by Nargess Banks
How did you come up with such an original concept for your new single I Won’t Let you Down, featuring the Honda UNI-CUB in the video?
We greatly admire the work of the creative director Morihiro Harano. He approached us around six months ago with the idea of doing something in Japan with the UNI-CUB. He had this idea of doing a huge dance!
How did you come to find the incredible location where the video was shot over a month?
Mori [Morihiro Harano] found an abandoned mall on the outskirts of Tokyo where the buildings are painted in primary colours, which works so well with our style. We needed somewhere big for the final shot, and this place had the most incredible parking lot. It was the perfect location.
The video has the feel of the grand, spectacular musicals of the 1920s. Was that intentional?
Mori is a big fan of Busby Berkeley [famed 1920s director], but we were also influenced by some of the Italian motorcycle videos of the 1960s where they do a kind of choreographed dance, shot from above. There are also references to mask games, popular in Japan, Korea and China.
What was it like to work alongside the famous Japanese choreographer Airman?
We spent about two weeks choreographing in a Tokyo dance studio – then Airman came to show us what could physically be done. He is incredible. We didn’t have a full idea of how this video will evolve. We went to Tokyo with a simple concept to make a video with the UNI-CUB. Process is very important to how we make our videos. It wouldn’t work for us if we had to sit down at a desk and plan it all. This was a hugely collaborative experience.
OK Go on the set of The Writing’s On The Wall
Did the city vibe in Tokyo impact on the process?
Absolutely. We saw all these Japanese school kids in uniform and knew we had to have them in the video, as they look great in big numbers, and it is a reference to Busby Berkeley’s musicals. It is an incredible place.
Did Honda allow for artistic freedom?
Honda was awesome! They let us do what we wanted creatively. They were the perfect collaborators.
Did you have any trouble mastering the UNI-CUB? After all you do some smart moves in the video?
We found them easy to ride and it took a few hours to learn to move around freely. We did have the UNI-CUB inventor from Honda watching us at one point though, which was a bit intimidating!
Was the song I Won’t Let You Down written especially for the video?
We tend to write the songs first and compile an album before we move onto the second stage of making videos. I Won’t Let You Down, collaboratively written by the OK Go band members, was chosen as it has a lot of energy.
Did you have any hiccups whilst shooting?
Yes it rained for three to four days while we were meant to shoot, but it all worked out in the end. Something always seems to go wrong when we shoot our videos!
You are known for your quirky and experimental videos. How will you follow this? Honda does have a clever humanoid robot ASIMO…
ASIMO would be awesome! We would love to collaborate again with Honda. We would also like to do more projects with Mori, our co-director Kazuaki Seki and Airman. The crew were incredible. They are up for anything. We even had a drone filming!
What was it like working in Tokyo?
Mori and Airman were great ambassadors for the culture there. They took us to their favourite places; we even went to a robot restaurant. They helped us navigate Tokyo. It was an amazing experience.
