Damien Kulash (OK GO) Interview

Let’s set the scene: A jet-lagged Damien suggests we wander from the venue to a nearby coffee shop to chat. On arrival the shutters are down and it’s barely above freezing as we continue our quest for Americano !!! We switch on the tape machine and chat as we trudge through the snow and slush of a dismal, damp January night in Norwich.

Damien: Hi so who do you guys write for?

Mark: Well I write for BIYL, an American music-based website with contributors from Arizona, Florida and Canada. It’s a funky site set up by Sean Ryan. Shane is my photographer who provides a landscape to my ramblings.

Damien: So where does the name Battery in Your Leg come from?

Mark: Well good question only Sean knows the answer to that one, it intrigues me as well. Basically he started the site some eighteen months ago. We both wrote for the now defunct Rocksellout along with the other two contributors. It’s a long story but I ended up with Sean on BIYL which is going from strength to strength. I really enjoy it!!

Damien: So it’s a kinda triple negative thing then?

Mark: Ha, yeah I guess you could say that American band comes to the UK, gets interviewed by UK contributor to American website. So the new record – it’s a real sea change in direction from the two more mainstream albums preceding it, I mean this is not a commercial record really?

Damien: You can say that I can’t! It’s definitely a change of direction from the first two records.

Mark: I don’t mean that it won’t shift units just a move away from the poppy sound somewhat?

Damien: Well, it’s definitely less in your face like the first two records were, and is much more structured in the classic pop song form of verse, chorus, verse, chorus kind of thing. We went about it in a really different way. With the first two we would have something in our minds then try to figure how we were going to make it happen. Say like with our first single “Get Over It” I was like how come the world doesn’t write stadium rock anthems anymore? So I’m going to write stadium rock anthems. It was kind of top down you start with an idea and figure how you are going to do it. With this record much more like starting at the bottom with just little bits…ummmmmmm when music really works it’s kinda that one plus one equals a million. So instead of starting with a million and finding the bits that add up to we kinda just played around with sounds and beats and grooves simple elements and things that started to speak something.

By this time we had walked about half a mile and still no coffee!!

Damien: So it was like a beat and a chord equals say lust or anger or sorrow or something in the the end it ends up as a better reflection of how we listen to music rather than what we think it should sound like, more what we emotionally respond to. I had no idea when we started writing that this is where it would end up, but it feels like a much more honest reflection of how I feel than the other records do.

Mark: So I am going to steer clear of the Prince comparisons on this record they are already well documented and you have covered all that shit. I mean they are there for everyone to see!!

Damien: I have certainly talked about it a lot!

Mark: Having said that they are obviously there. I was listening to a good one actually on NPR where you said ” I didn’t realise at the time that Nikki could even grind” or words to that effect about your naivety as a twelve year old listening to that album. Like you said you remember thinking at the time that girl needs a mouth guard she is going to damage her teeth!

Damien: I honestly, umm…. I remember a specific place in my house…you know how your memories before a certain age tend to be kinda snapshots? In fact they still do at times. I remember this one piece of furniture and rug in my parents house and that’s exactly where I was in the room thinking to myself this song is so kinda raunchy who cares about their dentistry in that kind of way. I mean my mum used to grind her teeth so I think the only kind of association I had with grinding was that. Took me a long time to figure out what it meant!

There was much laughing at this point as we crossed a busy road still on our quest for that damn coffee!

Mark: The new record was recorded up in a barn near Canada I believe?

Damien: Yeah, western New York between Buffalo and Pennsylvania which is basically exactly nowhere. It’s really far from any city that we have ever lived in before. I mean even culturally it’s not…. I mean American towns are all kinda alike …. But this is nothing like the rest of the country. It was very bleak and pretty sad to see the destitution since the steel mills went under. Beautiful but also totally shit.

Mark: So on a track like “Before the earth was round”, I even get umm that there is a maybe a touch of Blonde Redhead type feel to it?

Damien: Hey man you picked up on that one, there is definitely a groove similar to some of their stuff. I wasn’t that aware of it until halfway through when Tim picked up on it but I’m happy with it, it’s a cool comparison!

Mark: So left or right guy’s reckon we should try the Riverside for Coffee?

Damien/Shane: Sounds good to us dude

Mark: How different was it to work with Dave Fridmann (MGMT/Flaming Lips) as a producer as opposed to Tore Johansson (The Cardigans/Franz Ferdinand) on this record?

Damien: As good as Tore is and we really enjoyed working with him, I don’t think you would be able to pick out Tore’s sound in the way you can David’s. He really affects the music he records but it’s in a much less predictable way, you have no idea what is going to come out of him. I think we valued that on “Oh No”, we didn’t want to have a producer that altered the course of the record so much. This time when it was time to pick a producer and we had written like eighty something songs at this point we were heavy into it you could already hear a certain vein running through it. David has a particular set of abilities that no one else has. He could pretty much do what anyone can do, he is a spectacularly gifted engineer so if he wanted to do things so if you took something to him he would know how to do it. Equally there are things that he knows how to do that the rest of the world doesn’t know how to do. Basically he works totally alone, no interns, runners, etc. just him. It means he works exactly how he wants to work.

At this point we discover the Bella Italia restaurant who kindly allow us to carry on the interview over Americanos in the warmth!!

Damien: It’s a much more three or four dimensional sound than I’m used to getting from my producers, he is an incredibly creative person. You know with nobody else involved he has complete control over like the placement of the mics, etc. You would be surprised how those little things add up by having the studio set up dead right every time.

Mark: You know it’s like four and a half years since the last record and you came off the back of a thirty month world tour. Did you feel that you had suffered from any kind of artistic burn out or changed as a person? I mean that’s a long time out on the road and you are a guy who gives a lot each live show.

Damien: Yes, it’s hard to care about the same things. I mean I have said this a thousand times before but you kinda get home and crank up the amplifier and try to impress yourself with the majesty of rock but if you have done that for like eight, nine hundred nights in a row it doesn’t have the same effect. But it helped us get past like a certain knee jerk reaction to writing…it also helped us to redefine the way we write. You know as a rock band it’s easy to define yourselves by your opportunities. By that I mean it’s so hard to get a foothold, you kinda have to take whatever comes your way and work your arse off. Things blew up so quickly around the treadmill video that it changed everything so that we were not having to fight so much for the opportunities anymore, they were coming along just fine. It was more a case of realigning ourselves to fight for the type of music you want to rather than getting your foot in the door and hanging on for dear life.

Mark: I was going to ask you about that, do you ever feel that maybe the videos have overshadowed and detracted away from the musical content?

Damien: No not at all. I mean we produce the videos ourselves so they are as much a part of what we are about as the music. I mean a pop song is a short three minute intense burst of emotion. I don’t know shit about film making, cameras or anything, they are just like short visual ideas. They are our baby in the same way as the songs are so it’s not like one is undoing the other, they feel like the same project. Having said that they get a ton of attention and it’s certainly like, I’m not stupid, I know that the 70 year-old woman who stops Tim in Times Square and says “Oh my god you are the treadmill guy!” is not buying our records. You know the fact that they have been so successful is really like the icing on the cake. The people that are going to buy our music are going to buy it anyway. No doubt there are people who hate those kind of videos enough to hate our music because of it, well those sort of music fans are never going to get what we are about anyway.

Mark: I also hear that you intend to produce videos for all thirteen tracks on the album?

At this point finally coffee arrived

Damien: Our publicists love to say that and hopefully it’s true. I’m much more interested in doing a series of good videos rather than a comprehensive series of videos. We are working right now on seven, including the finished ones. The good side of this success is that we pretty much get to do things our own way regarding videos.

Mark: Would you also say there is a melancholic side to this album? For instance “While you were asleep” maybe?

Damien: Yes. It’s a broken record?

Mark: My favourite three tracks are “What The Fuck (W.T.F)”, “Skyscrapers” and “All Is Not Lost”. W.T.F much to my son Adam’s amusement this afternoon when Shane was asking the name of the single.

Damien: Well it was like “What The Fuck” but we finally conceded on W.T.F. as it’s not worth spending the next two years fighting about it.

Mark: Obviously you like all the tracks as it’s your record, but are there any tracks that you are really looking forward to taking into the live arena?

Damien: Yea right now they are all exciting to me because we spent so much time playing the old songs we got to know them too well. Having the new material is really exciting. I guess I really enjoy playing ‘Skyscrapers’ live for the energy and really amping up the crowd. It’s nice to simmer along with that as well it’s a pretty intense kinda feel to it

Mark: It’s kind of a laid back funk feel to it as well though Damien don’t you think?

Damien: Yea, it’s a kinda slowed down funk kinda song, you can feel the crowd sink into it

Mark: So you have been viral sensations, parodied on the Simpsons etc., etc., do you have any ambitions left to achieve in that direction? I did read that Tim would like to see your image projected onto the moon?

Damien: That’s a great idea, I wonder if I was there when he said that. We recently did a design show in Miami with our laser guitars. Did you read anything about that?

Mark: Yes I did, seemed like a really pretty amazing thing to do!

Damien: Was so spectacular and fun, it wasn’t really a rock show or an art show, it was a design show. It was kinda one of these things which fall between the cracks. Really exciting on many levels, not only because they defy definition but you work with such a different group of people. I mean on the road you go from club to club and meet the same type of guys you know, very stereotypical in the main. That’s not to say I don’t love our crew but you know the people who work the club. So doing collaborations with people who work in different fields is really really fun. I mean we are working with these guys from NASA jet propulsion labs on some ideas right now .

Mark: Man I could talk all night but if we don’t wrap this I am going to curse you for a week when I transcribe it! Plus you can’t have a show without a lead singer. Thanks so much for the time and the coffee makes a change from picking up the tab!

Damien: You are more than welcome, picking up the tab is the least I can do after keeping you waiting through an hour long sound check.

To sum up I found Damien both engaging and one of the most sincere people I have had the pleasure to interview. I hope that all comes over in this interview! I have tried to transcribe it word for word despite the traffic noise. The album is out now and Ok Go are on tour for the next couple of weeks around the UK.

Tags: OK Go