courtesy of Big Hassle Media
Van Am Jam Band
zach dyer interviews andy ross
PrintAndy Ross, SEAS ’01, has been the guitarist, keyboardist, and vocalist extraordinaire for pop-rock band OK Go since 2005. Before that, Ross ruled the Columbia music scene with his band The A-Ross Experience. The band OK Go began to garner a fan base with the propagation of its clever music videos on YouTube, and has been growing in popularity every year since. The band is set to release an album on March 24, and will play the Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 8. Zach Dyer and Andy Ross discuss OK Go’s politically active projects and, shockingly, why Music Hum may not be a huge waste of time.
I know there is an album coming out soon, but what is OK Go up to?
Well, right this very second we are in the studio with Dave Friedman, we’re in upstate New York in Fredonia. He has this converted house that he turned into a studio that he’s been recording in since like ’95. ... It’s a pretty awesome place to be. Well, I should modify that, it’s not the most awesome place to be in the middle of winter. But it’s cool, we’re certainly in the middle of nowhere, which is great to just be isolated and work on the record. We live here too! Sometimes we don’t leave the studio for like four days. But what we’re doing now, we’ve been here for a total of six weeks, and we’re hoping to finish in this next final week, which seems a bit optimistic. But if not, we’ll be back!
What does the new album offer fans that past albums haven’t?
It’s definitely going to be a new record for OK Go, I think in all the right ways. This record gives us a few more looks. There are some parts that are more poppy than OK Go’s been and there are some parts that are more dark and more dramatic, and most importantly, I’d say that it’s a little more honest. I’d say the lyrics are more personal. ... It’s definitely not as much rock ’n’ roll as the last record was but it’s still going to be fun, just more dark and dramatic.
What was the Columbia music scene like when you were here?
I thought it was great. There was this organization called “Columbia Music Presents...” but I don’t know if that still exists. And it was actually a really great student organization for organizing bands and shows and, typically, the shows were actually good! A lot of the bands that I played with, and my bands played with, were typical indie rock stuff but there was also a small speck of jam bands. Most of the time we did shows at the West End. I hear that it no longer exists. What a bummer. The West End was really cool—it was a landmark! I can’t believe it’s not there anymore. Most of the shows were either in the West End basement, or Faculty House.
We also had a Beatles cover band that I can confidently say took the campus by storm, and we even did a Van Am Jam where bands played on the Van Am Quad on Friday afternoons, which was definitely the high point of my Columbia music career. I thought it was really good and that student organization was really positive and did a great job at helping bands perform. They always had money and dealt with the school, made sure there was always practice space, and could make sure that shows really happened.
Do you think Columbia or your time here shaped you as a musician?
Absolutely. Just in general, I’d say that my experience at Columbia was more worth it to be in the city than the stuff I actually learned in class. It probably doesn’t help that I don’t actually use my education from there at all. But I totally loved my Columbia experience and I think a lot of that had to do with New York being there. You know, having the option to see any show, any type of music from classical to ethnic music, anything at all—it’s all there! And it has to affect you.
Even the Columbia curriculum, actually, I’d say informed me. Music Hum definitely changed how I thought about some types of music. It certainly did its job by making me more educated about classical music and from there I got really into classical and started playing piano, basically because of that class. I know the core and especially Music Hum can sometimes get knocked but it definitely worked for me in basically every aspect.
In addition, the people that go to Columbia are definitely a certain type of person and have their own musical tastes and styles. I probably learned as much from my friends’ musical interests than I did from anything else. In basically every aspect, Columbia totally reshaped the way I think about music.
Are you excited to come back and play in New York?
Absolutely. I actually stayed in New York after graduation for about three years and a friend from Columbia, Travis Harrison, opened a recording studio and a label called Serious Business Records [with me]. And that is still around, he is still doing it and it’s in SoHo now, doing really well.
I still have a ton of friends in New York and it’s great to come in for a few days and go to some restaurants and hang out with some people—it’s like satisfying my New York fix. I always look forward to it. It’s great to play at these venues that when I was at Columbia just seemed unattainable. We’ve played Irving Plaza, Bowery, and the Madison Square Garden Theater last year with Snow Patrol. New York is great, definitely the city I look forward to most.
Just a year ago, you played the Bowery for an Obama benefit, and around the same time you recorded the EP “You’re Not Alone” to benefit the musicians affected by Hurricane Katrina. Do you think the political activism of the band is at all informed by your time at Columbia?
It’s definitely been enhanced. Damien has been pretty politically active even before I joined the band. In 2004 he wrote a paper called “How Your Band Can Fire Bush” and distributed that to a lot of artists. So he’s always been pretty politically active but when I came on, that was definitely enhanced. I’m pretty politically active, but I wouldn’t say I’m necessarily an activist.
I think the New Orleans project was a great cause. We went down there and saw firsthand what had happened and it was a pretty devastating, pretty emotional experience. The EP was to help out a lot of the musicians down there.
So I’d say as far as my Columbia experience, a lot of my friends at Columbia were into politics and into activism, so I’ve sort of been surrounded by those people. I think that keeps you aware of what’s going on and makes you want to do stuff.
5 March 2009
vol. 6, issue 6
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