Mention the name A Flock of Seagulls to anyone, and chances are they will immediately recall their space-age imagery, complete with edgy hairstyles and wardrobe choices. Looking as if they had been beamed down from outer space, this aesthetic drew considerable attention. However, what truly made A Flock of Seagulls stand out was their music.
Separate from others on the New Wave scene at the time, A Flock of Seagulls emerged from Liverpool, England, with a compelling blend of Electronic-driven Rock music that balanced synthesizers, thick guitars, and enchanting vocals. Something that could appeal to Rock and Synthpop fans, the band would go onto to be one of the biggest in early 80s with hits like 1982’s “I Ran (So Far Away),” “Space Age Love Song,” and “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You).” Just the tip of the iceberg, A Flock of Seagulls has sold over millions of albums, won a Grammy Award in 1983 for their instrumental song “D.N.A.,” and is etched in history as a significant part of the 1980s music movement.
Still very active over the years, A Flock of Seagulls has glided in the clouds with the direction of Lead Vocalist/Keyboardist/Songwriter Mike Score. Regularly touring with A Flock of Seagulls, in more recent years, there was the exciting release of a brand new album called Some Dreams. Released in late 2024 through August Day Records, it marks the first A Flock of Seagulls studio album in nearly thirty years and does not disappoint. Proud of the work put into Some Dreams, Mike Score recently chatted about the history of A Flock of Seagulls, the new music, plans for more, and taking to the road in the summer of 2025 on the Lost 80s Live! Tour, plus more.
Cryptic Rock – The last time we spoke was back in 2018, and A Flock of Seagulls has been extremely active since then. You have continued to work and released the new album Some Dreams in late 2024. How would you describe the last seven years?
Mike Score – Well, you know we always try to be active. If we’re not recording and trying to put stuff out, we’re on tour.
We’re always trying to do tours because when you join a band, when you’re a kid, what you really want to do is go and play live, right? So that’s what we are. We’re still a bunch of kids, and we want to get out there, play, have fun, travel around, and see places. Being in a band is a great excuse for going to Kansas or something like that. And if you can get paid and do a gig at the same time, why not?
Cryptic Rock – It does not get much better than doing what you love! You have also done steady touring through the years. In recent years, you have found new and interesting ways to put out music, such as 2018’s orchestral album Ascension, 2019’s extended versions album Inflight, and another orchestral album in 2021 called String Theory. This led up to the first original studio album from A Flock of Seagulls in nearly thirty years, Some Dreams, which was released in 2024. Looking at Some Dreams more closely, it is really a great collection of songs. What led to the decision to put out a new full-length A Flock of Seagulls record?
Mike Score – Well, I never stopped writing songs. So, I gathered up a few songs, and I thought – this is kind of seagullish, but it’s a kind of new direction as well. And I thought – I could put this out as a solo album, or I could put it out as an A Flock of Seagulls album. Of course, because the name is known, I went for the Seagulls thing. I wasn’t sure whether it would be well-received or not. Apparently, a lot of people like it, and it’s doing really well.
When we play live shows and we play the new songs, people really react to them. Now it’s like, “Wow, what a great decision I made.” But there’s a lot more. I have a whole basket full of little songs and other things that I’m working on. I would actually say the next album is already written. It’s just not recorded properly yet.
Cryptic Rock – That is exciting to learn. Some Dreams does take you in a few different directions, but it feels like A Flock of Seagulls. The songs are all well-written.
Mike Score – I think that’s the most important thing, and that’s what people are attracted to. I also think some of the songs are more emotional. People understand because they’ve lived through the same things the songs are about.
Some Dreams is kind of like a grown-up album. Everybody understands the feelings that are in them. When I was younger, I was always afraid of putting my feelings out in a song in case people laughed at me. So, I hid it behind Science Fiction, like with “Space Age Love Song” and similar songs. But these days, now that I’m a grown-up boy (Laughs), I think it’s okay to say what you feel, and other people understand it.
Cryptic Rock – Both styles of writing are effective, but being straightforward, people can certainly relate. Well, Some Dreams is out now, and anyone who has not caught wind of it certainly should. Looking back, as mentioned, you also released the orchestral albums. What led to those projects?
Mike Score – Somebody called me up one day from August Day Records and said, “Have you ever thought of doing an orchestra with your songs?” And I went, “You know, that’s never, ever entered my head.” And they said, “Well, we would like to do it. We’d like to try it out.” So, I gave permission. I said, “Try it with a couple of songs; have it orchestrated.” And lo and behold, when I heard it, I said, “You know, this sounds really good.” For some reason, the orchestra and our arrangements go nicely together.
From there, I said, “Go ahead and do it.” They did the first one, Ascension. Then they did the second one, String Theory. For the second one, we knew what we were getting into, so I said, “Yeah, just go for it.” To us, it was a great way to showcase our music in a different light; not just four guys from Liverpool playing songs they’d written.
You never really know if a song you’ve written is good. But when you get people wanting to orchestrate it and then you hear it, you go, “Yeah, this is great, and maybe we should think more along these lines.”
Cryptic Rock – It works extremely well and is a compelling listen. A Flock of Seagulls songs have a cinematic quality.
Mike Score – Yes, that’s what I think. And I think when you put an orchestra, it just expands that side of it.
Cryptic Rock – Certainly. As you said, you have a basket full of other songs. Does this mean A Flock of Seagulls could be releasing another album sooner than later?
Mike Score – Yeah. I mean, I’m working on it all the time. However, this year, we are touring so heavily that I don’t have a lot of time.
The songs are mostly written. I think it’s just down to getting in the studio and producing them properly, and getting the sounds right. The funny thing is, when you play something live in a rehearsal room, it sounds great this way. Once you start to put it in the studio, you start to see other areas that you could move into, you know, because it’s pulled apart. This is where you can work with it a little bit. Whereas when you play them live, you just tend to hear it as a whole unit.
Basically, if I have the time to get in the studio, I will go in. I don’t like to work too fast because I might not consider something. I like to try two or three things instead of just going, “It’s got to be like this.” I like to mess around with it a bit. Lyrically, sometimes I’ll write a song with certain lyrics, and a week later, none of those lyrics exist anymore. If you record too quickly, you’re missing out on what you could have done.
It’ll be a slow process, but maybe we’ll get a couple of singles out. Hopefully, by the end of the year or in January or February 2026, we’ll have the next album ready.
Cryptic Rock – That is something to look forward to. You are certainly busy this summer. You are part of the Lost 80s Live! Tour, featuring a fantastic lineup of acts. Many of these acts do not tour the USA very often, so it is great to see them together. Now, this is a slightly different type of show, as opposed to a headlining one. What is your set going to consist of?
Mike Score – We’re going to play a couple of new songs, and obviously, the bigger hits. With these shows, people go to see you do the hits. But we have to take the chance to also educate those people about the new stuff. So, we’ll probably do a couple of new songs, three or four of the hits, and maybe one deeper song that people have kind of heard, but don’t really know who it is. It might wake them up to, “I’ve heard that song before. Where did it come from?” It’s a mix of entertainment and education.
Cryptic Rock – It should be a great show. The new songs will blend seamlessly with the classic tunes from years past.
Mike Score – When we play the new songs live in our full set, the reaction is incredible. When you consider that you’re putting your new songs up against songs that have been hits for thirty and forty years, and people still cheer as much for the new stuff, it warms your heart, you might say.
Cryptic Rock – That has to be a great feeling. This tour kicks off in New Haven, Connecticut, on July 31, 2025.
Mike Score – Should be great. The opening day of a tour is always a great show because everybody’s got a little bit of nervousness in there, and that makes them concentrate a bit harder to make the show better because it’s your kickoff.
Cryptic Rock – Absolutely. A Flock of Seagulls was always an interesting band because you had such a good balance of keyboards and guitars. Was that balance between the guitars and keyboards always a driving force for the band’s creativity?
Mike Score – Well, when we started, there was a lot of anti-guitar stuff in England where it was – Oh, no, it’s all this New Wave now. No heavy guitars and stuff like that. As four people in a band, we all had differing selections of music that we liked. I liked The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Frank (Maudsley) likes dance music a bit more. My brother (Ali Score) likes Heavy Metal a bit more. Paul (Reynolds) enjoyed some of the New Wave guitar-based kind of things. None of us could really play. This is what people don’t understand… we kind of just made it up.
If I were playing the keyboards and I had to sing, at that time, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t split my brain to do both things. It was literally a case of, “Okay, that keyboard part should go there, but I’m going to sing. Paul, can you make your guitar sound like the keyboard?” He’d go, “Yeah, I’ll try. I’ll get it to be compatible.” Just over time, that compatibility between the keyboard sound and the guitar sound is when we went, “This sounds awesome. It sounds brand new. No one seems to have done it.”
We were not pandering to the keyboards-only side of music because we liked Pink Floyd, and they had incredible guitars. We wanted incredible guitars. We wanted a New Wave sound. We wanted heavy drums. like the Heavy Metal bands. We even wanted a dancey kind of funky bass playing. It was just our time, but somehow it all managed to make the cake that was A Flock of Seagulls.
Cryptic Rock – It works well and makes A Flock of Seagulls stand out. You had songs that were more synth-based and others that were more Rock-based.
Mike Score – We would write a really heavy synth-based song. And then, as a break from that, we’d say, “Well, let’s do that song where the guitar was in the front.” That, or when the beat was the big thing about it.
It was also to keep it interesting for us. I think if you keep playing this song and then the next song is almost the same, and the next one’s almost the same, it must be boring to be in a band like that.
Cryptic Rock – Absolutely. For example, “I Ran” is really more of a guitar-driven song, and “Wishing” is more of a synth-based song.
Mike Score – Exactly. And it’s just got you know, little strummy guitars that jangle in there. That’s the way I think the songs tell you what they want. When you do a song like “Wishing,” the keyboard line says, “This is my song. Don’t get in my way. This is my song. Play your guitar in the background.” So, we could choose that really easily. By the time we had a big record deal, we knew what we were doing.
Cryptic Rock – It is fascinating to learn how everything developed. Another thing that has stood out about A Flock of Seagulls is that the production quality has always been outstanding. You went on to produce a significant amount of the later material, but you had also worked with others prior. Were you always hands-on with the production, even from the beginning?
Mike Score – A little bit. I was always there in the studio. I was always trying to learn how to do this and what it does, and pressing buttons that I shouldn’t have pushed, and so on.
Sometimes, if you’ve got the right people and you’re working with them, they’ll teach as a side thing they’re doing. They’ll show you how to get the vocals to sound good or what gear to use with your voice. You will have tried ten different mics, but find one that works better for you. You ask, “Why is that?” and they would give the example, “Because it is a tube mic or something like that.” So, I started to learn a lot of that stuff.
Then with the advent of home studios, all that stuff came back to me. I found out that production is like songwriting. You sit there and say, “I think that guitar should be like this or that.” Engineering is then getting it to that point. Production and songwriting are in the same field, I would say.
Cryptic Rock – Agreed, and you have mastered a particular sound. With Some Dreams, the production is very consistent. With the release of many new albums, a hollow feeling often arises from overproduction. That is not the case with Some Dreams; it has life.
Mike Score – With this album, especially, I didn’t want to overproduce it, if you know what I mean. I wanted to let the songs just roll along. If you just pressed the button and went, “Oh, that sounds good.” Let’s just keep that. It was just, let’s not try to make that spectacular, because if you get too many spectacular things together, you get nothing. Then they’re all fighting each other, which is a thing I learned early on.
For example, when you think, we need big drums. You don’t, though, you just need them this big against that bass. It is all about balance. The balance of the guitar against the vocals. With sound, everything has its own little area. That’s the way I learned to do it. I think that is the way to do it. Many people these days rely on presets in the digital world. I think that loses something. It doesn’t have a human quality.
Cryptic Rock – 100% accurate. Dynamics is essential in music. Sadly, with many modern records, it feels like the dynamics are lost. Even older Heavy Metal records; it may have been loud, but they were not overwhelming. The instruments were separated, and you could hear each one distinctly.
Mike Score – Right. It all had its own space.
Cryptic Rock – Yes. So, you mentioned how you used to conceal your feelings behind Science Fiction themes in the lyrics. Can it be assumed you are a Science Fiction fan?
Mike Score – Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Since I first saw Doctor Who (when I was about seven), it scared the pants off me. I was looking around, trying not to see the Daleks. (Laughs) When I first saw the Daleks, they were really scary. I would kind of stand behind the sofa and watch them rather than sit in front of the TV, they were addictive. I got into Sci-Fi pretty heavily as I grew up, from there.
When we were writing the first songs, there wasn’t actually a lot of Sci-Fi around. Today, it’s everywhere. But in the late ’70s, there were great Sci-Fi movies, but it wasn’t a thing that people talked about. I think hiding behind Sci-Fi is one of those things that put the band ahead of other bands. We had a Sci-Fi look, a Sci-Fi sound, and Sci-Fi lyrics. Now you look around and Sci-Fi is everywhere, right?
Cryptic Rock – Yes. It has become mainstream. Other artists have adapted a similar theme to that Sci-Fi theme. Do you have any favorite Science Fiction films?
Mike Score – Well, Alien (1979) just blew me out of my seat. Predator (1987), again, I’d never seen anything like that. Even today, if a new Predator movie is coming out, I get excited. When they joined the two together, Alien vs. Predator (2004), that was like heaven for me. (Laughs)
Cryptic Rock – Those two films also cross over into Horror a little bit. It seemed like many of the Science Fiction films from the late ’70s were very dystopian, with an ominous feel.
Mike Score – I think the Horror thing is just the unknown. Once you get out of the atmosphere out there, it’s unknown. So, filmmakers could do anything they like. It might be completely different. But for movies, it’s better to scare people than make them smile at that cute little alien. It’s better to have it bite your head off. (Laughs).
Cryptic Rock – Right. (Laughs). What were your thoughts on the original Planet of the Apes from 1968? The ending is mind-blowing as well.
Mike Score – I loved all those movies. When I look back at you know the way they were done, compared to the way they’re done today, they’re like little chintzy things. Some of the ideas were brilliant. The fact that that was literally Earth it was happening on, I think that made a lot of people go, “Wow, could that happen here? Could that really happen?” It was very interesting.
One of my early favorites, obviously, was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). I’ve always believed that human beings are not from this planet. I think we were seeded here by aliens. In the movie, that seeding thing came up when the monkey touched the block, and it got the inspiration.
Perhaps there’s still something going on, which is why flying saucers exist, and they are still leading us. Maybe they’re leading us into a better world in a million years. Maybe we’re an experiment. There’s a lot of maybes, which is why Science Fiction is so amazing… because who knows? Who really knows what’s going to happen?
Cryptic Rock – Exactly. It would be very close-minded to believe that we are alone in this or any galaxy out there. How could anyone possibly believe we are the only species of intelligent life out there?
Mike Score – Yeah. Especially when you look at our world and see all the different types of life, from dinosaurs to monkeys, humans, fish, and so on. Why is it all here? It must be somewhere else as well. It has to be.
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