Meet Timothy Nordwind | Musician/Ron Persky

When I was 6, my sister went off to college and left me an acoustic guitar with a broken bridge. I couldn’t tune the strings even if I knew how, but I’d press one finger up and down the neck to make sounds. She also bestowed upon me her musical taste; The Violent Femmes, The Smiths, New Order, The Clash.  So I went to town making cacophonous noise in chaotic fits, writing new wave and post punk anthems like “Earth Worms From Outer Space” and “At The Checkout Counter.” The latter was an angsty ditty about being at the checkout counter with my mom while explaining to the nosy cashier why we were buying the things we were buying, and what we’d use them for, like milk – You know, like for cereal.  I didn’t know chords, but I was writing songs.  And though I still loved TV, I now had an outlet for more immediate self expression.

So with my sister gone, and my mom and dad working days, my brother was left to babysit me after school. Every spring he was in the high school musicals, which meant every spring I was in the audience watching rehearsals; taking notes, memorizing everyone’s parts, crushing on the ingenues and idolizing the stars. We’re talking Bye Bye Birdie, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Godspell. I didn’t understand half of what was being said, but I felt it all, and for a shy kid who had a hard time finding his own words, it dawned on me that maybe I could tell stories like they do in the plays to help express myself. The year my brother graduated, it just so happened my best friend David was going to be in a children’s community theater production of Paddington Bear. It was a revelation, kid’s my own age on stage like mini rocket ships launching off into brave new worlds. Just like that a portal had opened. I could take my years of R&D in television, theater studies, songwriting with a broken guitar – and step into myself and onto a stage with real friends outside of the TV. So at 10 years old, inspired by the infinite potential, that’s just what I did. And it’s what I’ve been fortunate enough to do ever since.

As an adult I’ve found a career with friends playing music in my  indie rock band OK Go. We met at summer camp with a pipe dream of touring the world. At the time none of us really played any instruments, at least not well. But, we’ve now been a group for 25 years and continue to break new creative ground together. Over time I’ve also channeled creativity via other musical collaborations with my bands Pyyramids and X.X.T.  For me, collaboration is always a fun way to generate ideas, but in the pandemic with less opportunities to see people, feeling somewhat isolated, I began exploring improvisation in front of a camera and Transcendental Meditation (not at the same time). I know what you’re probably thinking – Improv and TM, two great tastes that go great together.  Weirdly though, that’s how I met my latest endeavor and alter-ego Ron Persky. He sidled into my subconscious one day while meditating, I could feel his kind offbeat spirit and soon became captivated by trying to create a vessel for his soul; a perennially optimistic middle aged self-proclaimed songwriter who lives at home with his mom. Ron’s charm comes from his mix of neuroses, naivete and the hopeful way he navigates these through his online music tutorials. Sometimes it feels as though there is an overwhelming amount of cynicism in the world today, but Ron is a wholesome antidote to the cynics, finding his purpose in sharing his unique perspective with all beings through the joys of songwriting. He may not be the most gifted musician alive, but what he lacks in traditional talent he makes up for in pure naive wisdom and joie de vivre.

Ron’s generosity of esprit demands an audience for collaboration, something I’ve begun to explore in a series of live performances at comedy spaces like PDA and The Elysian theater in Los Angeles. In fact, The Ron Persky Songwriting Workshop will begin a monthly residency at The Elysian beginning in March, directed by Cirque De Soleil collaborator and Idiot Workshop founder John Gilkey. It also features Wet The Hippo comedy veterans Max Baumgarten and Kevin Kreiger and Gutterplum star Courtney Pauroso. The show is framed as a songwriting workshop, but quickly unravels as we come to learn just as much about Ron’s inner monologue as we do songwriting. And in the end, Ron and the audience help each other to write a song that they can sing together in perfect harmony.

Having played in OK Go for over two decades it’s a little scary to try something not only creatively new, but well outside of my comfort zone. Going from indie rock to comedy is a bit of a pivot, and maybe even hard to explain. Theater is something that I love but has laid dormant within me for decades. Now returning to it feels very inspiring after such a long rest. One of Ron’s most endearing qualities is that his naivety makes exploring uncharted territory a little less daunting. A little more trying, a little less worrying – I guess you could say. And best of all he’s making lots of new friends along the way. I was thinking about the following just the other day, if the band represents a teenage pipe dream come true, then maybe Ron is here to honor what came before that – A really shy child in a great big world, just looking for a way to connect, help, and hope with the gifts that were handed down to him; a TV, a broken guitar, and the stage.