The band's singer, Damian Kulash, met bassist Tim Nordwind at summer camp when they were 11. They met the band's original lead guitarist and keyboardist, Andy Duncan, in high school, and drummer Dan Konopka in college. They formed OK Go in 1998. Andy Duncan left the band in 2005 after they had recorded their second album, and was replaced by Andy Ross, who auditioned for them in Chicago. The band is best known for their singles "Get Over It", "A Million Ways", and "Here It Goes Again."  They are also well known for their geek rock outfits which include waistcoats, sweater vests, ties, shirts, and dress pants (called smart trousers outside of the United States) such as khakis, office trousers or chinos which they use when performing in reminiscence of bands such as Weezer, They Might Be Giants and hellogoodbye. Influenced by artists like Cheap Trick, Raspberries, Fugazi, T. Rex and Queen, OK Go shares management with They Might Be Giants, another band with whom they toured before signing to Capitol Records. On February 11, 2007, OK Go and Trish Sie took home a Grammy award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" for their viral music video, "Here It Goes Again". (from Wikipedia)

I recently had the opportunity to talk to Tim Norwind, bass player extraordinaire... known around the world for his dapper vests and newsboy caps.

Ok let's start with the lineup of the band, and one hidden talent about each band member?

Well, obviously if they were really hidden I wouldn't know about it... but...hidden from fans? Ok, we'll start with Andy Ross, guitar player/keyboard player. It's a well known fact within our camp of people that he is a computer whiz. Any computer question, we got to him. He's kind of like Murdoch from the A-Team, you know? And then there's Dan Konopka, the drummer. Dan's hidden talent is that he is really a comedian. He's like the funniest guy I know...he's funnier than Rodney Dangerfield. He's really funny. It's weird that he's chosen to go down the path of music, you know, when clearly he should be on stage as a standup comedian. I don't think anyone makes me laugh harder than Dan Konopka. Damian Kulash is the singer in the band and his hidden talent is visual art. He's a rather good visual artist in all respects.. he's a very good graphic artist but he's also a very good drawer of pictures and things like that. He doesn't do that so much anymore. I met him when I was 11 and he was 12 at like an art summer camp, and that's what he was doing then. I always sort of thought he was going to be some kind of art star, but then we both chose the path of rock & roll. And then of course there's me, Tim Norwind, bass player. My hidden talent and secret power is that I can sleep through almost anything. I can sleep through everything!

Who writes your material?

We all have a hand in it. Damian and I do a lot of the writing but it all kind of goes through the band at one point or another. Usually any one of us will come in with an idea and then it gets revised and revised and revised within the band until we've got something.

Who are your influences?

Our biggest influence is probably The Pixies, and then it just breaks off from there into a million different places, but the Pixies and T.Rex are really big influences. Cheap Trick is a big influence. And then really obvious ones like the Stones and Bowie.

How would you describe your sound in five words?

I can do it in two. Arty Party.

How many takes did you have when you filmed the treadmill video?

We did 30 takes of it, we picked the 14th take.

How many times have you performed it live?

Once.

At the MTV awards?

Yeah.

You recently had a "Dances with You(tube)" video contest. Were you surprised by the turnout?

I was very surprised. We had well over 200 submissions from kids all over the world. Most of them are really great and it's really a heartening feeling to see kids in Vietnam doing it and kids in Poland doing it and kids in Alaska doing it. It kind of brings a tear to the eye a little bit, you know, to know that there's that like worldwide appeal.

Other than table tennis, what do you like to do in your spare time?

Kind of the normal things. I like to read, I like to watch movies. I went to school for theatre and concentrated on playwriting, so I like to write plays when I can, when I have the time and energy to do it.

Are we going to see any on Broadway?

I hope so! I had my first play produced about two and a half years ago in Chicago and I'm trying to get another one written and possibly maybe do in either Chicago or New York, but it's been really hard with our schedule lately to give it any kind of focus. But I'm hoping to get something written in the next four or five months that could possibly be the next play.

I saw the band on 'Las Vegas', any more television show appearances?

Late night television shows. We're going to be on Jay Leno soon and David Letterman soon, in April and May. We're also competing in a pop culture quiz show for charity on VH1 and we're taping it later this week and it's our band against cast members of the Sopranos and cast members of 30 Rock. It's going to be trivia and we're hoping to win and donate our money to a charity for leukemia and cancer research.

What's your favorite song to perform?

It really varies from night to night. Right now, the last song on our record is a song called "The House Wins". For the first year and a half of touring, we never performed that song live and then we started adding more production elements to the show including video projections to go with the music. We have a really great video projection that goes along with "The House Wins" so we've got that song back in our set. We normally open with it and it's a lot of fun to play because it feels like this crazy multimedia sensory overload event when we get on stage, because A. I like playing it, and B. the video projection is pretty awesome that goes along with it. It kind of looks like fireworks going off.

Favorite places to play?

Austin, TX is a fairly obvious one to say, but it really is one of the best places in the country to play.

I caught the tour with Death Cab in St. Louis and it was a great show in spite of Damian being really sick. Favorite bands to tour with?

I really enjoyed going out with the band The Kaiser Chiefs. They were really good guys and I really like their music a lot but they also remind me of the British version of us, personality-wise. They've got one more member than we do but I feel like each of us sort of has like one person that was like a version of us.

For the Death Cab show, you guys were such counterpoint...that's what was great. You were fun and they were mellow.

Yeah...I did really enjoy that tour, and especially the guys. I love their music. What is normally the nice thing about touring is that you get to meet other people who are kind of doing the same thing you are, and hopefully get along and make some good friends. Luckily, we were able to do that with the Kaiser Chiefs, and Death Cab were cool, and Snow Patrol are a bunch of great guys. We've been lucky. We very rarely tour with mean bands.

Who would you most like to tour with?

I'd love to tour with Daft Punk. I just think they are amazing and I've never actually got to see them live but I feel like if we did get to tour with them, I would watch them from beginning to end each night. They are like one of my favorite bands of all time really. I love every aspect... I love the music and I love their videos and I love the image that they portray, and from what I hear about their live show, it sounds like I would love that as well.

What's the craziest thing that has happened on stage?

There's been a couple. I remember once playing at this place called the Grog Shop in Cleveland and Damian got shocked with probably the highest voltage of electricity that I have ever seen anyone get shocked with. It literally set his hair in like an afro state. He looked like a cartoon version of himself. That was pretty crazy to see...I could actually see the electricity coming out of the microphone.

And I remember the very first show that Andy Ross, our guitarist, played with us, it was about two and something years ago. It was in Madison, Wisconsin and right in the middle of some song, this girl came up wearing next to nothing and basically used Andy like a stripper pole, and did this crazy exotic dance while he tried to play. I remember trying to explain to him later on that that's never happened and will probably never happen again. Like, I'm sorry, usually that stuff doesn't happen to us, but it happened to him on his very first show.

Any side projects?

Yes and no. I think everyone has had their things that they have done outside of the band before. I think there will be more and more as time goes on. Everyone does something. Damian has started to get into video directing, and during the last election he was very active politically. Andy does programming for a bunch of websites and also, before he started the band, had a project called Secret Decoder Ring. So everyone sort of has things that they have done before the band and will continue to do along with the band. There just hasn't been the time for anything like that lately.

Is there a new record in the works?

Kind of, bits and pieces exist but we've virtually done no rehearsal studio writing or anything like that. Everyone's got bits and pieces that they've written on a laptop but whether or not they will actually make it to the record is yet to be seen.

Any last words for Punk Globe readers?

Read Punk Globe. Listen to OK Go.

Ok I have one last question. What do you charge for treadmill lessons?

I don't know. We've yet to give one. We're not professional treadmill dancers.


Thanks so much to Tim, for taking the time to answer my questions!