OK GO

Talking to Damian Kulash will take you deep into the mind of a seasoned artist—cerebral, well-theorized, brimming with ideas and opinions. But at his core, the multi-hyphenate OK Go frontman is fueled by something simpler: He wants to play. He’s forever trying to nurture that child-like sense of awe in himself and his band.

“What good is doing any of this — any kind of art — if you’re not surprising yourself?” he asks.

“Without that electric shock of discovery, there’s nothing at all.”

OK Go (Kulash, bassist Timothy Nordwind, multi-instrumentalist Andy Ross, and drummer Dan Konopka) have been professional collaborators for nearly 30 years, during which time they’ve put a wild variety of notches on their belts. Yes, they’ve racked up billions of streams, topped radio charts, directed dozens of award-winning videos, and collected three VMAs and a GRAMMY. But they’ve also collaborated with DNA scientists and Muppets, testified before congress, published in academic journals, launched a K-12 educational non-profit, and earned a mountain of accolades that are much more unusual for a rock band: twenty-one Cannes Lions, twelve CLIOS, The Smithsonian Ingenuity Award, and a spot in the permanent collection of MoMA. Now, a new generation of online creators who grew up on their seminal videos regularly reference OK Go as forebears of a new brand of creativity.

But to hear Kulash tell it, the band measures success not by awards, but by the thrill of creative discovery and the freedom to pursue it, and as the band prepares to release its ambitious fifth studio album, And the Adjacent Possible, he says they’re more energized than ever, and full of gratitude. “Spending our lives chasing ideas simply because they’re inspiring or beautiful, full stop, is something we all dream of when we’re young. A few people are lucky enough to get a shot at it, but it almost always gives way to other agendas, more practical concerns. To be midlife and spending our days in pursuit of wonder or spectacle or catharsis simply for their own sake… it’s such a privilege, such a gift.”

And the Adjacent Possible testifies to just how curious — and adventurous — OK Go have been of late. Even for a band known for pushing boundaries, this album is wildly eclectic—postmodern and genre-dissolving. 

Given the legacy of their videos, famed for their inventive use of treadmills and dogs; slow motion and zero-gravity, Rube Goldberg machines, optical illusions, and musical stunt driving, the band couldn’t very well return without an eye-popping video in hand, and in January they delivered: The stunning moving mosaic for “A Stone Only Rolls Downhill” features 64 videos playing across 64 phones. Directed by Kulash and Chris Buongiorno (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), it required more than a thousand takes, and over two hours and twenty minutes of single-take clips are condensed into the final frame. 

Kulash seems somewhere between inspired and bemused by what lies ahead. When asked what he thinks the next five years look like for the band, he replies, “A five-year plan is a very reasonable idea. But the only place I ever want to be in five years is somewhere I couldn’t possibly predict today.”