For most people, making a video in which you and your bandmate stroll naked through Times Square would be the highlight of your year. Not if your name is Matt or Kim and you are a rock star.

Brooklyn's Matt and Kim became something of an indie household name this year, thanks in part to the clip for "Lessons Learned," in which the duo walks around the world's busiest intersection while gradually disrobing. A popular album didn't hurt, either, nor did the MTV Video Music Award nomination or a late-night television debut on "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Keyboardist/vocalist Matt Johnson, speaking while on the road with cohort Kim Schifino in New Mexico, said the duo's new record, "Grand," is about mixing it up. "I really wanted diversity," he said. "On our first record [2006's 'Matt and Kim'], it was pretty much 10 of the same songs, which isn't always a bad thing. There's plenty of Ramones songs I like that sound like albums of the same songs. But I wanted ['Grand'] to feel like a movie that has gone through ups and downs, lefts and rights. ... You feel fulfilled at the end."

"Grand" takes the listener on such a journey with a Mates of State-with-ADD sound, from the frenetic and uplifting "Daylight" to a remix of the same song that serves as the record's closing-credits moment. The album was recorded in Johnson's childhood bedroom in Vermont.

"My high school bands used to record in that bedroom," said Johnson. "We just bought some stuff, and figured out how to use it, and went up there, just the two of us." He added that the settings provided the duo with the motivation to try anything, an opportunity the band didn't have while scrambling to record its debut. The result is a record that sounds both spontaneous and ornate.

That description may sound like an oxymoron, but it fits the band's songwriting process, which Johnson said "caters to our personalities." Johnson and Schifino work together to come up with a beat, Johnson usually creates a melody and Schifino "free-associates" a batch of lyrics that the pair then whittles down to fit the song's tone.

As for that "Lessons Learned" video, Johnson said they just wanted an appropriate metaphor for the song.

"It just fit," he said, "because the song is about hitting the bottom of the barrel, and at some point you have to say, 'fuck it.'" The clip became a viral sensation and earned the band their first VMA nomination.

Although Matt and Kim are romantic colleagues in addition to being musical partners, don't expect a love song anytime soon.

"We don't write love songs, for the record," said Johnson. "We never have, we never will. Haven't enough people written love songs already? We try to have somewhat of a broad meaning for our songs. I like that they can mean different things to different people."

Besides, Matt and Kim are doing fine as they are. As the duo continues its first major tour, Johnson -- a onetime film student who expected to work professionally in that medium -- marvels about the way his life has turned out.

"Rock 'n' roll is the most steady job I ever had," said Johnson. "I never saw it coming."