Im von Yogi an anderer Stelle geposteten Interview-Link äußert sich Paul ebenfalls sehr aufschlussreich über die Amerika-Geschichte:
AVC: Europe has always been more receptive to OMD's more experimental side, with Architecture being your commercial peak, yet in America, you're more known for your romantic pop songs. Why do you think the U.S. didn't embrace your darker side?
PH: I think one of our problems—and it was really a constant source of frustration to us—was, we signed to Virgin for the rest of the world, but Virgin didn't have a record company in America at that point. So they just licensed their artists to other labels, and they did this kind of bulk package of us and XTC and a bunch of other bands to Epic Records. And to be honest, Epic didn't really give a shit about OMD. They didn't even understand what OMD was, and they put absolutely no effort into promoting us. The weird thing was that Virgin did this really long-term contract with Epic that was like our first four or five albums. They wouldn't let us go, but they wouldn't promote us either. It was so frustrating, because we'd be playing these huge arenas in Europe, and then we'd go to America, and we'd be playing these tiny little clubs on Long Island, going on stage at 2 o'clock in the morning, on this tiny little stage where people were so drunk, they'd be vomiting on your shoes. [Laughs.] It was really quite soul-destroying. It was really late in our career that we managed to pry ourselves off Epic—A&M had been wanting us for years, but Epic wouldn't let us go. When we finally managed to get on A&M, that was when things started to take off. And that was also when we were consciously writing poppier songs, because it was specifically for things—like "If You Leave" was written for Pretty In Pink. And of course that was our really big hit.
AVC: Do you think that trying to create something more palatable to a wider audience—like "If You Leave"—cost you your early fan base?
PH: Yeah. And looking back, I regret it. One of the reasons we broke up was because I wanted to get back to more experimental stuff, and we were kind of stuck in this electronic-pop thing. Andy was still into the pop world, though, and he continued on in the band for a couple of albums after me before he packed it in. But I could also see going into the '90s—you know, there's nothing more out of fashion than what went on in the decade before, and electronic pop was really out of fashion as the '90s began. I could see we were starting to struggle, and I thought it might be time to hang up my boots for a bit. But what I really wanted to do was give OMD a big rest, and then come back and reinvent ourselves. I thought we'd gotten too conventional, and really let go of why we got into this, which was to be experimental, but do it in a palatable way.
Quelle:
Anscheinend spielte die amerikanische Plattenfirma EPIC eine nicht zu unterschätzende Rolle, das es auf dem US-Markt nicht lief für OMD. Keinerlei Interesse an der Band und ebensowenig Promotion für OMD - in Europa spielten sie in Arenen, in Amerika in kleinen Clubs, wo ihnen das betrunkene Publikum morgens um 2 vor die Füße kotzte...
Aber trotzdem die Band nicht aus ihrem Vertrag rauslassen. Erinnert doch auch irgendwie an VIRGIN, oder? War doch im Grunde nicht anders. Die wollten Hits und am Ende hat das uns ja auch IF YOU LEAVE beschert, das Paul im Interview ja mehr oder weniger als Anfang vom Ende von OMD bezeichnet (und es auch bereut, solch eine Richtung mit OMD eingeschlagen zu haben).