OK Go

I love hearing artists talk about their art. No one knows it like they do. I love hearing the circumstances that gave life to their creation, and the greater story they mean to tell with it.

I'm not a dedicated fan of OK Go -- I like them fine *insert shrug here*-- but I really liked this interview with two of its band members for the way it explores finding hope (paradoxically, after great success), finding oneself, and diving into the deep mystery of creativity.

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start time: 3:36

(Interviewer)

Is it just me, or is there a tone of melancholy throughout this album?

(Damian Kulash)

The record, I think, is kind of our attempt to find hope in hopeless situations...

You know, we toured for 31 months on our last record and that basically destroys everything in your life.

(Tim Nordwind)

It takes a toll on you -- emotionally, personally...

So you both sacrificed personal relationships for the band?

Not intentionally necessarily, but...yeah. You wind up three years later a totally different person and unsure of how you've gotten there.

It's a strange thing to look back and... Eventually we all sort of ended up at a point where all of a sudden we were back at home sitting in some chair or in our bed going like...Oh my god, did -- I think we -- I think we won a Grammy. I'm not quite sure, but -- I think I remember that.

And I hate being complain-y like "Oh, it's so difficult being on tour" because it's not, it's wonderful, it's a dream come true. But sometimes when you get your dreams, then you realize when you come back to real life like... "This is my life?"

Is there a song on this album that sort of gets at that -- that moment where you get back and you realize... 'What do I have, what am I doing?'

Boy...I feel like a lot of the songs sort of have that... I think the song that's closest to that is "Before the Earth was Round." It's this sort of absurdist allegory where...the whole world goes and they figure out that the earth is round, and they have knowledge now and everything goes wrong because of it. They lose mystery and...poetry.

The bite of the apple?

Yes. It is the bite of the apple. Exactly.

/song clip/ Before the earth was round, there was no end to things...and no one tried to measure what they knew...

The challenge for us personally, especially in making this record, was to keep it creative and to be looking for the things that actually turn us on creatively, as opposed to following the pattern that works. Because even when you're not wildly successful financially, and even when you're not at the top of the charts, anything that works gives everybody a reason to sort of push you in the direction of that thing that worked, and you can spend your life sort of...imitating yourself. And we had some things on our last record that were wildly successful and coming home and trying to figure out how to play the part of yourself -- you know, like how am I going to be that person that wrote this thing four or five years ago, who I just don't associate myself with at all anymore? And it takes some pretty big acts of courage, I think, to just be like I am not going to do anything like what I did last time.

/instrumental clip/

We've been having to describe this record -- it's really difficult because it's a very contradictory record. It's the happiest thing we've ever made, and the saddest thing we've ever made. It's -- we're proud of it. That part's good.

Whatever it is.

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