(upbeat music)
- Hello and Welcome to Spotlight on the Arts.
I am Mark McLemore.
From hits like "Tesla Girls" to
"If You Leave", Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark,
or OMD, was a top electronic band in the 1980s.
My guest Andy McCluskey and his musical partner,
Paul Humphreys, were at the forefront of blending
music with graphic design and video art.
One of their most influential albums,
released in 1983, was "Dazzle Ships".
Today it serves as the inspiration for an exhibition
at the Museum of Contemporary Arts Tucson.
Andy, thank you so much for being here.
- [Andy] Thank you, great to be here.
- For those of us who know the concept
of "Dazzle Ships" as an album title,
it turns out there is a lot more behind it.
Can you tell us a little bit about
the artistic movement that inspired you?
- Basically, Vorticists Artists managed to convince
the navies in the first World War that they should paint
their ships in bold strips and color blocks,
which is completely counterintuitive,
but you can't hide a battleship,
so instead try and fracture it and break it up so
it is difficult to work out how big it is,
what direction it is going in.
So Dazzle Ships were ships from the first World War
that were painted in these ridiculous, amazing,
fractured colors and the guy who use to do our
sleeves for us, Peter Savel, saw a vorticist painting of
Dazzle Ships in Liverpool Drydock and
said "Andy, could you write a song called Dazzle Ships so
I could do a sleeve for it?".
(Mark chuckles)We made whole album called "Dazzle Ships"
It's a case of the tail wagging the dog,
but we are really glad it happened. (Andy Laughs)
- So what are the ways that that art design worked its
way into the tour and the marketing effect for OMD?
- Well, obviously for us it became a big part of
the whole campaign for the album, and Peter
and his associates designed for us a stage set that,
I guess really was straight out of early 20th century kind
of Russian constructivism and it had moving parts,
and it was standing in this incredible setting,
this art piecing itself just made
the look of that tour incredible
and its lived on now for almost, you know, 40 years later,
people still talk about it.
- When you and your band mates decided to revisit the album
and start playing this material in front of audiences again,
What did you find? Did you find old friends or
did you find maybe a little bit of
a cringe factor going on?
- Absolutely not. The thing is,
when the album was released in '83 it was just a
little bit too far ahead of its time and
it didn't do particularly well commercially.
It is now considered to be our fractured masterpiece,
and everybody reveres it, but it was just more than
15 minutes ahead of the time as Warhol would have said.
So when we look back at it now,
we treat it as a really beautiful art object, and in fact,
we played at the Royal Albert Hall about three years ago,
playing the entire album. Five and a half thousand people
traveled from around the world to see us do it,
so there was no cringe factor.
We are absolutely immersed in it and loving it.
- When you think about where you were at artistically
at that point, does it take you back to 1983
when you play those songs now or have you found it sort of
a different lens to filter the songs and
the lyrics through for yourself?
- Many of the songs were actually highlighting the Cold War,
which in 1983 was still very very prevalent and
I was taking samples from short wave radio stations
through the many communist stations in Europe,
so it's strangely enough it still seems to have a relevance,
I mean there is a song called "Radio Waves" which used
to have the current American and Russian leaders,
and right now just substitute Trump and Putin.
So it still has a relevance.
- You've updated the sample.
- Yes (laughs)
- Do you have tips to anyone on how to maintain a creative
partnership over four decades like you and Paul Humphreys,
and your other band mates have done?
- Yeah, it's quite remarkable.
In fact, it's nearly 50 years, we've known each other
since we were about seven. I think the elements are quite
simple, its stay friendly, work in the same room,
don't try and use the internet,
that doesn't work for creativity and
weirdly, support different soccer teams.
I'm Liverpool, he's Man United.
That seems to work, I don't know why.
(Andy laughs)
- Alright, good advice. My guest was Andy McCluskey
from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
The Museum of Contemporary Arts Tucson presents
the gallery show "Dazzled, OMD, Memphis Design, and Beyond"
through April 13th. Thank you for watching
Spotlight on the Arts.
(upbeat music)