SNEWS® talks to OK Go, the genius behind "Here It Goes Again" treadmill dance video

Proving all you need to achieve your five minutes of fame is a video camera, a lot of imagination, a certain level of talent and, in this case, some rented sports equipment, OK Go’s latest video, “Here It Goes Again,” showcases an incredible dance routine on treadmills that has wowed audiences on MTV, VH1 and Letterman, not to mention via an oft-emailed link that has again shown the viral capabilities of the Internet.

For those of you who have not seen it — probably not many since we’ve been forwarded this link numerous times — we highly recommend clicking here to check out the band’s video online. Once there, Click on the Here It Goes Again links to play in whatever format you choose. Trust us — you have to see this to believe it. It ain’t just some goofy joke, but a jaw-dropping routine using treadmills like we’ve never seen them used.

For a quick bit of background, the four band members — Damian Kulash, Tim Nordwind, Dan Konopka and Andy Ross — perform a dance routine on eight treadmills — Vision Fitness T9600 and T9700 models, in case you were wondering. And these are not guys known for dancing but are rather musicians, including bass and guitar players, drummers and keyboards. In the second week of August 2006, the video reached No. 9 on the VH1’s Top 20 Video Countdown. The band also performed the treadmill dance live Aug. 31 at MTV’s Video Music Awards, and it is scheduled to be played on VH1 50 times during September.

To film “Here It Goes Again,” the band rented and arranged eight Vision treadmills side-by-side and front-to-back in Kulash’s sister’s spare room in Orlando, Fla. Since the video first aired on July 31, 2006, on YouTube.com, the video has vaulted into theYouTube.com all-time top 25.

SNEWS® was told that “Here It Goes Again” was a single-shot and not a compilation of takes edited together for one clean video. As such, the band took 20 takes to get one, clean performance over a several day shooting schedule and, yes, there were bumps, bruises and we’d betcha a whole lot of gales of laughter. Considering the nature of the dance, you know those band members are fit and got quite the workout filming the routine too.

Naturally, SNEWS® wanted a few more details, so we asked the band to answer a few questions by email through Bobbie Gale, Capitol Records’ senior director of publicity and a representative for the band — and a guy with a bit of a sense of humor to boot. Guess he needs to with a group like this to promote.

SNEWS®: Who choreographed the dance?

OK Go: Damian’s sister, Trish Sie, is the choreographer for our treadmill video, “Here It Goes Again.” She is a retired ballroom dancer and a full-time insane genius. Trish also choreographed another dance of ours for a song called “A Million Ways.” We originally choreographed the dance for “A Million Ways” only to perform live at the end of shows, who doesn’t like a band that throws down their instruments and breaks into dance? We decided to show our friends a rehearsal tape of us practicing the routine in the backyard. A few weeks later that tape made it onto a couple of our friends’ blog sites, Myspace.com pages, YouTube.com, etc… From there, eventually, “A Million Ways” became the most downloaded video in Internet history, over nine million times. We were blown away.

After the success of “A Million Ways,” Trish called us with a crazy idea to dance on treadmills. We didn’t really think we could top the success of our first dance, but the idea seemed so nutty and fun that we decided to take a week between tours and try it out. We figured that if it didn’t seem cool, we’d never have to show it to anyone. Once we were done though, we knew we had something pretty awesome and weird.

SNEWS®: What inspired the group to perform this, using treadmills?

OK Go: The inspiration to perform using treadmills comes from the wonderfully twisted and creative mind of our choreographer, Trish. She had been spending a good deal of time in the gym when the idea to dance on treadmills came to her, one night, in a dream. It was really her vision to jump, skate, twist and twirl on treadmills. She may have created the newest in synchronized sports for the 21st century. Look to find synchronized treadmilling in the 2010 Olympics.

SNEWS®: What treadmills does the group prefer to perform on and why?

OK Go: Well, OkGo has only performed on Vision Fitness 9600’s and 9700’s. Really, the routine for “Here It Goes Again” was tailored to those particular models. They have the circular arms which are perfect for jumping on and off, we can slide through them easily (now), dance the Charleston, ride the pony, and besides that they are incredibly sturdy machines.

SNEWS®: Any plans for additional choreography programs using other fitness equipment or sports gear?

OK Go: We have no plans for more additional choreography using other fitness equipment or sports gear at the moment. Truthfully, we’re just hoping for more fun and creative ideas at this point. Whether those ideas involve dance, athletic equipment, prime rib, whatever. We like to make cool stuff and hopefully we will continue to do so. We couldn’t be happier that people are enjoying this current video. Hopefully, they’ll like whatever comes next.