Haley Blomquist and Bridget Stiebris of OK Cool
Some days can be a dream. Other days can feel like a disaster when something goes awry. And then another thing. And then something else. And while all expectations for the day are crumbling all around you, sometimes all you want to do is throw your hands in the air and give up.
OK Cool’s delightful and relatable new video for the recent single “Divers” is a little like that.
In it, as Downers Grove native Bridget Stiebris and Elk Grove Village’s Haley Blomquist travel around Chicago, the lyrics spill out through messages between the two. But the buoyant charm of the video (and the music) belies the darker tone beneath the lyrical surface.
The song, adapted from a poem Stiebris wrote a few years back about a real day in her life, details a chain of events that resulted in a personal disappointment.
“There was one of those times where it’s like ‘I don’t even know what to do with myself right now. I’m just so mad that I missed this seemingly simple task,'” she said. “So I just kind of wandered in the grocery store, had a little bit of a crisis and then had me a little breakdown in the middle of the aisle. Literally.”
The duo tapped friend and collaborator Nina Gaulin to create the video after the success of OK Cool’s last release with her.
“We know she can just take something and run with it,” she said. “We felt like it was a really good opportunity for her to just make it her own with the concept we had going.”
The song “Divers” was first released on OK Cool’s sophomore EP “Surrealist” out earlier this year. And as shows are returning to local venues, fans have finally been able to hear it live.
Formed during the pandemic, Blomquist and Stiebris have been excitedly anticipating putting the act on stage. The two played Wolf Rd’s release show recently and have a Beat Kitchen show on the books for Aug. 25 with splits and Boundary Waters. They will also be playing several upcoming shows with their full band The Weekend Run Club.
