I Won't Let You Down

Album: Hungry Ghosts (2014)
Charted: 71
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • OK Go frontman Damian Kulash said of this futuristic dance-floor banger to Purevolume: "'I Won't Let You Down' is the closest that spaceship OK Go has come to the planet disco. We were playing around with beats and grooves and stumbled upon one of those moments of alchemy where a ball of light just jumps out of the sound. Suddenly there was a flash of Jackson Five and Diana Ross and we knew we had something worth chasing."
  • The song's music video was shot in an abandoned warehouse in the Japanese city of Chiba, near Tokyo. The visual was directed by OK Go's Damian Kulash and film director Morihiro Harano. It features the band members riding motorized scooter chairs called UNI-CUBs made by Honda, which paid for the film. The clip was filmed in one single shot using an octocopter, a custom "multi-copter camera," which was developed for the project. It took approximately 55 attempts to get it right.

    The video pans out over the city of Tokyo for an extra thirty seconds of silence at the end, which the director said was inspired by the Beatles' outros. "You know how, in some of their albums, a bonus track starts to play," Harano told Billboard magazine. "I wanted something that packed a bit more entertainment even after the main part was over."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust

Lajon Witherspoon of SevendustSongwriter Interviews

The Sevendust frontman talks about the group's songwriting process, and how trips to the Murder Bar helped forge their latest album.

Cheerleaders In Music Videos

Cheerleaders In Music VideosSong Writing

It started with a bouncy MTV classic. Nirvana and MCR made them scary, then Gwen, Avril and Madonna put on the pom poms.

Prince

PrinceFact or Fiction

Prince is shrouded in mystery, making him an excellent candidate for Fact or Fiction. Is he really a Scientologist? Does he own an exotic animal?

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.

Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots

Robert DeLeo of Stone Temple PilotsSongwriter Interviews

Stone Temple Pilots bass player Robert DeLeo names the songs that have most connected with fans and tells the stories behind tracks from their Tiny Music album.

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennittSongwriter Interviews

The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.