What happens when music, art, and technology collide in the hands of a true innovator? In this episode of the Innovation Storytellers Show, I sit down with Damian Kulash Jr., frontman and co-founder of OK Go, the Grammy-winning band known for turning creativity into spectacle. From dancing on treadmills to performing in zero gravity, OK Go has redefined what a music video can be, transforming pop songs into visual experiments that blend engineering, art, and unfiltered joy.

Damian opens up about the punk roots that shaped his DIY approach to innovation and the thrill of breaking rules in pursuit of authenticity. He reflects on how the band’s viral experiments were never about chasing clicks but about creating something so unexpected and so human that it makes people stop and feel wonder again. From silk-screening posters in art school to building massive Rube Goldberg machines in warehouses, his creative journey reveals how experimentation and emotion power real innovation.

Together, Damian and I explore how art and technology can amplify empathy, why authenticity resonates more than virality, and how collaboration remains humanity’s best innovation. We discuss the parallels between creative risk-taking and corporate invention, the need for radical cooperation in an AI-driven world, and why OK Go’s work continues to spark curiosity and connection around the globe.

This conversation is full of laughter, honesty, and creative insight, reminding us that innovation does not always come from the lab or the boardroom. Sometimes, it comes from a garage, a camera, and a belief that wonder itself can change the world.

About Damian

Name: Damian Kulash Jr.
Title: Lead singer & Music Video Director
Company: OK Go
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Damian Kulash, Jr. is an artist, musician, filmmaker, and the frontman for the polymath rock group OK Go. He’s directed the band’s long string of boundary-pushing music videos, racking up more than a billion views online. They’ve danced in zero gravity and on treadmills, they’ve built a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machine to run in sync with a song, and they’ve choreographed hundreds of explosions filmed in just a few seconds.

Damian has received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Visual Art, a Grammy, three MTV VMAs, twenty-two Cannes Lions, three Webby Awards, and has had his work presented at The Guggenheim, MoCA, LACMA, The Hirschhorn, The Hammer Museum, and Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture.

Damian graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1998. He’s written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, and testified before the US Congress in support of Net Neutrality. He serenaded Barack Obama at his 50th birthday party, appeared on The Simpsons, and Animal from The Muppets once played the drums in his garage. He lives and works in Los Angeles.