THE END OF AN ERA!!!
This is the story of the OMD breakup as told by Paul and Andy in an interview they did for the OMD fan club newsheet in 1990!!!
Andy:
There were several reasons. I think a lot of it was prompted by being short of money because the 'Dazzleships' and 'Junk Culture' Albums didn't sell very well and so we were in debt to the record Company and, at the same time, trying to break America. Every record we sold had to pay back the debt and I think after three years of trying to get out of the trap and beginning to succeed, it was just too Little too late. I think eventually Mal and Martin got fed up and felt as if they should have more to show for being in a successful Band for eight or nine years. I understand that. I think they wanted to be involved in the decision making, song-writing and distribution of the money and I wasn't prepared to accept that and Paul was. In August '88, we took a little time off and we started to write separately because we already had problems. 'Dreaming' had been released. We weren't writing well at Paul's place so we started to write separately with a view to coming together again as OMD and start recording. Paul's Studio was a great facility, but ultimately it was a problem for us, because it meant, if I wanted to do anything, I had to go to Paul's house, which meant I was frustrated. I couldn't do any of my ideas without Paul being there. I felt that a lot of what OMD was about was me having ideas. nine out of ten of which were stupid and didn't work, but occasionally I'd have a flash of something weird that worked, and I didn't get the chance to do it. Ultimately, I think Paul and I were growing away from each other. We had different opinions about music. We had different opinions about people we wanted to work with, and t!~e way in which we wanted to work, I and the management ana tne recora Company all felt we'd worked so hard, probably too hard too quickly on 'The Pacific Age' to try and get OMD solvent to break America, that it was the wrong time to start doing solo records. That's why I didn't want Paul, Malcolm and Martin to do a Project together. It was too late to make a compromise. By then, their music and my music were radically different because I was then just learning new rhythm styles and they probably saw me way out on a limb and hated what I'd done. I didn't like the style of their songs and I didn't think they were very good. I just thought if these songs had to be on the Album, and my songs had to be done their way, it would just be the end of OMD. This was a Band that had been together for ten years. Paul and I had been writing since we were sixteen. It took something really strong to want to pack it in. The one thing this squabbling has done is to allow me the luxury of time to collect songs and, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best collection of songs I've put on record for years.
Paul:
Well, I felt OMD was in a rut. Musically, it had become predictable and you needed more stimulus. We got fed up of not being proud of what we were doing or responsible for what we were doing. One of the many reasons we split up was that Andy tends to want an instant result. Nothing could be sat upon and developed. Andy always said, 'Subtlety is the art of not coming to the point' but to me subtlety is the art of music and the ultimate subtlety gives music a lot of character so I've always felt it's really important to achieve that. If you can explain music, there's no point in making it. Andy wanted to go on with me sitting at the keyboards playing loads of parts and he was picking out what he liked but it was getting to the stage that what he picked out, I liked too. I could really pick it out myself. I was always sitting behind at night and developing my own chord sequences. Andy's great strength in his lyrics and vocal tunes. He had really interesting lyrics and I really like them, so the combination of his words on top of my chords and backing tracks made OMD, and that was in the good days of OMD, but in the end, I didn't like what he was saying in his lyrics any more. What he was contributing, I wasn't liking. I wanted to develop the music further than I was able to. I was finding it very restricting. It wasn't a case of Mal and Martin suddenly pushing themselves. They were writing songs anyway. I couldn't write with Andy. We were all unhappy with OMD. Mal and Mart didn't want to become big front men overnight but they definitely didn't want to carry on as things were, so the only way an OMD Album could l~appen was to take their feelings seriously.
Andy:
Basically, we've both been doing the same thing - writing songs and preparing to make records, but, for the first time in ten years, independent of each other. I've been working in a rehearsal Studio in Liverpool on my own and also with two guys, Lloyd and Stewart, who are in a Band called 'Raw' and it's been quite good because I've been helping them write some of their songs and they've been writing some of my rhythm tracks. They've given me a lot of modern groove which is what I wanted. My way of doing drums and bass lines from a few years ago sounds very old-fashioned. It just sounds wrong these days, so I've had to teach myself to arrange new drum patterns but the rhythm sections then sound different. They sound new, but the melodies and the vocals and the other instruments actually sound older than I or Orchestral Manoeuvres have sounded for awhile. I think of it as a sort of modern 'Architecture and Morality', my stuff, because there's a lot of emotion, a lot of big choirs but the rhythms are modern dance rhythms so I hope it's going to work as a good combination. There's nothing you could dislike. There are some typical McCluskey thrash pop songs like 'Dreaming' and 'Enola Gay' with melodies and fast drums but that's OMD as well. The only complaint the fans could have is that it's not radical enough for them. It costs so much to be in a Band and make a record. The hard core bought 'Dazzleships' and 'Junk Culture' and we nearly went bankrupt! OMD has to sell as many as 'Architecture and Morality' and 'The Best of OMD' did, to keep its head above water. I believe I'm going to make a record which will sell, and, if it doesn't, I've given it my best shot.
Andy:
I'm starting recording in the middle of February down in London with a Producer called Andy Richards. We're just going to do a couple of tracks to see if we get on with each other. If we can, we'll do the whole Album through March, April, May. I'll probably wait until the beginning of September for the release with obviously, a single in advance. I might release a single in the late spring just to get the ball rolling early because I've got a couple of tracks which I think are really strong single contenders. Most of the recording will be just me and the computer. The work that Stewart and Lloyd have done with me is already in the computer so I won't really need them. They'll be ready anyway with their own records out so it's a bit weird. I'll be making a record on my own, and then obviously if I tour, I'll be putting a Band together. Touring is what I really miss, so I'll be on the road which will be strange to have a new Band and to be releasing records without Paul, Malcolm and Martin but I felt very much that something had to change.
Paul:
During the last year, I've just been writing songs with Mal and Mart and I've learned a vast amount about song-writing. We've been doing what we felt OMD should have done two or three years ago, developing a new sound, but one which retains the essence of OMD in a more exciting format. Our music has an atmosphere to it that I felt OMD started to lose, particularly on 'The Pacific Age'. Our earlier stuff has an emotion and a passion - an evocative sound to it which I think we lost. I wasn't happy with 'Dreaming'. I regarded it as an out-and-out pop song which lacked a depth of emotion. We've worked virtually all year developing a new writing technique. The rea~on we've spent 0 fair amount of t~me on each song is that I always want to make the definitive version, 50 you have to go through lots of different versions to arrive at that. The Project we're embarking on is primarily to make records but also we'd like to get into film music and maybe writing for others as well. Ma l's done the music for a short film for Channel Four, 'The Man With No Brakes', and, of course, Mart has a good background of film music we're continuing our association with Steven Hague. He'll be involved in the Project. Although I don't know what the outcome will be regarding the name of the two Bands, we'll definitely have something out this year. We won't be touring immediately, but it's not out of the question. Our priority is to get an Album out. I think we've done some of the most exciting things we've done in years. It's a very strong Album of original materials with the emphasis on 'quality' not 'quantity'.