Rewind: OK Go: Making the impossible possible

Apr 16, 2025

Damian Kulash, founder of the band OK Go, shares insights into their boundary-pushing music videos, like filming a zero-gravity experience and creating Rube Goldberg machines. He discusses the creative process behind their viral hits, balancing artistry with commercialism, and evolving in the digital age. The conversation also highlights the importance of emotions in creativity and teamwork, as they explore innovative storytelling in their upcoming projects. Discover how this unique rock band navigates the challenges of the modern music landscape!

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ANECDOTE

Overnight Success After Years

The "Here It Goes Again" video was an overnight success after 1.5 years of touring and 10 years as a band.
They realized this success could never be repeated and explored expanding their creative identity beyond that one hit.

INSIGHT

Magic in Creative Alchemy

The creative idea that works is always just beyond what you can formulaically create.
Success happens when one plus one equals more than two, something emotionally impossible.

ADVICE

Structure Creative Surprises

Find creative ideas big enough to explore but with clear boundaries to create form.
Build a vocabulary of memorable surprises and sequence them for a crescendo effect matching the music's emotional flow.

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Aarron and Eli are traveling with their families for Spring Break, so we’re bringing back one of our favorite episodes from 2023 with the band OK Go.

In the time since we recorded the interview, they’ve come out with a new album, and with several new music videos, including for the track Love, shot with no cuts…just “mirrors, robotics, and a whole lot of planning.” Enjoy!

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Not many bands hire Russian pilots to film a Zero-G video on their cosmonaut training plane, known as the “vomit comet”. But those are the kinds of extremes that OK Go will go to in the pursuit of creativity.

Tim Nordwind and Damian Kulash, the band’s founders, met at camp as pre-teens in search of a fellow creative nerd, and founded the band in 1998. Over the past 25 years, they’ve created 3 Grammy-nominated music videos, and won Best Music Video for Here It Goes Again.

From the perfectly timed explosions filmed in slow-motion for their song The One Moment, to the immensely elaborate Rube Goldberg contraption they created for This Too Shall Pass, OK Go is almost like a performance-art troupe that just happens to be a fantastic rock band.

In this episode on the creative process, we talk to Tim and Damian about how they come up with ideas, the macro and micro elements of their creativity, and achieving the impossible.

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