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Sometimes the best ideas are the ones we have without intending to have them in the first place. Ok Go know this for a fact. While record label executives and PR gurus across the globe are trying to work out how this whole ‘making it big through the internet’ thing works the New York quartet have seemingly mastered it by complete fluke. The video for their last single ‘Million Ways’ is now officially the most downloaded in history and it only cost $25 to make. On the eve of the release of the bands second album ‘Ok No’ Gigwise talked to front man Damian Kulash and heard how the band entered the record books by complete accident.
“We were trying to come up with an idea to make the live shows unique,” explains Kulash. “We decided that halfway through the set we’d drop our guitars and perform a choreographed dance routine.” With the help of Kulash’s sister, a trained ballerina, the band set about creating said routine, practised for four days and then decided to film it to see what it looked like. “It was never meant to be a video, it’s mind boggling what’s happened since,” says Kulash. “We’ve even been sent videos from Vietnam and Russia, basically all over the place, of people recreating it. They’re even doing it at weddings!” Its surely beat the ‘Maquerena’ hands down. “There are these five girls who have sent us about ten different versions in different outfits, we‘re thinking of getting a restraining order,” laughs Kulash.
The idea for the promo for ‘Million Ways’ came after the band had decamped to Malmo in Sweden to record their sophomore 
album. They eventually hook up with producer Tore Johansson (Franz Ferdinand, The Cardigans) after he was impressed by the erly demos. Kulash describes ‘OK No’ as more “organic” than it’s predecessor, 2002’s self titled debut. “This record is much different,” he reveals. “The first was like some kind of science project - a lab monster. It turned out surreally perfect like a synthetic slab of pop full of bells and whistles. This one is more organic, simpler, more human. It’s more emotional rock n’ roll, you can really hear the rumble of the rhythm section on it.” Lyrically he says it ploughs much darker subjects than the buoyant music would suggest. “We wanted to explore the gap between happy and sad, while the music remains energetic and upbeat we put a darker, more emotional spin on the lyrics. People like Elvis Costello or The Stone Roses were really good at that type of thing. The Smiths as well.”
The band toured ‘Ok No’ throughout the UK in January and are to return at the end of March, the reaction to the new material has been amazing says Kulash. “The tour was spectacular, every show was sold out. The new songs are just really fun to play live, they have an honest, full band sound to them. While the songs from the first album had a certain charm, they had too much of a studio manufactured feel to them.” And have the crowd been dancing we ask. “Yeah, surprisingly in most places large numbers of the audience have been joining in. Its really made our jaws drop!”
One now infamous gig on that tour was in Glasgow when the show was forced out onto the streets of the city after a power cut in the venue they were supposed to play. Kulash plus fellow band members Andy Ross and Tim Norwind performed several songs from ‘Ok No’ acoustically on the steps of King Tuts before clearing a space to perform the ‘Million Ways’ dance routine. “The cops came and tried to stop us,” says Kulash. “But we were too busy performing for the crowd. We just wanted to do something for the people who’d come down to see us.”
Apart from the planned March dates the band also hope to be featuring on the bills of many of this summers festivals. Already confirmed for Wireless, Kulash reveals that the Reading and Leeds weekends are amongst his favourite, though in festivals can all be a strange experience he says. “They are very different to normal gigs on a tour. Its more like a rock buffet with people watching little bits of a lot of bands, not the rock restaurant you’re used to. Sometimes they can lack the intensity of a regular gig.” Maybe it’ll be different in 2006 with several thousand people dancing in unison!
So what, you might ask, have the band got in store for us with the video for their next, as yet unnamed, single. “It’s going to be directed by Olivier Gondry, the brother of Michel,” says Kulash. “Its gonna be a bigger production filmed on DV video and have a kind of low fi/hi fi feel. But I‘m keeping tight lipped on the concept.” he adds. He does, however, say that it won’t be a repeat performance of ‘Million Ways’. But don’t despair those who were hoping it would for the band have another gem they are saving for a rainy day. “We’ve already recorded another dance video,” Kulash reveals. “But we’re keeping under wraps for now, we’re planning to release it in another six months.” We’ll keep our dancing shoes ready then.
