Paul David Humphreys (born 27 February 1960) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who is best known for his contributions to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), an electronic band which he founded alongside Andy McCluskey in 1978. John Doran in The Quietus remarked: "If, roughly speaking, McCluskey is the intellect and inquisitive nature in the group, then Humphreys is the heart."
Humphreys provided synthesizer/keyboard work and vocals from the band's inception in 1978 until his 1989 departure, seven years before their dissolution, and returned for their 2006 reformation. Despite this period of absence, his songwriting contribution features on all of the group's studio albums, save for 1991's Sugar Tax. Humphreys sang lead vocals on several OMD tracks, including the singles "Electricity", "Souvenir", "Never Turn Away", "Secret", "(Forever) Live and Die" and "What Have We Done". He fronted spin-off band the Listening Pool from 1989 to 1996, and recorded with former Propaganda lead vocalist Claudia Brücken as the duo Onetwo from 2000 to 2013.
Career
OMD
Humphreys grew up on the Wirral Peninsula in North West England, during which time he developed an interest in German electronic music by bands such as Kraftwerk, Neu!, Can and La Düsseldorf. He was also influenced by the work of Brian Eno and early ambient styles of music. Humphreys joined a variety of bands in the mid-1970s but this was mostly defined by progressive rock and it wasn't until he met Andy McCluskey that they began their own musical experiments which culminated in a one-off gig as Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark at Eric's Club in Liverpool.
OMD became one of the leading bands in the synth-pop movement, though they developed largely independently of others such as the Human League. OMD enjoyed considerable commercial success internationally during the 1980s. Humphreys' songwriting partnership with McCluskey has been dubbed the "Lennon–McCartney of synth-pop".
Although McCluskey was the lead singer for OMD, Humphreys did sing on several singles during the 1980s, and provided lead or prominent vocals on the album tracks "Promise", "Georgia" and "ABC Auto Industry", as well as on the B-sides "4-Neu" and "Gravity Never Failed". Humphreys was a more reserved individual than McCluskey; of their partnership, the latter said: "We always had this joke that two Pauls wouldn't get anything done and two Andys would kill each other". Humphreys left OMD in 1989, but continued to pen songs for the band. He co-wrote the 1993 single "Everyday" (from Liberator), and was the main writer of two tracks from Universal (1996): "Very Close to Far Away" and "If You're Still in Love with Me". Sugar Tax (1991) is the only album in the OMD catalogue not to feature the songwriting contribution of Humphreys.
Reformation
In 2005, McCluskey and Humphreys reunited OMD for a gig on German TV. They decided to reform OMD which McCluskey had continued with from 1989 until winding up the band in 1996 disillusioned by the prevalence of Britpop. 2007 finally saw the return of OMD in their classic line-up on stage and they have toured extensively since having received an enthusiastic and warm welcome. 2010 saw the release of Humphreys' first studio album with OMD for 24 years, titled History of Modern. Next studio album English Electric (2013) featured a lead vocal from Humphreys on the track "Stay with Me". Humphreys also sang lead on the single "What Have We Done", taken from the studio album The Punishment of Luxury (2017).
Other projects
Humphreys continued to write and record with Holmes and Cooper under the name the Listening Pool. This project met with little commercial success, though a studio album, Still Life (1994), was released. The sound was less directly electronic than even later OMD and is in marked contrast to the later sound of Onetwo and the reformed OMD.
By the late 1990s, Humphreys was performing OMD setlists once more. "Paul Humphreys from OMD", in which Humphreys performed McCluskey-sung material as well as his own songs, was still active as of 2001.
In 1996, Humphreys began a songwriting collaboration with German musician Claudia Brücken, who was formerly lead vocalist of the band Propaganda. They recorded and performed live under the name Onetwo from 2004 (the duo was nameless when they began performing in 2000) until their separation in March 2013.