Stop The Earth!

On the same day that party in the park was happening in Leeds, I was checking out OK GO in Manchester at Academy 3. I got the chance to talk to Damian, the lead vocalist and musician of the group.

Why the treadmills?

It made a good video, it was fun.

So many things are fun, what made you think of treadmills?

It wasn’t meant to be a proper video, it was a practice dance we made to fuck with people. Rock shows have these sedimented rules where the crowd has to look cool and smoke and the band has to look cool and smoke. There’s a set of routines that exist around rock gigs and we wanted to break that rule. Within hours it had a shit load of downloads so we kept it online.

Do you perform that dance at any of your shows?

We used to, havent done for years. It’s not about the *de-ne-ne-na-na-na-nahhh*. The worst thing at a rock gig is when the crowd are in a bubble and not connected to the music. So we aim to make people shocked and make them look around and think about where they are again. Tonight, we are going to play a song on handbells, like church handbells.

Is Wikipedia correct, do you have rescue dogs?

Yea, they don’t go rescue them out of the ocean. I got them from the dog pound, I don’t believe in buying them from breeders and so on. Another thing is that you tend to get less inbred and funner dogs from the pound, they appreciate your company more. They have more of a personality. There’s something a little bit fucked up by buying a full bred dog, the whole point is companionship, not perfection.

 You guys got a really interesting and cool dress style, do you have a stylist or do it yourselves?

Thanks, no we do it ourselves. Sometimes we’ve had to call upon stylists to go out and buy stuff, especially for photoshoots. We’ve spent ourselves on clashing patterns now though, it’s so fun while it feels new but after you tour for 2 and a half years, it gets old.

We just had some beautiful clothes, Costume Nationale made us some primary colour suits, so we got red, blue etc… We’ll have those in October.

How do you guys like England?

We’ve toured the UK a lot and I love it. Driving through the English country side can be the most depressing thing, cold and wet so I’m glad we are here in the summer. The british model of a festival is so much better than the American way. The American festivals are anxiety promoting whilst you guys seem a bit more relaxed.

How long did it take to set up the video of “this too shall pass”?

About 6 months, it took 2 months to set up the machine itself but a long time to set up the actual logistics.

Are the guys screaming at the end of the video actually the engineers?

Yea, and my parents. My dad was one of the engineers and my mom was around making cookies for everyone.

How would you describe your band in one word or phrase?

A journalist recently wrote up that we are “arty party” and I like that. I like to think we are not cheap and disposable nor are we serious, so I think this works for us.

I ask everyone this, how would you define time in a single sentence?

The fourth dimension…Would you like a less physical definition?

Once upon a midnight dreary I was watching Russell Howard’s Good News and every show he has a guest comedian come on for a bit and they are usually pretty good. So I saw Chris Ramsey appear as a guest on the show but didn’t really acknowledge how funny he really was until I saw him hosting the University of Bradford’s Comedy Night at the Bradford Love Apple. Let’s just say his jokes range from constipation to fish being a vegetarian dish…Good laughs all around. I took this opportunity to get a quick interview with the guy before he goes on tour!

So you were on Russell Howard’s good news - how was that?

It was great. I love what Russell does, and to get a chance to perform on his show was amazing. But most importantly, I went down well with the studio audience and had a great time… it was better than most club gigs to be honest.

Do you think appearing on the show has changed your career trajectory? 

I don’t know about changed my trajectory… but possibly made my trajectory and final goal seem more realistic and achievable?… maybe? The response I have had from it is unreal. As the credits rolled on the show on the saturday night/Sunday morning I had 2000+ extra fans on my facebook fanpage, and my website got such a spike of traffic that it toppled the server it was on, crashing all of the other sites that run off it… my mate who does the site was panicking.

A lot of people say comedians live a double life, happy in front of others but desperately lonely in private - do you think there is any truth to this?

With some comedians definitely, I always thought comedy would be a full-on boys club, like a load of jocks in an American high school film, but its really not. I have met some really interesting, introverted people while doing comedy. I think its because, as a comedian, you live inside your head quite a lot. But to answer your question, no, I’m really happy most of the time… like a dog chasing a fly round the house.

Hypothetical situation: You’re in a car accident, you hit your head and the region of your brain that allows you to synthesis funny comments is damaged (god forbid)…What line of work would you want to go into?

I’d work in a Zoo, 100%. There are some gigs I do where I think, ‘fuck it… hand the zoo application form in tomorrow’

What is your ultimate goal? The Apollo?

I’m playing the Apollo in October… supporting Al Murray, but yes, I’d like to have my name over the door at some point… or did you mean the TV show? Yes to both. Yes. Yes… please.

Do you have any big plans coming up that you are particularly excited about?

A couple of things really, obviously my UK tour supporting Al Murray in the Autumn, cant wait for that. But before that, I’m taking my first Solo Stand up show to the Edinburgh festival in August. Its called ‘Aggrophobic’ and is on from the 4th to the 30th August, every night at 8:30pm in the Pleasance courtyard - PLUG… thanks for asking!

How would you define time in one sentence?

I wouldn’t even try.

Who are you…in three words?

Jokes. Hair. Smile.

Boxers or Briefs?

Boxer Briefs - didn’t see that coming did you? 

A red head, A blonde and a Brunette….Who do you kiss, sleep with and marry?

It would depend if they were women or not… you havn’t specified. Too late.