AUSTIN (KXAN) — OK Go and Austin, Texas, have something in common: creative resilience in the wake of a society that’s ever shifting more and more toward reliance on artificial intelligence.
In this current “Age of AI,” post-COVID world, OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash is subverting the paradigm shift toward virtual existence and leaning even harder into the human connection aspect of making music and art.
(Photo credit: Piper Ferguson)
Kulash spoke with KXAN ahead of OK Go’s concert in Austin on Nov. 8. The 35-minute conversation spanned topics ranging from the rock band’s approach to creating their famed, complex music videos to why Kulash loves playing concerts in Austin.
At the heart of it all: human connection.
OK Go put out their first album in over a decade earlier this year. “And the Adjacent Possible” came out in April 2025. The album before that was “Hungry Ghosts,” which was released in October 2014.
A lot happened in the time period between those releases.
“I feel like our band had a little miniature version of what the larger world did, which was a pause that caused us to reset,” Kulash said, in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the fact that OK Go is still making music and touring is “an unbelievable blessing,” noting how hard it is to reach success as a musician or band. “The number of people who get to exist as a professional rock band for more than a decade is vanishingly small, and it gets smaller and smaller the longer the time frame you’re looking at.”
OK Go formed in the late 90s and gained popularity in the mid-to-late 2010s.
Kulash said that when the pandemic hit, it allowed him and his bandmates to work on other creative projects and spend more time with their families. And then when OK Go returned, they were able to “focus more intensely on the band,” and realized, “we don’t need to panic about it being here tomorrow… the only reason to do it is because we love doing it.”
Witnessing an ever-evolving society while taking time between releases reminded Kulash why he loves making music and art in the first place.
When asked how today’s world is different from when OK Go first started, Kulash said, “The world, it seems to be changing only faster every day. So, there’s so many differences from when we started so many years ago,” Kulash said. “The main reaction I have to your question is just to feel grateful and lucky, right? It’s amazing that we get to keep chasing the making of things.”
To summarize it, Kulash said, “Right now, I like what it has brought back for me since we’ve started touring again, and we have a new album out. It’s just how insanely valuable the human connection is… the part that I care the most about is just the humans on the other end of that, and the place we feel it most purely and authentically is on stage.”
That’s part of why he loves playing concerts in Austin. “Some of our best shows ever over these decades have been in Austin,” Kulash said.
“Austin is just a place, full of… soul,” he said.
“Every city is a little bit of a cultural oasis, right? If you are a person who likes to do things your own way, someone who doesn’t want to be told what to do and wants to figure out your own path, and you’re a 15-year-old living anywhere… you’re going to go to the nearest city and see if you can find people like you, right?”
Kulash said, “certain cities draw from even bigger zones,” giving examples of New York City and LA, which draw people from the rest of the United States. He said Austin is becoming one of those types of destinations, too.
“Austin, especially, drawing from a huge area where there are no other cities quite as vibrant and arty and full of crazy ideas. It’s a wonderful feedback loop, because when you find those places, you find your people, and when you find your people, more people come,” Kulash said.
“I love playing in Austin because you feel like… it’s got the independence and uniqueness and sort of artful soul of an entire huge region of the country, all collected into one little dot, you know, and we always have a wonderful time.”
OK Go has been touring the new album across the U.S. and will play a concert at Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre on Saturday. And of course, the album is accompanied by one of the band’s classic complex, single-take music videos for the single “Love.”
Credit: Source link
