So the word's out now that indie-pop rock band OK Go will be coming to Brandeis in less than two weeks. Seeing that there are already over 750 people attending according to the concert's Facebook event page and more than 200 people listed as "maybe attending," expect the Shapiro Gym in the Gosman Sports and Convocation Center to be packed on Saturday, Oct. 2 before opener The Postelles even start their first song. But why just hear an arts writer's pure speculation? The members of OK Go have more than enough to say to Brandeis students about what to expect at the concert. Last week, when JustArts found out that OK Go will headline Student Events' fall concert, we were lucky enough to nab an interview with bassist Tim Nordwind. Nordwind, who met lead singer Damian Kulash at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp in middle school and has stayed in touch with him since then, took time out of DJing in New York City to give us an idea of what the band has been up to.JustArts: What are you doing until next Saturday?

Tim Nordwind: We're going to Brazil and closing their MTV Video Music Awards. Then we're playing two club shows there, then flying back to the States to play on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. We're also flying to a few different places, including Barcelona, before coming back for your show.

JA: And then you're going on tour the following week?

TN: We'll be touring North America and that will end up in Canada. We're also releasing a new video on Sept. 20 for our song "White Knuckles." I can't tell you much about it, but I think it's maybe the best video we've ever made. It's really pretty good. I'm proud of all of our videos, but this one may take the cake.

JA: Where does the creativity of your videos come from?

TN: What kind of gets us out of our beds is we like to make things. Whether it's music video or just plain music, or some kind of collaborative art project, we're just very interested in the creative process. We look at video making as an art project. When videos started 20 to 25 years ago, it was looked at as an advertisement for the music. Up until right now in the music business, the thing of value is the master recording of the song, with everything else around that studio recording considered as promotion. Now that people don't really buy master recordings anymore, the rules are being rewritten for what a song is, what a band is and how music is given and distributed to the world. All of a sudden, the video, the live shows, the merchandise-pretty much all of the stuff that used to be thought of as promotion-is now starting to be taken seriously as an artistic form. So video-making is just one of those ways in which we like to make things. Essentially, we're trying to make the impossible possible.

JA: Speaking of music promotion, OK Go seems to get much of its word out online. As a musician, how big a role does the Internet play?

TN: First of all, these days, I don't think there's much use in making a distinction between the Internet and regular life. Most of us live our lives through the Internet: it's how we communicate, it's where we make our art, it's how we get our bills. Making a distinction between that space and any other space seems unnecessary to me. That said, the Internet is an extremely important place for music. It's certainly a great way to find music, but I don't think it will make anyone any more or less creative.

JA: On the other side of that, what can you say about your live shows?

TN: The best part of playing live, from our point of view, is when we can get everyone in the room on the same wavelength and making a connection. The nice thing about that is that you can play fun songs and everyone has fun, and you can play a sad, introspective song and everyone can get introspective for a moment. As long as everyone's willing to go on the same adventure together, it can be a really emotionally satisfying time. That's what we try to do when we do untraditional things like playing a song entirely with handbells. Doing the unexpected helps to keep everyone's attention. The idea of the musician sitting on the stage and playing his guitar, and the audience sitting down and smoking their cigarettes-that's such a tried-and-true method of playing from the '60s, so we try to break that mold a little bit and find other ways to have fun with the audience.

JA: My favorite aspect of your performances is your dancing. How much time do you devote to thinking about dance?

TN: Sometimes we'll work with Damian's sister, who's a choreographer. She worked with us for the "A Million Ways" and "Here It Goes Again" videos and also the upcoming one for "White Knuckles." We are not very good dancers or anything, but we have fun trying. We used to end all of our live shows with a choreographed dance-that's kind of how all the dancing started-because we wanted to do something that would surprise the audience, jolt them out of their rock 'n' roll malaise. We'd drop all of our instruments and lip-sync to our own songs and do a dance routine for them, which used to be a total surprise. At some point though, when those dances started coming out on videos, it became expected of us to do that. So it wasn't as much fun for us, and for the audience who have seen us on videos, it wasn't as much of a surprise. So we don't do choreographed dance routines anymore, but we've replaced that with a lot of other surprises. One thing we've learned is that if you can keep surprising people with whatever you can dream up to do, that's really the important part of performance.

JA: I enjoy OK Go's sense of style too. How much thought do you put into dress?

TN: Fashion and the things that come with it are fun for us. It's generally more fun to wake up in the morning and see a closet full of slightly crazier clothes than it is to look at the usual T-shirt and jeans. As a band, we think and feel our way through outfits.

JA: Do you ever coordinate what you wear?

TN: Sometimes. It depends if we feel like looking like a unit, or more like individuals just hanging out with each other. It depends on the mood. I think what's important to us is that we aren't expected to always look a certain way-at the same time, there's an element of theatricality that we enjoy when performing.

JA: Tell us about your fan base.

TN: We're very lucky to have fans around the world who are extremely creative and like to communicate through art projects. We can't possibly meet and know everyone who listens to our band, but one of the most meaningful ways to have a conversation with a band is by creating projects. For example, there's over 400 dance videos responding to our "A Million Ways" dance. You can go through them; most of them are pretty awesome and do a fun take on the original video.

Our fans do a lot of different types of art projects and share them with us online. You were asking about the Internet and what's so great about it; one of the best things about the Internet is that it cuts out the necessity of the middleman. You can make something, you put it online, and people can watch it. You don't have to fit the idea through a bunch of people's politics or egos, you just put it up and people enjoy it. Same thing goes for the band. I think we have a much more direct connection with our fans because of the Internet.

JA: Have you ever met someone who made a video for you guys?

TN: There was a kid from Denver who put up a video of himself playing drums to "This Too Shall Pass," and did a phenomenal take of it. We noticed him in the front row of our concert in Denver last time we were there, so we pulled him on stage. He actually ended up playing drums with our drummer Dan and it was great. It was one of those things where we made something and put it up, and then he did too and WE recognized him. We were the ones who were excited to see him-we were like, "oh my god, we saw you on YouTube!" So it definitely works both ways.

JA: That was probably the greatest day of his life.

TN: [laughs] I'm not sure about that. It's so great to do, though. It's so great to make that connection. Not only did we connect online, but we also connected in real life, which was really fun.

JA: It says here for "White Knuckles" that you're going to have a remix contest for it.

TN: Yes, we put up all the stems that make up "White Knuckles" and anyone who has any interest in doing so can tweak the music and do what they like with it. Get it as weird or as awesome as we want. We've got something like 40 submissions already.

JA: Do all four of you guys listen to all of them?

TN: We'll split them up to begin with and take notes on the ones we really like, and we'll listen to the ones that make it through that round going from there. It's just fun to see what people do.

JA: Where do you see yourselves in five years?

TN: I guess the exciting thing is I don't know where we'll be in five years. I feel like if I knew, I'd be terrified of that option and try to do something else. That's a very hard question to answer, but hopefully we'll still be chasing things we want to chase, and doing it in such a way where we don't have to answer to too many people except ourselves. I think if we're all doing some sort of form of that, we'd all be very happy.

JA: When you guys come to Brandeis, do you guys plan on hanging around or seeing the area?

TN: Generally we tend to meet a lot of people when we do the college shows, so yes. I'm not exactly sure of the schedule though. We'll definitely check it out a bit. I look forward to coming.

JA: We are very much excited to see you guys. For a final question, who are you listening to on your iPod right now?

TN: I really like Sleigh Bells, and the new Cee Lo Green too. If you know the Phenomenal Handclap Band, they're really cool. They're an indie-soul band from New York. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros I like a lot too.