Michael Oakley’s own summary for his recently released third album ‘Prologue’ is to “Imagine what DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Violator’ album would have sounded like if it was produced by Trevor Horn”.
While that is not quite how ‘Prologue’ actually sounds, it outlines the Toronto-based Scot sense of ambition and willingness to develop in the synthwave realm; there is no doubt that synthwave has eaten itself. What was initially seen as a promising string to the bow of electronic pop has now become so generic that accusations that the latest works are generated by artificial intelligence are not entirely unjustified. Meanwhile, synthwave itself has been reduced to 30 second cover version reels, POV videos and bursts of incidental music on Netflix dramas.
With ‘Prologue’, Michael Oakley has considered the essence of what has often been forgotten in synthwave… the song! Strengthening his own singer-songwriter talents while still exploring software synth sounds and rhythmic structures that emote, the end result crossing the euphoric sounds of European dance music with the cinematic Americanised architecture of synthwave has resulted in undoubtedly his best album to date.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK chatted to Michael Oakley about his new beginning in the making of ‘Prologue’ and his own views about how synthwave is or isn’t evolving…
Your own summary for ‘Prologue’ was “Imagine what DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Violator’ album would have sounded like if it was produced by Trevor Horn”, that’s quite a bold statement?
Yeah I understand the magnitude of that statement, but it’s not meant in the literal sense of it actually sounding like ‘Violator’. What I mean by that is that I’ve pushed into darker, heavier sonic territory but I’ve tried to retain the melodic and bombastic synthpop side that Trevor Horn would have brought if he was involved in the recording.
Does new equipment or software change your thinking or is it the whole songwriter approach?
Honestly, I jump between the two processes as I’m working but usually when I sit down to start an idea, I’m zoning in on finding sounds that grab my attention. So I’ll preset surf on a few different synth plugins like VPS Avenger, Omnisphere 3.0 or Nexus 5 until something feels good. Most of the time, l have in mind a musical direction I’m looking to go in so when sounds that match the exact vibe I’m going for feel right I’ll start to work with those sounds and come up with melodic ideas and textures. The songwriting part comes later once I’ve created the right bed. This helps finding the concept / lyrics and a vocal melody a lot easier. Without that bed, I find it impossible to come up with lyrics / melody. Having the music first is crucial to set the mood.
How do you look back on your previous album ‘Odyssey’ from 2021?
There’s mixed emotions about that album for me because on one hand, I love the outcome and how it sounds sonically, but it was the shortest period I’ve started and completed a full album (less than 12 months). It was non-stop working on it, then as soon as it was finished, I literally had no break to relax before releasing and promoting it. In all honesty I felt completely rushed and burnt out by the end of it. This caused me to want to bow out of making music for almost 2 years. The album conceptually was aimed at being like something Phil Collins would have done in late 80s on ‘But Seriously’ and was overall a more downtempo affair compared to my previous work. That was just where I was at during that time I guess. We have to creatively go where our mood and sensibilities take us in the moment or else it’s fraudulent, at least it is for me anyway.
Opening song ‘Warriors Of The Wasteland’ is not a FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD cover but ‘Rebel Yell’ certainly crept in? *laughs*
Ha! Well I always loved that title for a song and if I was to do a soundtrack for a movie, it would probably be the first ‘Mad Max’. I’d love to replace that Brian May orchestral score with something electronic. ‘Warriors Of The Wasteland’ came about because I was chatting with Ollie Wride and said to him that we should pretend we’ve been asked to write a song for a big blockbuster 80s movie. I thought about it and suggested ‘Mad Max 3’! So that’s how the idea came about and then musically I went for a much more uptempo driving number. I get the Billy Idol reference and can hear it but I wasn’t aware of that at the time.
‘Memory Of You’ sounds like it’s the same song as ‘Fading Light’ on VALLEY LIGHTS’ album ‘Devil May Care’, what’s the story here?
‘Memory Of You’ started out as an instrumental demo that James from MISSING WORDS had came up with for VALLEY LIGHTS. A couple of years ago myself and James were hired by VALLEY LIGHTS to write and produce his latest album which has been fun. At some point during the sessions when working on ‘Fading Light’, James said to me he wished that we had kept this demo for us and after some coaxing I decided to build a completely new version from the ground up with different lyrics that reflected where I was at for my album. I said to James if it works then let’s do it and a collaboration. Thankfully it did and I pushed the sound away from a traditional Synthwave sound into something way more Eurodance / Italo Disco sounding. I’m glad we did this version because it became one of my favourite songs from ‘Prologue’.
How did you get Haddaway and Peter Hook involved in the recording of ‘School’? *laughs*
It’s a very NEW ORDER ‘Technique’ period meets Haddaway sounding track huh? That song started out in a very different form and was one of the first ideas I was working on for the new album. At some point later when I realized the overall concept and direction I wanted the album to be, I realized that I had to go back and start ‘School’ over again with a new version that fit the album’s new direction. The old demo version is the B-side to ‘Falling Skyward’ single because I felt like it was worthy of releasing so people could hear the difference in how it started out to where it ended up.
It looks like you had fun making the video for ‘World Of Promises’ with quite a few guest cameos, what are your recollections of producing the song and the video?
Oh man I had the best time! Back in March, I flew over to Los Angeles with the plan to film 3 music videos within a 10 day window which was a little nerve wracking. ‘World Of Promises’ is more ostentatious and ambitious than my previous music videos. I wanted to try to incorporate more of a cinematic narrative that would go hand in hand with the concept of the song rather than a traditional lip sync performance kind of video. Conceptually it sounds great on paper but actualizing it into film is a different ball game. I think it’s very easy for music videos to become bloated vanity projects that hurt the song more than lift it. Thankfully I have Brad Kinnan who is the absolute best at making music videos that are wonderful to look at and have a cinematic level quality that makes you want to go back and watch it again and again. Brad has a million dollar eye for quality and his pacing and storytelling is very complimentary to the musical / song aspect of the production.
When I was producing the song, I was fascinated by the political climate in America and the UK and I got to thinking about how we are all lied to with false promises by whoever comes into power. Then when they don’t live up to those promises, the faces change and no one is really held accountable. Everyone is frustrated and unhappy but we don’t seem to have the language to describe what we’re going through without it creating division and polarization amongst ourselves. We are in very dangerous, uncharted waters as a people and collective society. If we don’t come to more mutual understandings soon, then I fear the confusion and division will cause a collapse of civilization because change only really comes from collective unity when we’re on the same page moving forward to change things for the good of everyone. Right now we’re all arguing amongst ourselves and nothing is changing for good.
There’s quite a few other friends like Ollie Wride, Dana Jean Phoenix and Holly Dodson who worked with you on ‘Prologue’ too?
All the old gang got back together! I have a thing for loyalty and I love working with the same core team of people who are: Ollie Wride, John Kunkel, Derek Elliotson, Dana Jean Phoenix and Pete Maher. Then anyone else I decide to bring in on a session musician capacity depends on the song / style. I feel like it helps keep a familiar consistency with each record, even though I evolve and change with each album, but so do they over the years in between each album. There’s also an honesty with all the people I work with who aren’t afraid to voice suggestions for improving on what I’m trying to do. That’s also important to me.
‘Hurts Like Heaven’ had a bit of a journey towards completion didn’t it?
Believe it or not that song started out as an idea I originally intended to send to Haddaway and ask if he would sing it! Then once the demo became a fully-fledged song I liked it so much that I decided to keep it for myself. The lyrics revealed that it would work best as a duet, so I was on the hunt for a female singer that had the right voice for it. I wanted a softer, more ethereal kind of voice so in the end, Holly Dodson became the perfect choice and she brought her own ideas and creativity to the song. I always love when people I work with make creative suggestions because it helps them stamp their own signature onto the song, as well as giving me another layer to the song I couldn’t have come up with myself. Holly really made that song her own and it’s now one of the songs on the album I’m most proud of after some initial frustration and challenges along the way.
You went all stompy Schaffel on ‘Shot To The Heart’, where did that come from?
That idea started because I had wanted to do a song with a 6/8 time signature like the ‘Airwolf Theme’ and ‘Personal Jesus’ for some time. While working on it, I was watching old Spaghetti Western movies like ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ and ‘The Good The Bad & The Ugly’ and was also fascinated by a friend of mine’s divorce. So all of those things came together in this sort of smorgasbord of random things to create what ultimately became ‘Shot To The Heart’. It has a melodramatic energy and urgency that I leaned into.
Do you have any personal favourites on ‘Prologue’?
Depends what day and mood you catch me on, but I think for sure ‘World Of Promises’, ‘Memory Of You’, ‘Falling Skyward’ and ‘School’ are my top favourites that I’m most proud of on the album. Ask me in 6 months and you’ll probably get a different answer!
‘Use Your Illusion’ is a bit of an outlier on the album as it sounds a bit like COCTEAU TWINS rather than what might be expected of you?
I love SLOWDIVE, COCTEAU TWINS, Ulrich Schnauss and dreamy Shoegaze music. When I hear this song, it feels like it could have been on my last album ‘Odyssey’ because I started working on it around the same time as those sessions. When I finished the song, I had a bit of a conflict in where it would go on the album given how different it sounds compared to everything else. It felt like the right finishing number to draw the album to its conclusion.
How do you think “Synthwave” has been evolving because it appears stuck in a rut watching from over here?
Well that’s a very good question. Part of the reason I backed off from the Synthwave scene and music in general was because I felt that the genre had become stagnant and stopped growing / evolving. A scene of music is only as strong as the music coming out from it and it became clear to me that Synthwave hadn’t seen any great releases in quite some time. A lot of the pioneers had either stopped or moved to different styles outside of the scene. In my mind I always felt like there was so much more ground to cover in Synthwave. Not just from the 80s but also the 90s.
My latest album ‘Prologue’ pulls more early 90s dance influences into the mix as part of the overall genetic makeup of it. That’s where I feel the Synthwave genre could see a resurgence = 90s influences, but it has to be done in a modern way. Similar to how 80s influences were initially pulled from but in a fresh modern way. There is a core, loyal audience who love and support the Synthwave genre. I just hope that something comes to lift the scene once more and kickstart a fresh revival.
What music have you been enjoying yourself over the past 18 months or so?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Darkwave, Dark Disco, EBM, Futurepop and Chillsynth styles. The wonderful thing about Spotify is I can download playlists to listen to while out on my daily walk.
What’s next for you?
Well, I certainly don’t want to take another 5 years to write and record another album. I’m already formulating ideas and concepts which I’ll start working on in a few months from now. I’d like to continue my experiments with 90s influences and take that further but I also would like to continue the darker side of ‘Prologue’ so we shall see.
ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Michael Oakley
‘Prologue’ is released by NewRetroWave in a variety of vinyl LP, minidisc, cassette and CD formats as well as digital, available from https://newretrowave.bandcamp.com/
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Text and Interview by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Guthrie Melchaide
10th July 2026
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