It’s difficult to say who pioneered the current trend of melodic pop/rock/punk bands that seem to be getting bigger and bigger by the minute. The Strokes maybe? Or some would contend that Franz Ferdinand and The Killers changed the landscape with their mix of 80s influenced, indie-dressed, toe tapping albums from last year. But some may or may not be aware of OK Go. Started in 1999 with that sound before it was trendy, the Chicago based band has just released their 2nd full length album, Oh No. We recently spoke with Damian Kulash, the bands lead vocalist about the new album, their innovative web presence, and the definition of music success.
So, with the success of melodic pop/rock/punk bands in recent years, since you guys have been doing it for 6-7 years now, would you consider OK Go as a pioneer in that genre?
Well, (laughs), Id love it if someone called me a pioneer but it would be hard to take. The music we are making now and then is certainly more popular than it was before. However you’d have to assume that people were paying attention to what we were doing and copying us and I kind of doubt that was the case.
With that in mind, the recent trend should greatly benefit you guys, shouldn’t it?
Well, the world is definitely a friendlier place for bands like us despite how the music industry is eating itself from the inside out. I mean, nobody listens to radio anymore, and certainly mainstream rock has taken a turn towards more melodic and indie rock type sounds. So I think that has, and will, benefit us with the release of this new album.
Considering the marketing tool the internet is now, you guys seem to have a solid grasp on that type of communication. What brought on the push for all the internet tools?
When we signed to a major label, we had a lot of the same fears many bands have. Like whether or not we would duck into a cookie cutter version of ourselves, or worse yet, a cookie cutter version of someone else. So we have made an effort to always be direct with our fans in communication rather than rely on the MTVs of the world to communicate about the band. It seems imperative that bands take their lives into their own hands these days, and it has always been our desire to steer our own ship. So, the internet allows us to communicate in ways we think our fans will be interested in.
One of those is the podcast, which sounds like you guys are having lots of fun with, whose idea was that?
The idea came from my friend Jorge, who is our “online leader.” I’d call him webmaster but that sounds like tech support or something…anyway, he started interviewing us and putting them up on line. It brings out sort of that wild west feeling, because interviews usually have such a particular format, and this is really for our more hardcore fans. With this they get a chance to hear us talk about things we find interesting, as well as interviewing people we find fascinating, which we have already done and will continue to do in the future.
I wanted to hear your comments on the A Million Ways video, it’s hilarious and I was curious about the story behind it…
That dance was inspired by a dance we did for a song in concert on our last album. We were due to be on a cable access tv show in Chicago and “perform,” like a gimmicky type thing. So, we decided to do a full choreographed dance routine. Later on we incorporated it into our show and did it as an encore on tour. With the assistance of my sister, who was a professional ballroom dancer, we came up with the dance. One day we set up the video camera in the backyard to see where we were with the dance and in about four takes we had it. Later we watched it and decided it was more than just a practice thing, but that this was our video.
That’s great, one thing about it to me was that it actually didn’t distract from the song, but added to it.
Yeah, it’s interesting that you say that because we’ve been hearing that same thing a lot lately from people. Especially on the web as we browse around, we noticed very similar comments about the song standing out.
At this stage of your careers, how would you rate your success and where would you like to see that go?
I think success for us has a lot to do with the type of fans you attract. If we were in this for the money and the super fame, we probably wouldn’t be considered wildly successful, but the fan base and the music is totally sustainable, and our fans are very loyal and I think will be listening to us for years to come. So, based on that, I’m quite happy with where we are. Of course, we would love to sell more records, but in terms of what gigantic corporations expect, we are only moderately successful, at least commercially. But I’m happy with the level we are at.”
For more info see: okgo.net
