Tim Nordwind

OK Go is an American alternative rock band originally from Chicago, Illinois, but now residing in Los Angeles, California. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals, guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar and vocals), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion) and Andy Ross (guitar, keyboards and vocals), who joined them in 2005, replacing Andy Duncan. They are known for their often elaborate and quirky music videos. The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two studio albums before Duncan's departure. The band's video for "Here It Goes Again" won a Grammy Award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" in 2007. Historyedit: Formation and Early Years (1998-2000)edit: The band's lead singer, Damian Kulash, met bassist Tim Nordwind at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11. Kulash was in for graphic design, Nordwind for music. The band name comes from their art teacher saying, "OK... Go!" while they were drawing. They kept in touch after camp, often exchanging mixtapes which influenced each other's musical taste and their future sound. They met the band's former guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan in high school, and drummer Dan Konopka in college. OK Go was formed in 1998. The band released two EPs aptly titled Brown EP (2000) and Pink EP (2001) and served as the house band for the public radio program This American Life on the show's fifth anniversary tour. Capitol Years (2000-2010)edit: OK Go (released 2002)edit The band signed to Capitol Records and released their first studio self-titled album OK Go in 2002. In the United Kingdom, the first single "Get Over It" debuted at no. 27, in the UK singles chart on March 16, 2003, and the band performed it on that week's edition of Top of the Pops. Also that week, the single's video was named video of the week by Q magazine. Oh No (released 2005)edit The band's second album, Oh No, was recorded in Malmö, Sweden, and produced by Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand) in the fall of 2004. After recording, in 2005, Andy Duncan left the band and was replaced by Andy Ross, who auditioned for them in Los Angeles. The album was released in August 2005. Oh No gained popularity for its first single, "A Million Ways", in 2005. The video featured the band in their back yard performing a dance choreographed by lead singer Kulash's sister, Trish Sie. By August 2006, the video had become the most downloaded music video ever with over 9 million downloads. The band performed the dance live on British TV show Soccer AM, as well as on the late-night American comedy show, MADtv. 'Here It Goes Again'edit On July 31, 2006, the band released a video for "Here It Goes Again" featuring an elaborately choreographed dance on treadmills, also directed and choreographed by Trish Sie. This video was viewed by over one million people on the media site YouTube in the first six days. The original video upload for "Here It Goes Again" had been viewed over 52 million times, putting it in 42nd place for the most views of any video and 29th place for most viewed music video as well as the 7th most favorite video and the top favorite music video of all time on YouTube, until being removed from their channel. As of December 2012, the new upload has more than 15 million views. The video won a 2006 YouTube Award in the Most Creative category. On February 11, 2007, OK Go and Trish Sie won a Grammy award for "Best Short-Form Music Video" for their music video "Here It Goes Again". 'You're Not Alone'edit After visiting New Orleans in 2007, the band returned to record an EP with New Orleans funk rock band Bonerama and producer Mark Nevers, to raise money for musicians who were still displaced by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The EP, entitled You're Not Alone, was released on February 5, 2008. The title is taken from a line in David Bowie's "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide," a cover of which appears on the EP, along with renditions of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" and three songs from "Oh No." The EP was sold exclusively through iTunes and raised over $40,000, which helped buy a new home for New Orleans musician Al "Carnival Time" Johnson in the Musicians Village. Johnson, who sings on "I Will Be Released," the final song on the EP, moved into his new home in December 2008. In support of the EP, OK Go and Bonearama played two benefit shows, one on Jan 11, 2008 at Tipitina's in New Orleans, and the other on February 2, 2008 at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC, which was streamed live by NPR and featured on a subsequent NPR podcast. Paracadute Years (2010-present)edit: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (released 2010)edit On October 12, 2008, OK Go announced that they had finished writing new songs for their third album and were in the studios in upstate New York with producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT). The band previewed their third album, titled Of the Blue Colour of the Sky, on a short sling of dates on the East Coast of the United States that March, starting in Philadelphia on March 6, 2009 at the TLA Theatre. The name of the album comes from a pseudo-scientific book written by Augustus Pleasonton in 1876 entitled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Sky. They have stated that these songs are the "danciest, most anthemic, most heartbroken, and honest songs" of their career, and the album itself takes a much more funky, dance-prone, yet melancholy sound to it, drawing influence from Prince. On May 7, 2009, a song from the album, titled "Skyscrapers," was released for streaming online. The first single, "WTF?", was released on November 10. On January 8, 2010, OK Go appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and performed a song from the album, "This Too Shall Pass". Of the Blue Colour of the Sky was released on January 12, 2010. On January 12, 2010, the first video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" (University of Notre Dame Marching Band Version) was released. On March 1, 2010, OK Go released their second video for "This Too Shall Pass"(Rube Goldberg Machine version), directed by James Frost. On June 15, 2010, the band released a music video for their single "End Love". On April 29, 2010, the group appeared on The Colbert Report where they performed "This Too Shall Pass". On May 6, 2010 The Baltimore Sun reported that OK Go was selling USB flash drives with recordings of each show on the Spring 2010 U.S. Tour Paracaduteedit On March 10, 2010, it was announced that OK Go had cut ties with EMI and Capitol and formed the independent label Paracadute.Of the Blue Colour of the Sky was re-released on April 1, when the new label took over the promotional campaign and all distribution responsibilities for the album. While the official statement was that the two parties were departing on good terms, it was speculated that the split was caused by the band's discontentment with the major label over efforts to block viral distribution of the music videos from Oh No and Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. 180/365 (released 2011)edit The first wholly new release on the band's label was 180/365 , a live album recorded over several shows in 2010, mixed by producer David Fridmann, and released on June 21, 2011. The album title refers to the number of concerts the band played in the course of one year. A stream of the album premiered on the technology website Mashable before its official street date. To celebrate the release, the band printed and sold two hundred signed copies of 180/365:The Book, a limited edition book of tour photographs by Nathaniel Wood which was made available only to purchasers of the album. The album was sold digitally and on CD in six-panel eco-friendly "Tron Pack" packaging from Norway. Say The Same Thingedit On May 9, 2013, the band, through its label Paracadute Recordings, released Say The Same Thing, a collaborative word guessing game app for iOS and Android in which two players attempt to guess the same word, by finding common points between two random starting words. The app, which was created by guitarist Andy Ross during the band's down time, is based on an improv game which the band plays together while on tour. The band advertised the app by releasing a comedic video that introduces and explains the game. For Christmas 2012, OK Go released a collection of rare songs, B-sides and covers called "Twelve Days of OK Go". The collection was released for free on the band's website. OK Go has started recording their fourth album, which was stated on their video about PYYRAMIDS, a band that the group's bassist, Tim Nordwind, is in. Videosedit: OK Go's distinctive, choreography-heavy performance style first originated from a 1999 appearance on the Chicago-based public television show "Chic-a-GoGo"; WBEZ radio personalities Peter Sagal, Jerome McDonnell of Worldview, Gretchen Helfrich (formerly of Odyssey) and Ira Glass pretended to play instruments to "C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips" as OK Go danced, because the band wasn't allowed to play live on the show. On August 31, 2006, OK Go appeared live at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards performing their treadmill routine for "Here It Goes Again". On November 7, 2006, OK Go released a deluxe limited edition CD/DVD of the album Oh No. The DVD contains their music videos (dancing and playing instruments), a video of 180 fans performing the "A Million Ways" dance for a YouTube contest, previously unseen footage, and a behind-the-scenes look at their treadmill rehearsals for the "Here It Goes Again" video and for the MTV VMAs. OK Go has earned considerable fame for their creative but often low-budget music videos, most of which have been promoted through Internet video sharing sites like YouTube. Many of these have become viral videos; the 2006 video for "Here It Goes Again", in which the band performed a complex routine with the aid of motorized treadmills, has received over 50 million views four years later. Their newest music video, Needing/Getting, released February 5, 2012, already has 20 million hits on YouTube and is part of a Chevy Sonic commercial. Samuel Bayer, who produced many music videos in the 1990s, asserted that OK Go's promotion of music videos on the Internet was akin to Nirvana's ushering in the grunge movement. Many of the videos also use long or single-shot takes, which Salon's Matt Zoller Seitz claims "restores a sense of wonder to the musical number by letting the performers' humanity shine through and allowing them to do their thing with a minimum of filmmaking interference". The success of OK Go's music first won the band the 14th Annual Webby Special Achievement Award for Film and Video Artist of the Year. The video for "This Too Shall Pass" was named both "Video of the Year" and "Best Rock Video" at the 3rd annual UK Music Video Awards. "This Too Shall Pass" won the LA Film Fest's Audience Award for Best Music Video, UK MVA Awards - Music Video of the Year Winner 2010, among others. The band has worked with directors including Francis Lawrence, Olivier Gondry (brother of Michel Gondry), Brian L. Perkins, Scott Keiner, and Todd Sullivan. In 2008, Damian Kulash said that the band had not produced the YouTube videos as part of any overt "Machiavellian" marketing campaign. "In neither case did we think, 'A-ha, this will get people to buy our records.' It has always been our position that the reason you wind up in a rock band is you want to make stuff. You want to do creative things for a living." Videos from Of The Blue Colour Of The Skyedit: "Skyscrapers"edit Released March 29, 2012., Directed by Trish Sie., 2,243,693 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , In the video, director Trish Sie dances the tango across a brightly colored landscape with partner Moti Buchboot. The video was released in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS on March 29, 2012., "Needing/Getting"edit Released February 5, 2012 in partnership with Chevrolet., Directed by Brian L. Perkins & Damian Kulash, Jr., 25,301,711 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , For "Needing/Getting," OK Go and Chevrolet outfitted a Chevy Sonic with retractable pneumatic arms set up to play over 1000 instruments as the car drove through a short desert track, recording a live "auto-acoustic" version of the song. The video was shot over four days after four months of preparation and design that included lead singer Damian Kulash taking stunt driving lessons. The video premiered on February 5, 2012 during the Super Bowl XLVI pregame show and was shown again during the game as part of Chevrolet's "Stunt Anthem" spot, which also featured the band fun. and skateboarder Rob Dyrdek., "All Is Not Lost"edit Released July 25, 2011 in partnership with Google Chrome Japan and featuring Pilobolus., Directed by OK Go, Pilobolus, and Trish Sie., 1,524,833 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , All Is Not Lost is an HTML-5 enabled multi-window web application, which combines elaborate high-concept choreography with technology, to create a hybrid human-technology dance. In the video, dancers are shot from below performing on a clear plexiglass surface while wearing green unitards. During the course of the video, the dance is split into progressively more HTML5 windows, further expanding the number of possible interactions and movements for the dancers. The production team shot 12 separate films, all one continuous take. At the end, the video splits into 48 separate windows to spell out custom messages entered by users in English or Japanese. On July 27, 2011, the band launched a 3D version of the video on the Nintendo 3DS platform, which allows the viewing of 3D videos without the need for special glasses. The 3D version was created by filmmaker Eric Kurland, and is notable because the third dimension appears behind the screen instead of 'popping out' in front of it. , "Back From Kathmandu"edit Released December 12, 2010 in partnership with Range Rover., Directed by OK Go., 554,973 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , In "Back From Kathmandu", OK Go led fans in a five mile, 8-hour musical parade through the streets of Los Angeles. Guided by Range Rover's Pulse Of The City app, which lets users visualize journeys by using GPS technology, the parade's route created a giant geo-art OK GO sign on the city's streets., "Last Leaf"edit Released November 10, 2010 in partnership with Samsung NX100 iFn., Directed by OK Go, Nadeem Mazen, and Ali Mohammad., 2,050,183 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , "Last Leaf" is a stop motion animation video created using 2,430 pieces of toast laser-cut with designs by the band and artist Geoff Mcfetridge. Shot on a Samsung NX100 iFn camera, the video used 15 photos for every second of animation., "White Knuckles"edit Released September 20, 2010., Directed by Trish Sie and OK Go., 15,644,398 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , "White Knuckles" is a single-shot music video featuring OK Go dancing with 12 dogs (including lead singer Damian Kulash's dog Bunny Carlos.) The video is a collaboration with animal trainer Ronald Sonnenburg and Talented Animals. Despite the difficulty of shooting a single-shot video with animals ("For those of you who have never worked an animal on film, we use cuts and optimal camera angles for everything," Sonnenburg wrote on the Talented Animals blog) the band traveled to Oregon with 12 trainers, 12 dogs, one goat, two furniture movers, and the rest of the production team for four weeks of training, choreography, rehearsal, and filming. 124 takes were shot over three days of filming and take #72 became the final video. The video premiered on The Ellen Degeneres Show on September 20, 2010, and was performed by the band on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno later that night. The video was released in 3D on the Nintendo 3DS on April 10, 2013. The video also promotes animal rescue efforts, ending with the message: "These dogs were lucky to find loving homes, but many others are still waiting. Help us support animal rescue efforts at the ASPCA." The band announced that all proceeds from video sales would be donated to animal rescue efforts., "End Love"edit Released July 14, 2010., Directed by OK Go, Eric Gunther, and Jeff Lieberman., 8,654,848 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , "End Love" is a stop motion dance video filmed in one continuous 18-hour take and sped up in post-production. The video's choreography included OK Go sleeping overnight in the park where the video was filmed as cameras continued to roll. The band announced an open call for fans to participate in the video and a group of fan volunteers is featured at the end of the video. The video contains a range of frame-rate speeds, from one one frame per second stop motion to super slow motion at 30 times the normal speed. During filming, a goose living in the park followed the band, and consequently shows up throughout the video. He was nicknamed "Orange Bill" by band members., "This Too Shall Pass" Rube Goldberg Machineedit Released March 1, 2010 in partnership with State Farm Insurance., Directed by James Frost, OK Go, and Syyn Labs., 40,108,116 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , OK Go's second video for "This Too Shall Pass" is a single-shot music video of the band performing within an elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine built in a warehouse in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. Production began in November 2009 and continued through two days of filming on February 11 & 12, 2010 with a total crew of 60 builders and production staff. The machine, which rolls metal balls down tracks, swings sledgehammers, pours water, unfurls flags, drops a flock of umbrellas from the second story, and shoots paint cannons at the band, was precisely designed to be synchronized with the song. The video took about 60 takes to be completed correctly, with one hour and a staff of 30 required to reset the machine between takes., "This Too Shall Pass" Marching Bandedit Released January 8, 2010 featuring the University of Notre Dame's Band of the Fighting Irish., Directed by Brian L. Perkins and OK Go., 8,503,045 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , OK Go's first video for "This Too Shall Pass" is a single-shot music video collaboration with 125 members of the University of Notre Dame's marching band and 50 students from Perley Elementary and Good Shepherd Montessori School in South Bend, Indiana. The video that took 20 takes to complete correctly. The band contacted Notre Dame after seeing a YouTube clip of the marching band performing Here It Goes Again at a football game., "WTF?"edit Released September 17, 2009., Directed by Tim Nackashi and OK Go., 2,186,228 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , "WTF?" was the first video released off of OK Go's third album Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky. It is a single-shot music video filmed on a green screen. The band used an open-source programming language and integrated development environment called Processing to stack each frame filmed on top of the one before it, creating a psychedelic effect., Videos from Oh Noedit: "A Million Ways"edit Directed by Trish Sie and OK Go., 1,857,235 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , This simple video of the band practicing choreography in the lead singer's back yard became the band's first viral hit, even though it was not originally intended for public consumption. In a paper entitled "Here We Go Again: Music Videos After YouTube" Maura Edmond writes that the footage "became immensely popular on iFilm and other online video sites before the band had thought to use the footage specifically as a "music video" and before they had sought approval for the clip from their label.", "Here It Goes Again"edit Released July 31, 2006, Directed by Trish Sie and OK Go, 17,465,905 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , For "Here It Goes Again" the band set up eight treadmills in the spare room of director Trish Sie's Orlando home, and practiced a choreographed dance routine for a week. Once the video was finished, Kulash maintains that he kept the only master on his laptop and sat on it for a year before releasing it to YouTube (the video's existence was teased to MTV in November of 2005, though the video was not released until the following summer). The band performed the routine live at the MTV Video Music Awards, after spending a week practicing at the dance at the Alvin Ailey dance studios in Manhattan. "Here It Goes Again" was named one of the 30 best music videos of all time by Time Magazine. It received more than a million views in its first week on YouTube, and tens of millions more in the subsequent months., "Invincible"edit Directed by Tim Nackashi and OK Go., 1,067,050 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , "Do What You Want (Party Version)"edit Directed by Olivier Gondry, For this performance-style video, director Olivier Gondry employed 28 different cameras to capture a frenetic party scene., "Do What You Want (Wallpaper Version)"edit Directed by Damian Kulash, Jr., 1,396,657 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , The second video for Do What You Want featured the band members and a number of performers from Los Angeles fully covered in the wallpaper pattern that was featured on the cover of the band's second album. In a publicity stunt before the video's release, the band wore suits made of the wall paper pattern on the red carpet of the 2007 Grammy Awards., Videos from OK Goedit: "Get Over It"edit Released August 2003., Directed by Francis Lawrence., 2,874,950 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , The video features the band performing in a lodge while the camera settles on room details that interpret lyrics from the song., "Don't Ask Me"edit Released 2003., Directed by Barnaby Roper., 854,791 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , The official video released by Capitol Records for Don't Ask Me, the band's second single, features the band performing in a black and white room with backup dancers., "Don't Ask Me (Dance Booth)"edit Released 2003., Directed by Brian L. Perkins, 98,272 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , This video features fans and band members dancing against an orange background. It was filmed during the band's tour with The Vines by frequent collaborator Brian Perkins., "You're So Damn Hot"edit Directed by Scott Keiner, 427,902 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , Special Collaborations & Non Album-Related Videosedit: "OK Go: An NPR Tiny Desk Concert In 223 Takes"edit Released June 3, 2013 in partnership with NPR Music., Directed by Mito Habe-Evans and Todd Sullivan., Shot in 223 takes over 2 days, the video chronicles NPR Music's move to a new office. OK Go begins to play "All Is Not Lost" from Of The Blue Colour Of The Sky in the old office and continues the same song while traveling with the furniture as it is shelved, transported, and reassembled in NPR's new office., "The Muppet Show Theme Song"edit Directed by Kirk Thatcher, Released August 23, 2011., 6,304,274 YouTube views as of June 14, 2013. , On August 31, 2011 OK Go performed the song with Animal (one of The Muppets) on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.., Other appearancesedit: "Get Over It" is featured in the EA Sports video games Triple Play 2003 and Madden NFL 2003, while "Don't Ask Me" is featured in MVP Baseball 2003. Also, "Here It Goes Again" was featured in Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5 and SSX on Tour; while "Do What You Want" was featured in the video games EA Sports NHL 06, Guitar Hero On Tour, and Burnout Revenge. The band contributed a cover of The Zombies "This Will Be Our Year" as the lead track of Future Soundtrack for America, a political benefit album put out by Barsuk Records in the fall of 2004. Lead singer Damian Kulash wrote a how-to-guide entitled "How Your Band Can Fire Bush" for bands hoping to help unseat President George W. Bush. After visiting New Orleans in 2006, the band recorded an EP with New Orleans funk rock band Bonerama, to raise money for musicians who were still displaced by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The EP, entitled You're Not Alone, was released on February 5, 2008. In 2007, OK Go wrote the fight song for the Chicago Soccer Team, Chicago Fire S.C.. The song was offered on the team's official website as a free download. Also in 2007, OK Go covered the Pixies "Gigantic" for American Laundromat Records Dig for Fire: A Tribute to Pixies CD. In 2010, the Ok Go song "Here It Goes Again" was featured in the soundtrack for the children's movie Ramona and Beezus. In 2011, OK Go were featured in the meta-documentary The Greatest Movie Ever Sold by Morgan Spurlock with the song "The Greatest Song I Ever Heard". In the movie Damian Kulash says: "Does that mean.. Hold on, if we make the theme for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, does that mean that we're the greatest rock band ever to write a theme song?" whereby Morgan Spurlock responds: "Absolutely." Live Appearances & Toursedit: In May 2006, OK Go toured with Panic at the Disco; in September they were in the U.K. supporting Motion City Soundtrack, and continued their U.S. tour supporting Snow Patrol into Spring 2007. June 10, 2010: The band was the surprise musical guest at Apple Inc.'s 2010 World Wide Developers Conference. June 23, 2011: The band gave a free concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the Millenium Stage. During the show, they performed the song Return from their first album on handbells. In advance of the performance, the Kennedy Center invited 15 Twitter followers and guests to film the show, in order to produce the organization's first crowd-sourced concert video. On Aug 3, 2011, OK Go performed at Barack Obama's 50th birthday party, along with musicians Jennifer Hudson and Herbie Hancock at the Aragon Ballroom (Chicago) in Chicago. On Aug 10, 2011, the band did a live television performance of the dance they created with 1 for their All Is Not Lost interactive video on the NBC show 2 Band membersedit: Current members Damian Kulash - (lead vocals, guitar) (1998-present), Tim Nordwind - (bass guitar and vocals) (1998-present), Dan Konopka - (drums and percussion) (1998-present), Andy Ross - (guitar, keyboards and vocals) (2005-present), Former members Andy Duncan - (guitar, keyboards and vocals) (1998-2005), Touring members Burleigh Seaver - keyboard, percussion (2002), Ara Anderson - keyboard, percussion, trumpet (2002, 2004), Tom Brislin - keyboard, percussion (2004), Jerry Welborn - guitar, drums only during the band's break

Source: Wikipedia

Text from this biography licensed under creative commons license