Andrew W.K. hit the mainstream music scene in late 2001 with his exclusive brand of ‘party rock’ combining influences from punk, rock, metal, dance, and electronica, he was able to bring unpredictable excitement and originality to mainstream music that been over saturated with boy bands and Nu-Metal groups. Garbed in his signature white t-shirt, white denim jeans, and well-worn gym shoes, Andrew was every bit as intimidating as any heavy metal front-man, but as endearing and thoughtful as a sitcom neighbor. With such political uncertainty and dire times in the country during that time, his foot stomping, fist clenching dance metal seemed like a breath of fresh air.
Later in his career, he became sort of a new-age motivational speaker and accepted invitations to hold self-help seminars at prestigious universities including Yale. His work as a motivational speaker would eventually lead to a weekly column in The Village Voice, and an upcoming self-help book The Party Bible.
I caught up with Andrew W.K. for an in depth conversation about life, expectation, his contribution to the soundtrack of HBO’s Vinyl, and of course, partying. Charismatic, polite, and sophisticated, it was an interesting conversation that solidified my opinion of Andrew W.K. as being one of the most interesting figures in modern pop culture.
Aaron: You use the word “Party” a lot. Most people think of partying as in getting wasted, high or drunk, but that’s not exactly what you mean. What is the Andrew W.K. definition of “Party”?
Andrew: Well, you know, not being dead and making an effort to be happy about that fact! It certainly can included getting wasted with or without intoxicating substances. You know there’s many ways to push yourself, there’s many ways to enjoy yourself, and there’s many ways to experience life but the party mindset is very simple in that we are trying to acknowledge the fact that we are alive and interpret that as a good experience, as a good adventure and make the most of it!
That’s a great answer!
Thank you! That’s a great question! Thank you very much for asking about that!
With all of your public endeavors, and being so recognizable as this positive public figure, do you feel pressure to behave a certain way or have a certain attitude in public?
Like a good kind of pressure you know? A kind of pressure I put on myself as well, a pressure I think, going back to your first question, that life itself kinda puts on all of us. We’re constantly faced with that choice that seems to differentiate between positive, negative, happy, sad, good, bad, right, wrong, light, dark, and you know, I’ve tried to over all, interpret the whole spectrum from positive to negative as having sort of a transcendent positivity to it that even the bad, within the range of life’s experiences, can be good at times. It gets kinda hard to pin down which is which, but I’m just trying to be the most Andrew W.K. that I can possibly be to make the most of it. It’s a good pressure to be under, not to just exist but to exist in this particular way of partying professionally. I consider that a great privilege! I want that kinda pressure or expectation. I want to have a reason to rise above my lowest potential and try to reach for my highest potential. I think we all have that ability and should have that pressure to encourage each other to be the best we can be!
A lot of what you do is aimed at helping people improve their lives, like your advice column for example. Why do you think you are qualified to give this kind of advice and when did you realize that sharing your outlook might help others through their own personal problems?
Well first and foremost, I’m actually not trying to help anybody because I don’t know if anybody can. I mean I think we can help each other primarily in a physical way, you know like if someone falls over and you can help lift them up. So like on a physical plain we can help one another, but when it comes to the inner-life, I think that’s the place where we kinda have to do the hard work ourselves. But I think if we turn too far outside of ourselves, I don’t really know if we can develop the strengths. You know what I mean?
Right.
So any help that anyone thinks they got from me, I actually think they had it in themselves all along. It could be why they identified with something I’ve said or found something useful. It was already there inside them and maybe I reminded them of it. Maybe we’re helping each other staying in touch with those things we already knew all along? To answer the second part of that question, I don’t think I’m very qualified at all! I mean I have opinions or beliefs, but even those are always changing. My outlook on things is very unreliable, even to myself! So I’ve only answered questions that people have asked me. So if someone asks you something very earnestly some of the time you are very compelled to give them an answer, even if it’s out of I guess common courtesy but I’m really no more qualified than anyone else. Maybe even less qualified to some people! Only you really have the only insight of your own situation.
So many people see you as this “positive party motivational speaker” guy though, even with all of the music you’ve released, shows you’ve hosted, they still recognize that element of your persona over the music. Does that ever bum you out?
Oh no, not really! Not at all! I don’t really consider myself as an artist or musician really. First and foremost, I would like to be considered a person, you know? Standing side by side with every other person making an effort to make it in this life you know, and in that regard I’d like to think at my most useful, people could look at me as a tool, like a mechanism! That they can, hopefully find something useful from! So I’m more like a hammer or something, that can be used as means to a greater end.
Like a Party Hammer!?
YES! Exactly!
You’re always so passionate about every everything, but do you or have you ever been depressed? What’s some advice you’d give someone who’s maybe in that sort of battle?
Oh yeah well again, with that full range of emotions, full range of feelings, that full spectrum of being human, like anyone else, I’ve felt all those things! First of all, I wasn’t always convinced that it was bad to feel that way. Like feeling bad, maybe was okay? Feeling bad wasn’t bad, or maybe it was bad trying to feel good all the time? Maybe it was bad to feel bad about feeling bad? There was a lot of aspects of society that pressured one’s self into expectations of what life should or shouldn’t be, but also a lot of aspects that kind of removed part of the beauty of life, or the dynamics and contrasts of life! So I always open to being able to feel bad, because it made you feel even more excited about feeling good! I mean, I wouldn’t be doing any of this had I not felt down in the dumps all the time because being down in the dumps made me want to do things that cheered me up!
Totally! Like the sweet and the sour. Feeling the sour makes you appreciate the sweet.
Yeah exactly! Like if I felt happy all the time, I probably wouldn’t have felt motivated to do anything. Be like “Oh I feel great so I’m just gonna sit here and rest”. Sometimes these things compel you to push past yourself, push past feelings, push toward something you wouldn’t have otherwise think you could even do! You know I’ve still felt that way, up and down like a rollercoaster. But you know a rollercoaster is a lot more exciting than a train ride.
When your first record was released, there seemed to be a lot of negativity in the music scene, especially in rock music. Whether it was coming from dissatisfaction from politics or society, it was just an aggressive time for music. Your record I Get Wet, was like a breath of fresh air. Kind of like a dance record for people who like Metal. These days just about all genres of music seem to be influenced by dance music in some way. Does this mean we’re in the golden age of party music?
I really appreciate you hearing that dance music element in my recordings. That was definitely intentional. I’ve always loved dance music very very much and I wanted to have that impulsive beat in there, that energizing, driving beat. You know but really, all energizing music is dance music in a way really. I mean if it makes you tap your toe, that’s dance music. Whether it falls in that genre specifically or uses that traditional instrumentation. The best feeling of energy are gonna come from that feeling of being physically moved. But yeah, I also agree with you, that it is sort of a golden age of party music right now and it’s very exciting to see so many people embracing that celebratory atmosphere, attitude, and feeling. The more the better as far as I’m concerned.
It seems to be a cycle within the music scene. Being negative or positive goes in and out of style.
I like negative music too, I’ve always liked all kinds of different feelings. I just felt like this is what I was meant to do. It wasn’t so much trying to critique, criticize, or go against what other people were doing, this is just a feeling that I really felt I could excel at promoting.
What are you listening to now? What’s some current music that you are really digging right now?
Uh….all kinds really. Everything and nothing in particular. I’ve always felt very open and don’t take my own taste in music very seriously, or my opinions or tastes in things in general very seriously, in that I don’t feel like it really has much to do with what I’m supposed to do personally. For example, you could be a great basketball player and also be very interested in bass fishing and hunting but you wouldn’t necessarily let bass fishing and hunting become a part of your basketball game. I mean, there might be certain aspects of focus or certain qualities or mindsets you could apply but you wouldn’t go on the court with a fishing rod. But if you did, it’s probably not gonna help your basketball game very much! I feel like that’s a lot of my situation. I am here to do something that’s very specific but doesn’t have very much to do with me personally. It doesn’t have much to do with my interests, my tastes, my opinions, or even my life experiences. It’s much more that I’m a servant to this very particular sensation that’s kind of like an energizing excitement, that’s kind of enthusiasm, and I’m here to carry those responsibilities out and execute it the best I can without letting myself stand in the way of that.
When I was introduced to your music video “Party Hard”, the one thing that stood out to me is how inviting it was. You were this big tall, intimidating dude, with long hair, bloody nose, doing all this aggressive rocking out and all that, but it was all still very inviting. Despite looking somewhat dangerous, it was still saying “Hey! let’s all get together and party together!”. The inclusive element is what really drew me in.
That means the world to me because probably more than anything, that was really the epitome of the feeling of what I wanted to get across. so the fact that you picked up on that and felt that in spite of all the aspects of the presentation that could’ve stood in the way, or confused that feeling, but you still picked up on the inclusion, inviting, friendliness, really really means a lot! I wanted that to be….aggressively friendly or aggressively inviting. Definitely like “come one come all, we can all be in this party together regardless of our backgrounds or interests. You don’t have to sacrifice who you are to be included in this party:. You picking up on that seriously means a lot to me.
Yeah, I Get Wet is kinda like my go-to album when I’m feeling down, or excluded. It’s a very uplifting record from start to finish. Even though it was released like 15 years ago, it still holds up today as fresh and relevant as it was back then.
Well thank you for allowing it to still mean something to you, and being able to include it as sort of a friend in your life as you go through life.
Now aside from the Alice Cooper cover you did for the HBO show Vinyl, you haven’t put out any music in about a minute. Can we expect something new any time soon?
Oh yeah hopefully pretty soon! I’ve been working on more but I’m sorta following the path that I’ve been asked to follow. When the time is right, I’m sure some new music will come out, hopefully sooner than later, but I’m somewhat at the mercy of my own destiny, but there is good things that come with that so I just try to stay patient, and try to show up and do the best of what I’ve been asked to do in the moment. But when I’m commanded to do a new album, I will give it all I have, that’s for sure.
I wouldn’t expect anything less to be honest.
Well I really really appreciate your belief in me. Thank you, it’s very encouraging.
How did the whole Alice Cooper, HBO thing come about?
Well… they just asked me. One of the gentlemen who was working on the project, is a man named Don Fleming. Don and I have worked together before on other music projects, he helped a great deal with my third album Close Calls and Brick Walls. He asked me if I’d like to record this song with them for the Vinyl show, and I said “Of course! thank you very much for asking me!” It’s very rare that I think of something that I want to do, and then go do it. Most of the time I’m invited to things and that’s a great privilege to be in a position where people turn to you or think of you, or extend to you some kind of opportunity that I wouldn’t even have dreamed up. Like if someone said “you can do anything in the world” I wouldn’t even have the nerve to think of doing something like that. So I’m very thankful to these folks, that for whatever reason, think I can do these things, so I try to rise to the occasion!
Now from a technical standpoint, you are a classically trained pianist?
Traditionally trained, yes.
How do you go about writing a song? Do you just sit at the piano and pound out something? Do you start with a hook? What’s the Andrew W.K. song writing process?
Ummm?…well, I say at the majority of the time, there’s just a song in your head you know? It’s just there. It’s just a melody, like if you are humming to yourself. I really can’t describe it beyond that, it’s just all of the sudden there is this song there and you just record it. You know what I mean? I don’t really work with jamming or riffs or grooves. I don’t just sit down and try to make up a song, one day there will just be a song in my head, and it’s just a matter of getting it out of my head.
Creating music without jamming with a band in a traditional sense, seems to be a current trend in the music industry. So many artists are writing, performing, recording, and releasing music straight from home! It’s a streamlined process now thanks to the internet and social media. Very different from when your first record was released. Do you think this do-it-yourself element is hurting the music scene or progressing it?
I don’t really see where it hurts very much, but I don’t know if it helps very much either. It seems always the same to me, just different textures. It’s all the same phenomenon over all. I mean you could say that technology has facilitated communication between people, but it’s still communication. It hasn’t really made it better or worse. I mean there are probably aspects of it that has improved to a certain degree, and there’s aspects of it that some people could say, it has degraded, and it seems people are communicating less. In my opinion from where I stand, I see it as more consistent than it is altered. At the same time, I’ve always worked with huge teams of people, and never do anything by myself in terms of larger efforts. I wouldn’t be able to do it by myself. I really admire people who do, and do everything alone. But I think within the nature of this party, I’m very very reliant on huge groups of people on many levels. To the management side, to the business side, of course the band themselves, the touring, people I work with in recording. I don’t ever want to give this impression that I do everything alone. I wouldn’t want to do it that way, and there were times where I did do it that way and I didn’t like it at all, and all I wanted was to be in a position where I could team up with more and more people. So I think none of this would have happened if it was just me by myself. In the beginning or now.
Yeah I think it comes back to that inclusive element of your music that drew a lot of people in early on.
I can’t tell ya how much that means to me that you felt that way, because I always wanted it to even feel like, as soon as someone found out about this thing, it felt like they were always already a part of it. Like when they hear a song, it sounds like them singing it, it sounds like they are making this music, like this music was already a part of their life in someway. Anybody who has ever believed in this or gotten this good feeling from it, or anything at all, should consider themselves a part of it, should take responsibility and credit for any of it’s success. You know, I’m just one small part of the whole thing. A representative.
Now for some rapid fire questions. What’s the most inspiring thing you have ever seen or witnessed?
Hmm. I really don’t have one thing. I really struggle when it comes to absolutes. It’s a great question! But I’m really only able to give you like an example of one of many things that was inspiring. There was this video on the computer a few years ago, of a little boy, maybe five years old who, I don’t remember the particular context unfortunately, but for whatever reason, he had to learn how to walk again due to some condition with his legs. Either an injury or a thing he was born with. He was learning to use this walking aid, like this rolling walker crutch type system with these braces on his legs and he had this extraordinary optimistic attitude that I don’t even believe he had to conjur up within himself. I don’t believe he was taught to think positively about his ability to walk, it just rose withim him very naturally as those attitudes intend to do with children. That was very very inspiring.
What’s your spirit animal?
Umm…. I don’t know *pauses* I used to think it was a wolf because that always seems like the coolest animal. But I don’t know. I actually really don’t know, maybe …..some kind of bug?
The Beatles or The Rolling Stones?
I can’t pick things like that. I love them both you know, that’s just too hard. I don’t mean that to be difficult either, I just find it hard to pick. Or almost kinda like, they both exist, why do I have to rank things? Like who do you like more, your Mom or your Dad? You know? What do you like more, water or oxygen? You know what I mean? Some of these things we aren’t forced to have to pick! There’s like this vast, paradise of joyful riches out there and we get to revel in all of them. No one is forcing us to border the world in that way. It’s tempting at times and kinda entertaining to try to create a higher anarchy like that but I’ve really really struggled with that and find very very stressful!
For sure. Well, that kinda killed my next question, which was gonna be Tacos or Burritos?
Yeah I really like both. I can’t really imagine if I chose tacos, I can never have a burrito again, it’s hard for me to imagine that and vice versa. I really do like them both. I mean there is some things I can probably pick like… uh…… ummm. ……uhhhh. Actually I can’t think of any. It’s even like sunny days or overcast days, I really really like both of them.
Okay well, who parties harder, Sasquatch or a Unicorn?
Well again, that’s really difficult for me to answer! Well I can say it does seem like there has been more semi confirmed sightings of Sasquatch, so in that regard perhaps it could be said that they are partying harder but at the same time, the elusive quality Unicorns have, is maybe due to their extraordinary partying!? Maybe they have partied themselves right out of our ability to perceive them? I mean they are both great ceatures, that’s for sure.
So what’s next for Andrew WK? What are you working on now?
Just partying. That’s the only thing I can be sure of. Everything else is always up in the air.
Well I wanna say I’ve been a big fan of your work since like 2001, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this interview and following me on twitter.
Are you The Bearded Gentlemen?
I’m one of The Bearded Gentlemen, but I’m not THE Bearded Gentleman.
What’s your twitter handle?
It’s @aarxn82.
Okay.
But yeah thanks for taking the time for this interview, and having a chat with us!
It was my absolute pleasure! Thank you for the excellent, very thoughtful questions and obviously your long time support! And as for staying with this, I can’t tell you how motivating that is. It’s encouraging to know that you’ve been there, really there since the very beginning and somehow found a way to keep this in your life as you’ve gone through all kinds of experiences. I mean I know that anyone who has been living over the past fifteen years, a lot has happened no matter who you are and the fact that you have been able to not abandon this is, I just can’t thank you enough! Thank you very very very much for your dedication.
Thank you for YOUR dedication!
It’s my pleasure and my privilege to be able to do this, I really want you to know that it’s not lost on me. There’s a lot of things out there to like and a lot of things out there to forget about and I’m truly thankful.
One last question: Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to apply this party element to their lives? Like where is a good place to start the Party?
Umm…. Probably just to look at all the reasons that you’ve got to be thankful. That’s a good starting place. It really alters the inner landscape of your mind. From my experiences, it’s so easy to get caught up in what we want, what we don’t have, things that are wrong, all the things we’re concerned or worried about, and many of them, justifyingly so, but there’s something extraordinary empowering about, even just thinking of just one thing that we’re undeniably thankful for, that’s a good starting point. Even if that thing is as basic as just having a chance to exist. The odds of not existing are much higher than the odds of existing. It’s a miracle to exist! Even despite all the pain that comes with that. That’s really the beginning of the party mindset. To make that decision. You know, we really don’t have any ironclad proof that existence is good, it takes a choice to decide that it’s good, and that’s when the party starts.
Alright. Thank you, and we’ll chat next time.
Alright. Take care. Keep partying!
Photo Credit: Nina Ottolino