OK Go and EMI Going Separate Ways

OK Go have split with their record label, EMI, just two months after the release of their latest album, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. The band announced that the move was a "mutual agreement," and they now will move forward with the creation of their own brand new label, Paracadute Recordings, to distribute the effort.

"We'd like to thank the people who have worked so hard on our behalf,” OK Go singer Damian Kulash said in a statement. “And we’d like to thank our fans for making this choice an easy one for us.”

The group asked EMI to nullify their contract about two weeks before the premier of their video for "This Too Shall Pass." The label consented, though they may have made a different decision had they known that the video would be as successful as it is. In just nine days, the clip has amassed close to 7 million views.

"We realized we wanted to leave EMI in 2002 — it was just a matter of when,” Kulash said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “It’s something of a gift for them to let us go. We’re not worth fighting and we’re not worth fielding annoying phone calls from all day long.”

The band will officially split from EMI on April 1st, and they are slated to perform on the Jimmy Kimmel Show that same night. From there, the group will embark on a summer tour that will feature stops at the Sasquatch!, Bamboozle and Bonnaroo festivals.

Image used with permission by Getty Images.

Justin Starling for Citadel Interactive © 2010