Move over Sundance — the L.A. neighborhood adds an independent film festival; The band OK Go on the new album, “Hungry Ghost”; and Joan Baez adapts to her changing voice.
OK Go hopes 'Hungry Ghosts' captures the feel of their middle school mixtapes
It's hard to think of an indie band more widely known for their music videos than OK Go, whose videos have ranged from backyard dance parties to treadmill jazzercise routines and everywhere in between. Their most recent video, for the song "The Writing's on the Wall," is an MC Escher inspired romp through multiple perspectives.
OK Go's new album, "Hungry Ghosts," is slated for release on Oct. 14. Singer Damian Kulash and bassist Tim Nordwind stopped by The Frame's studios to chat about the band's visual identity, reaching grandmothers via YouTube, and how they continue to derive creative satisfaction from their music.
Interview Highlights:
What's on OK Go's middle school mix tape:
Damian:
There might be some guilty pleasures on there, but they would all be pleasures.
Tim:
I mean, what would it be? Like, Run DMC...
Damian:
The Pixies, Prince...
Tim:
Depeche Mode...
Damian:
Eventually, Fugazi when we got into high school and Spiral Carpets and Stone Roses.
On the ways in which a music video affects the perception of a song:
Damian:
There's no question that the video forever changes that song. But the way I think about it these days, it's like, YouTube is the biggest music streaming service on the planet. For people who are under 30, that's just a DJ tool. Songs used to come on one channel, then eventually there was stereo — left and right — and now there's pretty much always going to be this third channel, the video channel. Even if you don't put anything there, someone's going to put it up on YouTube and it'll have an image: it'll either be the cover of your record or some picture they took from the show — whatever. It will be there.
The songs that have been the most successful and the most viral for us are not necessarily even my favorite of our songs, but obviously those are the ones that, if we play them, then people lose their minds, because they've seen and heard them hundreds or thousands of times. I don't know if anyone can ever hear "Here it Goes Again" and not see us on treadmills in their mind.
On whether or not videos actually generate downloads or ticket sales:
Damian:
The videos take our music to corners of the world where we never would have gone otherwise. We play shows in South Africa and Moscow and Korea — places where our records haven't been released — and people know every word to every song. They get into one video and then they download the rest for the record and they know every note. It's an amazing Trojan horse for the whole project of the band.
On what listeners should take from the new album:
Tim:
I think this new record is the most surreal party we've ever managed to put down on tape. So I hope that people leave with a feeling of joy. Although I think when I say "party," that usually suggests that it's all fun all the time. But I think actually there's a pretty good emotional arc in this record where there are some really fun moments, but there are some really sad moments.
Damian:
Our best songs, lyrically at least, usually have a push and a pull between the emotional bed of the song and the emotional instantiation of the lyrics. Most of the songs that get me the most pulled in two directions [are] pretty much every Elvis Costello song. Right when you're experiencing the most sublime joy, there's also this stab in your heart of heartbreak or melancholy. I hope actually that our albums feel a lot like those mixtapes that we used to make for each other, where it's like no one knows why this fits with that, but it just feels right.
On managing to derive creative satisfaction from a band that's been working together for more than a decade:
Damian:
Neither of us played piano, and I don't know what we were doing, but we were making fun of something by banging on a piano and screaming. And walking out of that room I remember [thinking], This is so rad, what we made! And no one ever heard that. There were a lot of moments of making stuff back then. Even videos — my parents had a video camera and we used to sit in front of it, pretending to be news anchors and we thought these things were hilarious, but there was no one to show them to and no way to share them. Thank god there wasn't, because we'd never get to do this now if anyone saw that stuff. But the difference in the satisfaction is that it is really wonderful when we get a note from someone saying, "This song got me through my father's death." Or, This is the song that I played while I proposed to my wife."
OK Go performs at The Grammy Museum on Wednesday, October 29.
'Water & Power' opens Highland Park Independent Film Festival
There are an estimated 3,000 film festivals around the world, and one of the newest debuts Oct. 9-12 in the up-and-coming L.A. neighborhood of Highland Park. The festival opens with a screening of “Water and Power.” It’s the feature directorial debut of Richard Montoya, a member of the Culture Clash theater trio, who adapted his play of the same name. Montoya spoke with The Frame about the new festival and the development of his first movie.
Interview Highlights
Montoya on the significance of this new festival:
It's the Highland Park Independent Film Festival, and I think that's important to mention because it's fiercely so. And Highland Park...like Echo Park and Silver Lake — we're talking about these neighborhoods growing and finding new identities and merging old identities and perhaps becoming a hipster neighborhood. And so it's a symbiotic relationship...but this [festival] is really nice. Alessandro [Gentile], the artistic director, has curated a beautiful festival of first-run films.
On what made his film possible:
The simple answer is the Sundance Institute — [Robert] Redford's generous gift back to potential filmmakers. Michelle Satter, who co-created the Institute with him, they have a team that is on the lookout for work. Mine was a stage play at the Mark Taper Forum and it was a noir-ish, rather cinematic take on the powers of Los Angeles. One of the resident producers came to see the stage piece and said, "I think you should submit this to the Institute."
On developing his script and making the film:
I remember my first meeting with [author] Walter Mosely. He laid my script out on a table and said, "You don't have a film here yet, but we're going to work on that." It was a humbling seven-year process, and finally the script was ready to go out and attract a producer — Mark Roberts — and finding our money, And then filming in 12 nights on the streets of L.A.
The Highland Park Independent Film Festival runs Oct. 9-12 at the Highland Theater.