Interview: OK Go On Letting Fans Insert Their 'Social Selves' Into Their Live Show

OK Go's latest viral offering allowed fans to insert their "social selves" -- their Twitter or Facebook avatars -- into a live video of the band's pop-up concert in Brazil.

The project employs a new technology -- called ShotCast -- that uses the profile images of fans as large pixels to build up the image that plays out on screen. The result is a dynamic 8-bit version of the video made up of hundreds of fans' faces.

The system works by checking the dominant colour of the profile picture or avatar and then placing that image into the relevant part of the film. People watching the content online can hover over the mosaic of images to see any particular fan's comment or tweet.

The initiative is sponsored by Cuervo Cold Tequila and conceived in conjunction with digital agency Albion. The band has been conducting a series of pop-up gigs around Brazil, culminating in a live-streamed performance which fans around the world can place themselves into. To participate, users can visit the Facebook Connect-powered CuervoCold.com website and pre-submit a message. The system will then pull in their profile image. The second technique uses Twitter's API. Once a user has registered on the hub, they can take part at any point during the live transmission by using the hashtag #shotcast. A live search of the tweets pulls the relevant avatar and message into the film on the fly, creating an ever-changing film that will live online.

Wired.co.uk attempted to make phone contact with the band on top of Corcovado mountain in Rio de Janeiro a few hours before their live performance. Unfortunately Christ the Redeemer seemed to be interfering with the mobile signal, so we were forced to resort to an email exchange, where lead vocalist Damian Kulash talks about Twitter, bands getting into bed with brands, and the convergence of creative disciplines.
Wired.co.uk: Where are you?

____Damian Kulash: We were here (see photo above). And honestly, it was pretty shortsighted of me to think we'd get mobile coverage up there, because Jesus clearly doesn't need our petty technology. When he wants to talk, he just speaks directly to people.

How did you come up with this Shotcast idea?

____I can't really take credit for the idea. For ages, we've wanted to make a video that was a moving mosaic of films submitted by our fans -- a video made by their videos -- but before we ever got our act together to pull it off, the London creative agency Albion proposed this similar idea for our project in Brazil. Instead of fans submitting videos, they simply tweet or send a Facebook message to get involved. You don't have to submit a video or invest a lot of time or energy, you just send a message and you're in.

What has been the biggest challenge with this idea?

____The biggest challenge is color. What makes for good live show isn't always what makes for the best videos, especially given the mosaic-ing technology. The manic lighting of a live concert, with strobes and monochrome washes and such, means that there is a struggle to keep the images legible. The mosaic-ing technology pixelates the video to a pretty low resolution, so if a light on stage turns everything bright red, you can wind up totally losing the people in the shot. But after a lot of testing, I think we've got some solutions.

What are your views on social media? You seem to have a Twitter account, but don't tweet.

____I have a hard enough time keeping up with my email. I feel super behind the times, not being a twitterer, but the band's account is my outlet when I need one. As for social media in general, it's essential to what we do as a band; it's how we connect directly with the people who make this all possible for us. In 2003, we used to sit outside each of our concerts with pads of paper, collecting our fans' email addresses because it's always been our desire to have a direct relationship with them. We know that the things we make aren't straight up the middle, and we're not trying to please everyone. The people who are into what we do are really into what we do, and if we can connect directly with them, then all of the rules and dangers and treachery of the music industry are irrelevant. We can ignore the jockeying for chart position and slimy back room dealing and all the crap that generally attends the business side of making music, because we don't need that system to communicate with our fanbase.

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What made you decide that the Cuervo brand fit was right?

____We've been independent of the major label system for a couple years now, and we fund a lot of what we do by partnering with brands. The way we see it: corporate marketing money was largely running the music industry in 1995, when MTV picked what was successful, and Viacom's sponsors paid MTV's bills. The big difference now is that we don't have a label to insulate us from that whole rats' nest.

On the one hand, it's dangerous to let your art near commerce. If you'll let a logo near you, how long until you're nothing but a corporate puppet? How long before it stops being art and starts being advertising? On the other hand, there's transparency, and no gatekeeper with a separate agenda. We go into our partnerships with our eyes open, and in the right situation everyone has the same goal: we want people to care about the project. If a brand just sees one of our projects a canvas for traditional shove-it-down-your-throat advertising, it's palpable right away, and we let them know they should work with an ad agency instead of a band. Because no one benefits if the thing we make is tacky and artless. People don't line up around the block to see a performance by a corporate marketing team, they line up to see a performance by a band.

Everyone loses if our project loses the focus, if the show, video, or art project, stops being a good show, video, or art project. Conversely, when a brand's goals are well aligned with ours, we know. The smart brands know that it matters more for them to be a part of the things that people love, rather than to just plaster logos and slogans everywhere. Cuervo's brand is right for this. They're the spontaneous, playful underdog of the spirits world.

A lot of your other videos have required huge amounts of work in the "making-of" stage, whereas with this one is that the quirky stuff is done by technology. Were you tired of spending so long on your videos?

____No, we're working on a really work intensive one right now. But yes, I can't tell you how nice it is to show up in Brazil and have the logistical stress be on someone else's plate.

Reportedly you have 50-100 ideas for potential videos in the pipeline. With unlimited resources, what would you like to do?

I would like to get off the planet.

You've said in the past: "We're working to bend people's perception of what's acceptable for a band." Do you see yourselves as musicians first and foremost or as creatives? Or something else?

I don't know how much longer there will be a meaningful distinction between musicians and filmmakers, or filmmakers and programmers, or "interactive video" and video games. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say that the medium for all of these things (and many more) has converged, so the choice to make one type of emotional or sensory experience versus another is kind of arbitrary, or at least at doesn't necessarily align with the creative taxonomy of last century. Music 15 years ago was whatever could fit on a CD. But now, where's the boundary between music and video and writing and journalism and art and so on? Everyone works in the same medium of ones and zeros so the gaps between all of these formerly distinct types of creativity are open season. We just like making cool shit. We like chasing our craziest ideas. And what we make doesn't need to fit on a 7" or a CD anymore, it just needs to fit on the internet. And that really changes what you allow yourself to dream up.

We are seeing artists such as Bjork move into making music apps. Do you think that modern musicians have to do more than "just" music?

I don't think there are any rules, and I don't think there's any "trick" that musicians need to learnt to survive these days. On the contrary, I hate seeing bands fall into the trap of novelty. I know, it sounds crazy for me of all people -- that treadmill guy -- to say that, but I don't think our projects resonate because they use new technologies or are novel, I think it's because they are creative. Creativity and novelty are easy to confuse, but using some new technology to distribute your work will not make your work more interesting, or at least not lastingly so. And by definition, everyone's a novice with new technology. There's nothing that leads me to believe that someone will be a great app designer just because she's a great singer. That said, I think Bjork is one of those creatively explosive people whose impeccable instincts are likely to make whatever she makes interesting, I'm totally in favour of artists chasing their muse wherever it goes. Clearly the canvas is much bigger and weirder today than ever before.

Apart from teaming up with tequila brands, how do you monetise these videos, especially when they don't necessarily drive sales of the music?

____We license our music a lot, and we sell a fair amount still. It's true that nearly 200 million hits don't mean 200 million records sold, but our last album sold well. We get a little money from ads on YouTube, and publishing money from rights' societies. We tour and sell merchandise. We sell special limited edition stuff to our closest fans. But as you suggest, teaming up with the right brands makes a big difference.

What would (all of) you do if you weren't in a band?

____As a child I wanted to be the guy who designs LEGO sets. I like to think I might have followed that dream. Tim would be a playwright. Dan would be in the pit crew of a Formula One team. Andy would run a paleo food company and a gym.

You can check out some of OK Go's previous viral music videos here, here and here.

This post first appeard on Wired.Co.UK.