Biography
Karen O first gained recognition as the lead singer of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, yet she moved beyond the group's raw rock sound after their opening full-length, Fever to Tell, appeared in 2003. Although her initial complete solo statement arrived only with the intimate, low-fidelity balladry of Crush Songs in 2014, an array of separate ventures and joint efforts already revealed additional dimensions of her creative range. In addition to lending her supple and immediately recognizable vocals to contemporaries including Santigold and the Flaming Lips, many of those partnerships carried a pronounced filmic quality. She contributed to the soundtracks of David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (2012), and she also featured on David Lynch's Crazy Clown Time (2011). Her longest-running artistic alliance formed with director Spike Jonze, whose projects Where the Wild Things Are (2009) and Her (2013) earned her Grammy and Academy Award nominations. On the 2019 release Lux Prima, a full-length partnership with Danger Mouse, O fused the gentle, passionate, and theatrical elements of her work.
Born in Busan, South Korea, to a Korean mother and a Polish father, Karen O grew up primarily in Englewood, New Jersey. At Ohio's Oberlin College she encountered drummer Brian Chase; after transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts she met guitarist Nick Zinner, and together they began performing folk-leaning material as Unitard in 2000. The project soon evolved into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, sparked by the influence of Ohio's storied avant-punk community, and when the original drummer departed, Chase completed the lineup.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs quickly became a key presence in New York's vibrant early-2000s rock circuit through the 2001 self-titled EP and the 2003 album Fever to Tell. At the same time O explored more reflective solo endeavors, supplying vocals for the 2005 Squeak E. Clean collaboration "Hello Tomorrow," which accompanied a Spike Jonze-directed Nike commercial. That same year she joined Har Mar Superstar on "Cut Me Up" for the House of Wax soundtrack, and in 2006 she and Peaches recorded "Backass" for Jackass Number Two. She also began directing videos, among them those for Liars' "We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own," Foetus' "Blessed Evening," and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Cheated Hearts."
Although she introduced the folk-oriented Native Korean Rock in 2008, soundtrack contributions remained central. She covered "Highway 61 Revisited" for Todd Haynes' 2007 Bob Dylan portrait I'm Not There and composed the score for Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Released in 2009 under the name Karen O & the Kids, the soundtrack enlisted composer Carter Burwell along with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Chase and Zinner, Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, Liars' Aaron Hemphill, and the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather's Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence. The single "All Is Love" received Grammy and Critics' Choice Movie Award nominations in 2010.
Karen O maintained an active collaborative schedule into the 2010s. She sang on the Flaming Lips' Embryonic (2009) and appeared on "Pinky's Dream" from David Lynch's Crazy Clown Time (2011). That year she also staged the rock opera Stop the Virgens with Chase, Zinner, the Screamers' K.K. Barrett, and the Breeders' Kim Deal. Additional 2011 work included a version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" with Trent Reznor for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a cameo on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! In 2012 she contributed to Swans' The Seer, James Iha's Look to the Sky, and Santigold's Master of My Make-Believe while adding the exotica-tinged "Strange Love" to Frankenweenie Unleashed! For Jonze's 2013 film Her she co-wrote "The Moon Song," which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 2014 and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2015. She further appeared on Walter Martin's 2014 solo debut, We're All Young Together.
Her own first solo album, Crush Songs—a set of lo-fi recordings made in 2006—emerged in September 2014 on Julian Casablancas' Cult Records, reaching number 44 on the Billboard 200 and number eight on the Top Alternative Albums chart. Live from Crush Palace, captured at Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Masonic Lodge, followed in February 2015. That year she composed a Nellie Bly tribute for a Google doodle marking the journalist's 151st birthday and wrote "I Shall Rise" for the Square Enix game Rise of the Tomb Raider.
After the birth of her son, O paused before returning in 2017 on Milano, a project with composer Daniele Luppi and Parquet Courts, and on Resistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album. In 2018 she released "Yo! My Saint," written for Kenzo's Spring/Summer collection and featuring Michael Kiwanuka. For her second album, the 2019 Lux Prima with Danger Mouse, she assembled songs shaped by motherhood and cyclical themes; the single "Woman" later received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance.
Born in Busan, South Korea, to a Korean mother and a Polish father, Karen O grew up primarily in Englewood, New Jersey. At Ohio's Oberlin College she encountered drummer Brian Chase; after transferring to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts she met guitarist Nick Zinner, and together they began performing folk-leaning material as Unitard in 2000. The project soon evolved into the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, sparked by the influence of Ohio's storied avant-punk community, and when the original drummer departed, Chase completed the lineup.
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs quickly became a key presence in New York's vibrant early-2000s rock circuit through the 2001 self-titled EP and the 2003 album Fever to Tell. At the same time O explored more reflective solo endeavors, supplying vocals for the 2005 Squeak E. Clean collaboration "Hello Tomorrow," which accompanied a Spike Jonze-directed Nike commercial. That same year she joined Har Mar Superstar on "Cut Me Up" for the House of Wax soundtrack, and in 2006 she and Peaches recorded "Backass" for Jackass Number Two. She also began directing videos, among them those for Liars' "We Fenced Other Gardens with the Bones of Our Own," Foetus' "Blessed Evening," and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Cheated Hearts."
Although she introduced the folk-oriented Native Korean Rock in 2008, soundtrack contributions remained central. She covered "Highway 61 Revisited" for Todd Haynes' 2007 Bob Dylan portrait I'm Not There and composed the score for Spike Jonze's adaptation of Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. Released in 2009 under the name Karen O & the Kids, the soundtrack enlisted composer Carter Burwell along with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs bandmates Chase and Zinner, Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, Liars' Aaron Hemphill, and the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather's Dean Fertita and Jack Lawrence. The single "All Is Love" received Grammy and Critics' Choice Movie Award nominations in 2010.
Karen O maintained an active collaborative schedule into the 2010s. She sang on the Flaming Lips' Embryonic (2009) and appeared on "Pinky's Dream" from David Lynch's Crazy Clown Time (2011). That year she also staged the rock opera Stop the Virgens with Chase, Zinner, the Screamers' K.K. Barrett, and the Breeders' Kim Deal. Additional 2011 work included a version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" with Trent Reznor for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a cameo on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! In 2012 she contributed to Swans' The Seer, James Iha's Look to the Sky, and Santigold's Master of My Make-Believe while adding the exotica-tinged "Strange Love" to Frankenweenie Unleashed! For Jonze's 2013 film Her she co-wrote "The Moon Song," which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 2014 and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media in 2015. She further appeared on Walter Martin's 2014 solo debut, We're All Young Together.
Her own first solo album, Crush Songs—a set of lo-fi recordings made in 2006—emerged in September 2014 on Julian Casablancas' Cult Records, reaching number 44 on the Billboard 200 and number eight on the Top Alternative Albums chart. Live from Crush Palace, captured at Hollywood Forever Cemetery's Masonic Lodge, followed in February 2015. That year she composed a Nellie Bly tribute for a Google doodle marking the journalist's 151st birthday and wrote "I Shall Rise" for the Square Enix game Rise of the Tomb Raider.
After the birth of her son, O paused before returning in 2017 on Milano, a project with composer Daniele Luppi and Parquet Courts, and on Resistance Radio: The Man in the High Castle Album. In 2018 she released "Yo! My Saint," written for Kenzo's Spring/Summer collection and featuring Michael Kiwanuka. For her second album, the 2019 Lux Prima with Danger Mouse, she assembled songs shaped by motherhood and cyclical themes; the single "Woman" later received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance.
Albums
Lux Prima
2019
Where The Wild Things Are Motion Picture Soundtrack: Original Songs By Karen O And The Kids (w/ Booklet)
2009
Singles
