Ok Go is the type of band that doesn’t need an introduction. Their seemingly endless supply of physics-defying videos have earned them hundreds of millions of youtube hits and made them surefire internet celebrities,
What’s often lost in the hype surrounding their on-camera theatrics is the fact that over the course of three full length albums, the band has shown an impressive progression from straight-forward pop-rock to the diverse offerings on 2010’s excellent Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky.
The band is back this September with a new self-released album, and they’ll be hitting the Paradise on 9/17. We had a chance to chat with bassist Timothy Nordwind about the new record, the latest tour, and the freedom that comes with being on your own label.
Allston Pudding: First of all, your new album is called Hungry Ghosts. What is the ghost hungry for?
Timothy Nordwind: The ghost is hungry for desire and for peace. Both of those things exist in everyone, and in a person’s journey to balance their life. I feel like the ghost is hungry for both
AP: So you’re releasing this record on your own label, which is a big change considering you’ve been on a major label in the past. What’s that been like?
TN: It’s complete freedom. If we have an idea that we think is cool that won’t reach many people – we just do it because we think it’s awesome. That’s a very wonderful place to create and make from and share from – we’re very lucky and fortunate to be able to do that
We realize that it’s very difficult to get into a situation like ours if you start from scratch. I fully admit 10 years of major label backing helped us get to a point where we had enough fans to jump ship and do it on our own – and I don’t want to make it sound like we deserve a ton of credit – some of the stuff we did was on purpose, and some of it was total luck
AP: What do you think you go lucky on? Anything that worked when you didn’t really expect it to?
TN: All of our video success was a major surprise – people credit us with being ahead of the curve, but we didn’t know that. We just love making stuff together – we’ve been doing this since we were 11.
AP: So you didn’t necessarily make those first few videos with the idea they would be big hits?
TN: It’s not like we sat around a desk and meditate on this – we made a rehearsal dance for “A Million Ways” that we thought was so funny we sent it to friends – and a month later it was on the web and had been downloaded 300,000 times – we hadn’t even sold that many records at that point. We said “wow – if we did that by mistake – image what we could do if we did it on purpose?”
AP: Your heading out on a full US tour in the fall – what should we expect from it?
TN: Well it’s definitely not stripped down. There will be a lot of multimedia things happening – big screens – a ton of confetti – a lot more videos made specifically for the show. It’s going to be even more of a party than it used to be – I love where it’s at right now
AP: So you’re from LA, what’s a great LA band that we haven’t heard about yet?
TN: Lawrence Rotham – sounds like Nick Cave – kind of dark soul music – electronic soul music, you should definitely check it out.
AP: So I have to ask – in pictures you’re always wearing an LA Kings hat – is it a fashion statement, or are you actually a big fan?
TN: I am a big Kings fan, and you don’t know how much wearing the hat goes through my mind in every place we play. – I wear it in almost every city, except Chicago after we beat them in the playoffs this year. And I don’t know about Boston yet.
AP: I think it’s fine, it’s not like you guys beat us last year…
TN: You’re right – as long as we don’t beat you, it’s probably fine. that’s probably true with most places on the east coast
AP: Except New York?
TN: Well, I really do want to wear it there…
Hungry Ghosts is out this October, and you can hear the first four songs from the album right now via the Upside Out Ep.