Exclusive interview with Andy McCluskey on the release of ‘English Electric’
Interview : Ben Hogwood
OMD singer Andy McCluskey is kicking off the first interview of his day at 9:30am, an hour which he fully acknowledges is “shockingly un-rock ‘n’ roll. We tend to go to bed early these days, and get up early. Tomorrow we’ve got to be in the BBC at 4:50 for a sound check!”
McCluskey admits he’s on his fifth scarf of the winter, but then he has a set of distinctive vocal chords to protect – strains that can be heard on another new OMD album. 2010 saw them return from the wilderness with ‘History Of Modern’, and it turns out they liked being back so much they’d write another – and this year they have the release of ‘English Electric’ to celebrate. “I think perhaps people thought we’d squeeze an album out and go away again”, says Andy, “but no such luck. In true OMD style, it’s accidental and escalated. We dared to make a new album, and now look at it!”
Is it far-fetched, I ask him, to equate the positive mood of ‘English Electric’ with the imminent arrival of Spring in the UK at last? “That’s interesting…” he ponders. “I think there’s a lot of energy which makes it sound positive. People have said we sound young, although I must say that lyrically it’s not particularly positive!”
I suggest that the first single ‘Metroland’ reflects the warmth of the new record. “Will you have a word with Radio 2 then?!” he asks. “They refused to play it because it’s not poppy enough, but in a way I find that reassuring, because people are more conservative than ever now. The future has a banjo these days it seems!”
The ‘c’ word gets used a lot in the course of this interview. “Everything has become very conservative rather than comfortable. National radio stations are spending people’s money, and record companies have become incredibly conservative because they’re frightened of losing money. OMD would never get signed these days!”
Does that give them a sense of artistic freedom, because they don’t need to ‘make it’ anymore? “In many ways you’re absolutely right. We don’t expect to sell or get good reviews and we don’t give a shit, frankly, just like in the early days, which we did without making anybody’s rules. We got it right for the first three albums, but then we fell off the edge of a cliff for the fourth. We’re not multi-millionaires but we’re OK. It sounds pretentious and crazy, but we’ve gone back to making our art.”
Speaking of art, what of the striking cover? It’s a throwback to Factory days, for sure. “I think we’ve always seen the cover artwork as the first piece you’d encounter”, says McCluskey, “it sets up the integration with the music and the listener. Peter Saville (who did a lot of the Factory sleeves) was more of an executive this time though, working with Tom Skipp who did the main piece.”
And what of the title of the album, ‘English Electric’ – does it reflect a national pride? “I’m actually not at all nationalistic, so I don’t think of myself as English”, he says. “There is lots of Irish and Scottish in my distant family. I dislike nationalism as much as religion; and I don’t think we should find reasons to be different. We are from England, but what is it to be English? We’re one of the most mongrel nations on the planet! I find it hilarious that the UKIP leader is led by someone who has the surname of Farage! English Electric is more to do with a form of company name than the country itself.”
Is he aware of the Factory history when writing with OMD, or does the music look forward much more? “We certainly tried to consciously tap into our mentality of when we were young with this record,” he says a little evasively. “In the thirty years since Dazzle Ships we abandoned our ways of writing songs. We got consciously more conventional, so if we got back together the way was to unlearn some of the craftsmanship and musicality. I want to shake off the things I’ve learned; I never wanted to be a musician in any case!”
And are they all getting on this time around? “It’s great fun actually. Paul (Humphreys) and I have known each other since primary school, and Malcolm (Holmes) and Martin (Cooper) lived just a few yards down the road. It’s a weird life, you have experiences that nobody else has, and you live in a bubble-like existence, and the only guys who relate to that are the ones you’re with. The jokes are as bad as ever, but no-one’s got anything to prove this time.”
That doesn’t mean they have a casual attitude to the music though, for the final sounds are achieved through a lot of care. “It’s something that you do have to spend a lot of time on”, he confirms. “We use a lot of soft synth plug-ins this time, and the sounds are a lot like analogue, but we carried those heavy buggers around with us for years so it was good to get away from that! You have to be careful though not to use other people’s plug-ins. You have to be a ruthless editor, too. Just because you’ve got 200 channels definitely doesn’t mean that you should use them all!”
What are the aspirations for OMD now that the comeback has been achieved and cemented? “We have absolutely no ambitions”, he says, “We take everything as it comes. Ambitions led us in to a cul-de-sac of boring music, so our ambition now is to cast all that aside. This year we’ve screwed up a bit on the schedule though. I love talking to people but we’ve got absolutely no time! We’re already talking about how we’re not sure we want to do anything like this again. We don’t follow the rules. It’s a shame but it’s a symptom of the economic crisis. The music industry is fiddling as Rome burns! We’re experimenting with this one with BMG Rights Publishing, who do bespoke agreements for individual albums. For certain bands it might work. I would hate to be a young band in this day and age!”
