Ok Go bring their treadmilldance to Splendour

Wed 4th Jul, 2007 in Features

Geek rockers, Ok Go, are a You Tube hit. The band’s low budget music video, Here it Goes Again, has been viewed over eighteen million times. It was enough to earn them a Grammy award this year for Best Short-Form Music Video. On the road since early 2005, vocalist Damian Kulash is astounded at the band’s online following.

Influenced by the Pixies, Cheap Trick, Queen and Fugazi, Ok Go are Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Andy Ross and Dan Konopka. Formed during 1998, Ok Go experienced some success in 2002 with the single, Get Over It. In 2005, the band’s video clip for A Million Ways became a viral internet phenomenon. Choreographed by Kulash’s sister, the film clip to the single, Here it Goes Again, also gained widespread internet exposure. Fearing their label, Capitol Records’ disapproval, the band kept it a secret until its online release.

“We shot it at my sister’s house and she choreographed it with us. We didn’t tell anyone we were making it because we were scared it was going to be a bad idea. So we made it and didn’t show it to anyone for about nine months. Eventually we did and the next thing you know, we’re doing the MTV awards and getting a Grammy. It was crazy.”

Asked whether he could have anticipated its unprecedented success, Kulash disagrees.

“No, I don’t think anybody could have. It was such a surprise. It’s crazy because they’re obviously music videos on one level but they’re kind of like a whole new genre. That treadmill video – yes it’s a music video but it’s also part of this whole, weird, homemade, online genre. It’s like the guy who can draw the perfect circle and the guy who can pull his foot over his head. It crosses between music and some new, weird internet space that we’re all just figuring out still.”

In the midst of a prolonged tour, Kulash confesses that it has been a long time.

“We’ve been on the road for two and a half years solid… We’re the type of band that really loves being on the road. We love playing together and we love the crowds. The first month of touring is the best time ever… but two and a half years later – you’re pretty sick of it!”

Despite the monotony of touring, Kulash confesses that being in a band is about having fun.

“The whole reason why you end up in a band is because you wanna make cool shit. You don’t want a day job. You want to follow your crazy impulses. The purest fun we can have as a band is doing the things that we wanna do, regardless of what our label wants, or what’s gonna sell, or any of that kind of stuff. If you’re not having fun, no one else is gonna have fun.”

With Ok Go heading towards its ten-year anniversary, Kulash has a theory on why it has lasted.

“This will sound really cliché, but it’s just about doing the things that we want to do. Surviving in the music industry, while it completely implodes on itself, takes a certain amount of smart thinking, calculation and a lot of good sense. Much more important than that is just following your instincts and making things that you want to make.”

Heading to Australia in early August, Ok Go will Splendour in the Grass as well as a couple of sideshows at Sydney’s Forum and Melbourne’s Hi Fi Bar.

“We have a pretty good time at our shows.” Says Kulash. “They are high energy and we just want to enjoy ourselves. Music is such a vast language – you can say anything. What we try to do with our shows is have a good time. It’s just like a big party.”