OK Go has been around for 17 years, stunning us with their creative music and music videos. The band has four albums under their belt, their most recent was released last October, and are currently touring across North America.
In the midst of their exciting tour, bassist Tim Nordwind had some time to chat with me about OK Go’s last 17 years and their most recent shows.
Q: Your band is known for your ingenuity both in your music and music videos, where does that creativity come from?
A: Well, you know, Damian and I have known each other since we were 11 years old….I think he and I, our friendship for as long as we’ve known each other has been based around sort of like creating projects. For the most part, I think that’s how we bond. I think that type of bonding has lasted throughout the years. A lot of friends go to the movies or sit around and watch t.v. We don’t do a lot of that stuff, but we do make crazy shit together, and that’s kind of how we bond. It’s kind of hard to say where that creativity comes from, but we’ve have always been curious people, and we were lucky to find Dan and Andy as well that are just curious, creative people who share ideas and make things. We’re just lucky that we’re friends.
Q: How do you guys share these ideas with each other, and how do you go about executing them.
A: Most of these ideas, they just start as conversations with one another. And you can usually tell by the spark in someone’s eye when that idea has been sent out there in the world what we want to react to. I do feel like a lot of the times that idea starts out with, ‘Oh my god, wouldn’t it be awesome if…” or, “Oh my god, check this out. It makes me feel this way…” It’s pretty unique in a way.
Q: What goes into making your music a reality?
A: A lot of play time I think. Whether it be music, a video or a live show, we allow ourselves a lot of play time. With music, what we do is sit down, and we play with sound until we get something that feels magical, and once we get a kernel of something that’s magic, then we figure out a way to make emotional art out of that idea.
Q: And so, what do you bring to the stage for the audience to take with them?
A: Well, the shows are always pretty interactive. When we think about playing live we think about you know, “well what can we do in a room that holds about 1000 people. The most obvious is we play music and that’s pretty great. There’s a million other things you can do, like we think what can we do from a film experience or an interactive experience. We started opening up to other experiences. You all of a sudden have a circus of a show.
OK Go will be in Southern California May 1 at the San Diego House of Blues and May 2 at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. For more information about OK Go and their music, visit okgo.net.