Massive success is such a relative term when speaking about bands and labels and selling out. Does an MTV video, spins on “NBA Inside Stuff” during a dunk montage and worldwide notoriety for being the first band signed by an incoming label president constitute massive success?
In the case of OK GO, the answer is a puzzling no. The kids drive their own van through the night to gigs, but they have 10-foot-wide record flats in the widows of record stores, whose sole purpose is to sell their record (which is priced at a J5-like $7.99).
So, I really don’t buy into the modesty of OK GO lead singer Damian Kulash when he speaks about massive success not knowing the band’s name. But to be honest, stay that way, kid. Self-realized fame can be a real downer.
Badger Herald: Why is your album so damn cheap? That was pretty nice.
Damian Kulash: Well, we’re proud of our record, and we think that the best way to advertise it is just to let people hear it.
Instead of spending tons of money to beat people over the head with it (huge promotional costs account for the majority of what labels spend on the CDs they produce, which is why they usually have to charge such incredibly high prices for them), we figured it was a better idea to make the albums cheap so that anyone can afford it. Hopefully more people will be willing to give [it] a chance this way.
BH: How has the massive success of your record affected the way you tour?
DK: Massive success has yet to meddle with us at all. In fact, massive success hasn’t even heard of us. At this point, unfettered by the complications of anything beyond a mere glimmer of hope, we still tour in a van and drive it ourselves.
Dan, our drummer, is unquestionably the strongest driver among us, Andy, our guitarist, is great at city driving and backing up with a trailer, I mostly drive the all-night shifts, and Tim, our bassist, is not allowed to drive at all after a unanimous vote from the passengers.
BH: Did you have a method when recording the latest album?
DK: The process of making the record was long and involved, although I’d be a little uncomfortable suggesting that it was a pre-organized method. It’s a pretty haphazard chronology.
The first set of about 15 songs, from which about half of the finished record comes, were written over the course of five years or so, some of them individually and some of them as collaborations, mostly before we had formed a band.
After a year or so of playing shows, we rounded up as much cash as we could and spent close to five months budget-recording them bit by bit, borrowing time in friends’ basements, or late at night on the off-hours of studios.
We wound up finishing 12 songs, and grew annoyed with them within a couple months. They were over-thought and overwrought, too precious and arty, without the fundamental abdominal rock explosion we thought they deserved.
So we went into a writing spree and quickly demo-ed seven more songs, which now comprise the other half of the record. The combination of the “finished” album and the new demos got the attention of labels, and we got signed. The plan, at that time, was to finish off the newer songs, remix the older ones and be done.
Of course, once we were knee deep in the new songs, the older ones felt like they deserved re-recording, and eventually we found ourselves careening down the slippery slope to an entirely re-recorded album.
BH: I’ve studied semiotics a bit in college, as have you. Can you break down OK GO into Levi-Strauss’ langue / parole grid?
DK: The answer is that I made a terrible academic and am completely unqualified to give you a response.
In college, I spent much more time recording music than I did reading, so, as a result, most of what I knew about anything scholarly was amassed by careful bullshitting through class discussions.
At the time, this seemed to constitute a real learning process, but, of course, it all went as quickly as it came. By now, any diligent freshman in a first-year cultural-studies course could completely steamroll me in a debate.
BH: And I’m sure you know Madison?
DK: Yes. In fact, we spent a few days mixing our first recordings there at Smart Studios. It was one of our first experiences in a professional studio, and we spent most of the time jumping around excitedly. Garbage was downstairs working on its album, and we got to smile sheepishly at Shirley Manson whenever she was watching TV in the lounge.
OK GO plays The Annex Friday, Oct. 11. at 6:30 p.m. (doors at 6 p.m.)
