Serving as a crystal ball for the college music scene, the mtvU Woodie Awards showcase some of the top emerging artists from around the world. With the award show premiering at 8 p.m. Nov. 15, many of these artists are beginning to wonder -- will they make it, or break it?

Some such artists are the Shins, who are nominated for three categories, "The Alumni Woodie," "The Woodie of the Year" and "Viral Woodie"; the UK-based group, Klaxons, whose eclectic music received a "Left Field Woodie" nomination; Tokyo Police Club, which is nominated for "Breaking Woodie"; pop-punk band Motion City Soundtrack, whose music video "Broken Heart" is nominated for "Best Video Woodie"; and hip-hop artist RJD2 who is also running in the "Best Video Woodie" category for his music video, "Work it Out."

The winners of each category are determined by student voting on mtvU.com, with a voting deadline of Nov. 2.

Justin Pierre, Motion City Soundtrack

Q: What's the music writing process like for your band?

A: I'd say it depends. Most of the time one person comes up with an idea and then the rest of us just kind of dive into it. I'm not sure that I even fully understand it or that any of us do; we just kind of hammer away at it. We sort of work on a song-to-song basis, I think. That would be the easiest way to describe it and, you know, just because a song might be finished doesn't mean that we won't come back to it later. We sort of let it evolve until we have it to the point where we want to record it.

Q: So you guys just put out a new CD and you're about to go on tour. What do you like more, touring or recording?

A: I think, personally, I like recording. I think it's less stressful for me. I would like to, at some time, be able to enjoy touring as much. I mean, it's definitely fun to go places. But I do like [writing] more than I like performing.

Q: You guys have all been in pop punk, which you know kind of gets a bad name as being a cookie-cutter genre. Yet you have stayed outside of the typical sound; you've come out with fresh CDs every time around. How have you managed to do that? Is there any thought that
goes into that or is that just how it works with you guys?

A: think not thinking about it is one. Yeah, I don't know -- I'm surprised. Like, you could call us country and I guess if that makes sense to you, that's cool.

Q: I heard a DJ call you synth pop one time, so I mean I've heard a lot of descriptions for your band.

A: "Synth pop" sounds like some sort of like Star Wars thing. Like a Synthpopper Megatrobious Vortex Extrapolator. Yeah, I don't know. I think we just try to avoid that and do whatever it is that we do. I just think it's human nature to categorize and put things into place because it makes things easier to understand.

Klaxons

Q: You guys are huge in the UK; you have had four Top 40 songs in the past year. Do you think gaining a fan base with U.S. college students has proven to be harder or easier than in Britain?

A: I think it's a lot harder in America than the UK. We're kind of gaining popularity amongst college students, and I think that's where it always starts. You know, college radio and college students are kind of the pacemakers. [In the UK], we were able to almost create a whole scene and a whole movement that everyone seemed to buy into and I think that helps us a lot.

Q: Do you think this award could be a catalyst to launch you into the U.S. scene or do you see that happening some other way?

A: I think it could help raise our profile a little bit. I think what is going to help more is when we put out our next record, really. We're just kind of over this record now; we've been touring and we're in the States now and I think we are just kind of bored and ready to start a new one. That's going to help a lot more. We've got ambitions for it to be a lot bigger than the first one.

Q: How would you describe your genre of music? I've read that people have called it acid rave sci-fi punk funk.

A: In Norway, someone said we sound like Earth, Wind & Fire meets hardcore. I don't know -- melodic discord and pop. Apocalyptic, throw that word in there.

Q: Who came up with the concept for the "Golden Scans" video?

A: All of our videos are directed by our good friend Sam. He's had some very weird out-there ideas and we just let him run with it, really. He will push things; he will challenge things. You know we've shaved our chests, we've jumped on trampolines and have had snakes on our heads. We've held babies and we've done whatever. We like to inject a bit of fun into music videos. And it's an art form, I think, and it's something that we take very seriously, and we kind of want them to be things we look back on and are proud of.

James Mercer, The Shins

Q: For your "Alumni Woodie" Award, you are standing next to Talib Kweli, Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes and Spoon -- names that you'd drop on any campus anywhere and people will know exactly who they are. How do you feel about being propelled into that stratosphere?

A: Well it's good, you know. I mean not that it's necessarily the main goal of a songwriter or any sort of a band or artist, but it is part of what you're trying to do. You're speaking up, you're singing and you're doing that so people can hear it. So when you get into a situation where obviously a lot of people are being exposed to what you are doing, there is some satisfaction to it. I mean, I'm proud, I'm honored. It's crazy.

Q: Out of all the nominations you have received, which one do you want to win the most and why?

A: Well I suppose Woodie of the Year, right? That's the one. How about all of them? Can I get all of them? Can I get the Alumni Woodie and the Woodie of the Year? Yeah, I don't know. You know this is just rad to even be mentioned like this. It's really cool. The mtvU thing, I mean that's exactly where you want to strike. Going to a university was where I really got deeply moved by music, and it really became something that was a driving force in my life, right in that era. And so it's really cool that we are so in the consciousness of university students.

Q: How do you keep grounded and maintain your originality as your band transitions from this independent bracket toward the mainstream media?

A: Well God, I don't know how. You know in a way, I do worry about that sometimes. Modest Mouse, you know, they are on the radio all the time. I just heard one of their songs on the radio today, and they're on a much higher level than we are. And I wonder, how does that affect you when you're just constantly hearing your music and you're constantly reminded that everyone else in the world is hearing it? We're not there yet. Maybe we're heading into that sort of zone, but I don't know. I hope that just maybe there is something integral to my personality that will prevent that sort of thing from happening. You do see bands that are really, really strong become successful and then it just starts to wane. Their creativity starts to fall away and their energy and everything. So I'm hoping that that doesn't happen to us.

Tokyo Police Club

Q: What are some of your influences or who have you been listening to lately?

A: Well, there is a whole slew of the usual artists that always like really affect us. Yeah, I don't know. Over this last summer, we got to tour a whole bunch of festivals and see a whole bunch of rocking bands. It's just like, the Arcade Fire and Bloc Party and the classics, really.

Q: Is the music scene a lot different in the United States than it is in Canada?

A: I don't think there's that much difference. People always want to talk about the differences between the U.S. and Canada. I mean, you go to any major city and there is an awesome music scene. You go to any small town, and there's no music scene. It really doesn't matter what country it's in -- to me, at least.

Q: You guys are nominated for the Breaking Woodie. Now that you are doing larger shows and becoming more well known, do you still feel any less connected to your fans?

A: I think we've always thought of it as a really important aspect to keep in touch with your fans. I mean, we were answering all of our MySpace messages personally a little while ago, so we really do put in an effort and yeah, we still are. I really hope we're able to still keep in touch with our fans even when we get ridiculously popular, and it's so out of control. By the way, that was a joke.

RJD2

Q: How does it feel to be nominated for a Woodie?

A: It's great. I think it was the first time I've ever been nominated for a video award or quite possibly any award of any sort at all. I'm happy with the video [that I'm nominated for]. You know it's mostly a testament to how good the direction and the performances are in the video, which by and large have nothing to do with me. So I'm very proud of all the guys that busted their asses for the video.

Q: I really need to ask you about the change in sound of The Third Hand. So why the change to almost a soulful funk sound? It just seems like a complete 180 from what you had been doing.

A: Yeah I guess -- you know for me it's not a complete 180, internally. The best way I can describe The Third Hand and the difference it has in the context from my other records is that I feel like it's a lot of small differences. A lot of small changes happened, and when the summing of all those little changes come up with a record to a lot of people's views, kind of sounds like a 180. From my perspective, I'm still trying to do the same thing and I've got the same goals that I've always had but just new tools.

Q: So you are nominated for the Best Video Woodie and you're going up against Say Anything, TV on the Radio, Justice and Motion City Soundtrack. Now excluding yourself, who would you vote for in this category?

A: This is embarrassing, but I don't really watch a lot of music television. But if Justice is nominated for "D.A.N.C.E.," I'd probably vote for that because it's the only one I've seen.

Q: I see that you've remixed a lot of songs by bands like Polyphonic Spree and Fall Out Boy, so what's a recent release that you'd love to work on?

A: A recent release I'd love to work on? Probably Kanye West records. I think anything on there I'd like to take on. You know what I'd really love to work on is Neo's last album. There is a new Neo record coming out, and I'm actually a fan of his and his songs are great; the chords and the writing is great. His records have this over-gloss to them so I'd love to do something with [one of his] songs.