OK Go Frontman Damian Kulash on Being an Icon at This Year's UKMVAs

There are few bands whose music videos feel quite as magical as OK Go’s. Whether they’re dancing on treadmills, floating in zero gravity or unleashing chaos with a Rube Goldberg machine, their work has consistently sat at the intersection of popular culture, precision engineering and pure wonder.

So, it’s no surprise then that frontman Damian Kulash has been named Icon of the Year at the 2025 UK Music Video Awards, in celebration of the band’s boundary-pushing creativity, enduring commitment to real craft and refusal to set limits on their imagination.

“The thing we’re always looking for is a sense of wonder, really," says Damian of the band's craft-first signature style. "That’s the closest word I can come up with. Or maybe a sense of connection."

At a time when digital effects can fake almost anything, OK Go is proudly, stubbornly analogue. Rather than rely on CGI, the band builds visuals out of real-world physics, using optical tricks, meticulously-timed choreography, robotics and gravity-defying camera moves, creating magic both on screen and behind the camera.

“We try to make events in our videos that tell the viewer, ‘This is real’," says Damian. "So they can experience real wonder… It’s like, no, really – look, this is real, and it’s unbelievable.”

That philosophy has made OK Go videos become viral sensations and endlessly referenced creatively, thanks to their deadpan performances, DIY inventiveness and determination to surprise viewers.

“AI has made it even more obvious that when anything is possible, nothing is special,” says Damian. “Everyone can do everything, and that’s amazing – it’s given us superpowers, but it also makes superpowers not mean very much.”

OK Go’s iconic 'Here It Goes Again' video (2006), in which the band danced on treadmills, was the turning point, quickly becoming a global viral hit and one of their most-watched videos, accumulating over 66.5 million views. It forced the band to ask why it connected so deeply.

'Here It Goes Again'

“There was a moment of asking: what makes this truly special?,” Damian remembers. “Why did we make it? So, we started to reverse engineer our thinking.”

They realised that it wasn’t so much the spectacle of the video that struck a chord, but how it made viewers feel. So, they intentionally took an instinct-driven approach, embedding joy, surprise and connection into their formula for play and precision, structuring each frame around how they want the viewer to feel.

By the time ‘This Too Shall Pass’ video (2010) rolled out its now-legendary Rube Goldberg machine, OK Go wasn't just choreographing movement, “we were choreographing physics, time and process,” says Damian.

'This Too Shall Pass'

Behind the band’s visual wizardry is a team of collaborators, engineers, physicists, puppeteers, choreographers, even dog trainers, who are all invited to see their disciplines through a more emotional lens.

“Almost everyone is good at playing,” says Damian. “But mostly, their jobs are about efficiency and reliability. We ask people to engineer for feeling, make it produce anxiety, joy and wonder – even if it fails sometimes.”

Before production begins, the team and the band will have a week of playing and hands-on experimenting to find the emotional core of the idea.

“We’ll spend days just playing, unfolding dimensions together,” says Damian. “That’s when the magic happens, when everyone’s feeding off each other’s curiosity.”

Their latest single, 'Love', nominated for Best Rock Video, International at UKMVAs

This commitment to play and process means that each OK Go video feels new as there are no recycled tricks or formulas to follow, just an ongoing chase for surprise. When they pick collaborators to work with – whether brands or specialists – building a rapport is vital. While many artists might chase algorithms, OK Go chase authenticity, to stand out in a world of filters and machine-made imagery. They prefer a hand-built video that’s messy, human and real.

“Our viewers know our work is real,” says Damian. “Handmade art is increasingly rare and valuable. The excitement comes from blending art with real human experience, not relying on algorithms.”

This thinking has spilled into their K-12 educational initiative, which is a non-profit that helps teachers to use the band’s videos to teach maths and science through curiosity and experimentation. "It's about inspiring kids to explore the world the way we do, through play,” adds Damian.

'Upside Down & Inside Out'

As Damian accepted his Icon of the Year trophy, he reflected on the future of music video craft – and he’s optimistic. “ I think we’ll keep seeing people chase reality through digital and experiential art,” he says. “Technology will keep advancing, but the value of human-made work will only grow. When anything is possible, nothing is special. If you can say, ‘This is human,’ that’s the most special thing.”

For OK Go, the Icon Award is a reminder of what drives the band to evolve – a sense of curiosity, experimentation, collaboration, and, above all, putting feelings first. In a media landscape obsessed with immediate gratification, Damian’s philosophy is refreshingly human: “If I believe in the work, it will reach people, whether now or decades later,” concludes Damian. “That’s the difference between authentic connection and chasing metrics.”