the album and then I got into them. Then I bought their other albums and I got into other German music as well.
By my mid-teens, I could count the people who I liked on one hand: Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Roxy Music/Brian Eno, David Bowie, and The Velvet Underground. So those were the bands I liked, and frankly, thought everything else was shit. But you have to be that opinionated to want to do your own thing. And at that time, I honestly never thought that the music that Paul and I were making was going to ever, ever get released, let alone be successful and an influence on other people.
Finally, considering your legendary four+ decade career in music with OMD, what do you feel will be your lasting legacy on the music industry?
I suppose if I were to generalize, OMD was influenced by alternative music. We wanted to do something alternative but with synthesizers because we did not want to repeat the standard rock and roll cliche. We wrote songs together for 2 ½ to 3 years before we actually dared to form OMD. Paul and I started making music together when I was 16 and Paul 15.
So, when we played Eric’s for the first time, I was 19 and he was 18, it was truly just a dare at that time. And even our best friends were like, “What the fuck are you doing?” We heard that what we were making wasn’t music—it was not Pink Floyd or Genesis, or anything virtuoso for that matter. It wasn’t complicated or deep, but plinky, plonky one finger shit. And wouldn’t you know, 18 months after playing our first gig, electronic music had become the new pop.
At that time, it was really us and The Human League, and within a few years electronic pop music was the international genre of hit music. And then everybody jumped on the bandwagon and killed it. But yes, it was our crazy idea when we were teens to just go out and do what we wanted to do. We didn’t think this would ultimately be a recipe for global domination or to change the music world. We were just a couple of kids with a tape recorder doing Kraftwerk and Neu! influenced music in a punk club in Liverpool.
If someone asked us if we were going to make the whole music scene change in the next two, three, four years, we would have said no. Why, because everybody hated our music and we had a stupid name for the band. If you’d wanted to change the world in 1977, you’d have still been a punk band because that was still fairly fresh at the time. That was not us.
Ultimately, OMD was just our mad idea to do our own thing. We really believed we weren’t going to make any money and really thought we would be done after one gig. So, Paul and I were at the forefront of something that truly changed the world and that to itself is truly amazing. I guess that is our lasting legacy.
