A.W.K. Archive

Andrew W.K. loves to talk. After every concert he spends hours signing autographs and talking to fans and he won't leave until everyone has left. When he signs his autographs he doesn't just sign his name; instead he writes a personal note to the person, usually thanking them for their support. However, he may not seem like the type you'd bring home to your mom, as his album cover is a photograph of his face with a bloody nose, with blood running down his face and neck. It's caused some controversy; most stores that sell his record will only sell it with a piece of black plastic in front of the photograph. On stage he's a charge of non-stop energy, crashing around the stage full-force. He's never seen in anything other than a dirty white t-shirt, dirty white jeans and dirty white tennis shoes. And unlike most bands, he invites his audience to come on stage and dance with him during his concerts. Because of this most critics have written off his music as a joke, saying that it's nothing more than rowdy beer-rock. But his honesty, warm heart and gentle demeanor is most certainly contrast to his seemingly senseless party rock. I was able to interview Andrew after one of his recent concerts in Chicago. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity as the things we talked about are still ringing in my ears. Around 8:15pm after the concert, my brother and I were brought to the dressing rooms, where waited until 11pm. We were asked to leave by the club staff so we headed to the alley where Andrew had already been signing autographs and talking to kids for almost three hours. Once we were in the alley there was more waiting. It was 1:20am by the time we actually started the interview, but our patience had payed off. We talked with him until he had to leave for Columbus at 4:30am. We talked for hours about his music and from his in-depth ramblings I found out some very interesting things. In short, he's a very nice guy and he's got a lot to say. I hope you enjoy reading this. Christopher - I'm totally stoked to be able to do this. This last week I was out of town . . . You've been out of town? Christopher - Yeah, I wasn't I wasn't sure that I was going to get to do this. So you live here? Christopher - Yeah, I live in Chicago. Awesome. Christopher - And I just found out today. I got home at four thirty and Paul (Andrew's Tour Manager) left me a message and I got an email from Lauren Schneider at Island and they said, "You've got the interview." So I've been rushing to get it together. Awesome I'm glad. Tell me a little bit about the magazine, out of curiosity. Christopher - Well, it started in the early seventies cause we're part of a community, which started in the early seventies. Basically they started like a newspaper thing because they wanted to have something to hand out to people. Over the years it's tackled different things from people in cults and different issues and it's all basically from our perspective. I've been writing for it for four years straight out of high-school cause where we live we have our own school. Whoa. Christopher - We're all home-schooled. We have our own businesses, we're self-supported. Wow. Christopher - And we do a Christian music festival every year. Uh-huh. Christopher - We have a shelter for homeless women and children so basically it's just a part of that. It's just like another thing we do. I'm honored, I'm honored to be amongst its' pages. Really. I'm very excited, thank you. Christopher - Well, it's an honor to be able to do this cause it's just great to see you, you're so real with people. And just hearing stories from friends, like a couple of my friends they saw you at Furnace Fest this year . . . Yeah it was amazing. Christopher - And they helped out with stage hand stuff. Mm-hmm. Christopher - And they said you were the sweetest guy and seeing you outside with the kids, it's so real. And it's so important to me to let people know about this, cause I think many people see your album cover and think "Oh what's this about?" Yeah they do, more than I even know I think. At Ozzfest I remember talking to this one girl, who was in trouble because her mom wouldn't let her come to Ozzfest. She said the only reason she wanted to come to Ozzfest was to see me. I was talking to her after the concert and I said why wouldn't your mom want you to come? She said she is very against the album, and I said why and she said well she really doesn't like the cover for starters and she thinks it's a bad thing. I understood, but it was so frustrating. Whether you like it or not is one thing, but people are working against because they think it's a bad force in the world and there's a lot of those people. I'm not surprised, but I just didn't expect it. It all has its' place and it's all fine, but it's just not a bad thing in the world, I know that. I don't usually say things so clearly cause I think most of the time a lot of the stuff speaks for itself and takes care of itself. I know that this is not doing bad. It's not making things worse. It's absolutely not. I think most things aren't. I think people take things and make them do bad for themselves. I'm really curious to talk to you guys. I really want to see what you think about things just in general. I wouldn't say I'm religious one way or another, but I have an immense respect and interest in religion and young people especially, people my age that are very, very passionate about it and every now and then I get to speak to someone that comes to the shows that likes it and that always excites me. Would you guys listen to music that was like satanic or definitely making efforts to be evil or angry or things like that? Christopher - We like TOOL a lot. Is TOOL evil? Like is that their vibe? Christopher - I think so. Yeah!? Christopher - From what we've heard and from what we've seen it just seems pretty much they're pretty much like evil. I mean it may be the whole gimmick thing, but . . . Trevor - Yeah. It seems like a lot of bands do the gimmick. Christopher - Like Mayhem . . . Yeah Mayhem's definitely yeah they're evil, but you like them? Christopher - Well, no . . . Trevor - No they're not evil. They're not? Christopher - They're not. It's a total gimmick. Oh really? Trevor - Yeah. Christopher - Yeah. Because in the beginning some of their early promotional stuff I've seen was really light-hearted with the dude sitting at the piano playing like laughing and little Heathcliff stickers all around him and I was like Oh! It made me really happy. I was like oh it's just a fun thing you know? I don't like stuff that's silly or a joke when it comes to evil and stuff like that, but I like it when it can be like Napalm Death because it's not evil at all, it's actually very peaceful. As you probably know [they're] a peace-loving band and that's what all the songs are about. It's so violent and aggressive yet it's so fun loving, especially on their early albums. You'd see the pictures and they'd be laughing because it was just this fun thing and that was what I always identified with. We are aggressively, violently fighting to have fun. We're not against anybody. I've been really thinking that about more. I used to fight so hard against things, against people, more than I would fight for something. [If] you'd ask me what do you like, what do you believe in and I would have a much harder time. But you ask me what I hated and I what I was trying to stop, oh I could list it off. I could rant for hours and I was just so furious. Now when you apply that same kind of fury to what you like doesn't that seem better? Christopher - Yeah. Cause then more stuff happens. I want to try to like more stuff. I want to like more stuff than I hate. Even out there I felt there are things that are challenging me in various ways. Not my understanding of it, but it could be jealousy, it could be envy, it could be confusion, misunderstanding, all these things, but they're all my own weaknesses. The thing itself, or that other person is doing nothing. Even if they were making conscious efforts to bring me down, it's ultimately always me who would allow them to do it or would allow me to feel that way. More and more I don't want to do that. The things that I dislike I'll try to get myself into. Then not only do I have another thing that I like then, which makes my [life] a little bigger, but then I also have a one less weak thing inside me. It's all about moving in that direction and being at a good challenge along the way. I'm rambling, but this is what I wanted to do. Christopher - No, no that's good. It's totally good. Okay. Christopher - I guess I could start with question number one. Why do you play music? Oh, wow these questions. A great question, why, why not? It's something I know I can do. I really like, always have, even in my most dark days, which was when I was younger, I've always really liked liking things and the inspir . . . I wish there was a better word. The overwhelming sense of excitement, well being, life affirming, adrenaline rushing moments that happen when you really love something. Whether it's a person, whether it's a place, whether it's a thing, whatever it is. I have never felt those feelings as much as when I've been playing or listening to music. I think people find that all in different ways. I think actually almost everybody can find it in music unless they try not to. Lately especially I really like love songs. If there was ever a style of song or a style of music that's definitely my favorite just because of the attention to melody and I imagine this nails-to-the-stone hard work that people put into making these songs. The great thing about love songs is that even if they're doing it to get money or sell more records or gain the popular new thing, they still have to make people feel good in order to get that. So that is the goal no matter what. I imagine these people trying to construct this and get across this feeling that's often times a reflection of what people are feeling. It's just so moving and so beautiful and it's human beings at their best and I like that. And what those songs are singing about, which is usually a love for another person or being moved or inspired by a person and your love for them and building your world. Lately especially I've envied that. I've been thinking about how I really want that in my life. I actually have managed to have that now in a person more recently. But definitely craving that cause it sounded so wonderful and I knew and I can imagine what it is I knew that I was capable. I knew I could do that and I could feel that way and give that to someone. I realized that my whole life and more now than ever before I have that through music and people. I could have no family. I could have no wife or girlfriend no children of my own or anything and I could still have these people to live for, who like the same thing I like. Who don't like me necessarily, but who like this one thing that I've managed to say I want to dedicate my life to as much as anything else, which is this music. They're my inspiration, they're my reason for living and they give me something more than nothing and that all these other things that people are searching and trying to find in something and often in another person I already have more than anybody even deserves to have. I have it so much it's ridiculous it's unfair how much I have it. That I ever think for one minute that I should ever feel lonely is obscene and unreasonable. And I realized that and I was so happy. I listen back to all my favorite songs and I could put them or this music or what I get to do in the place of the person and it made perfect sense. All the words still worked. It's very, very, very, very moving to me and I feel very overwhelmed by it. I wish I had better words, I just keep saying these same words, but it's all-consuming and it makes me feel humble. A lot of people would give me a hard time early on when I was first really making efforts to work on things. I always thought it was odd when I would try to do something good or right and people would say you're not going to be able to do that forever or in a year you're gonna be a jerk and all these awful things, really having no faith in me. Ultimately I think they didn't have a lot of faith in themselves or something. But I was so, not determined to prove them wrong, but I thought maybe they're right, maybe a lot of people do become jerks when things go their way or things are good. But I've only become better and better and better. And I'm not saying that as a boast or a brag, it's just fact that I am a better person now than I was two years ago. I'm a better person now than I was six months ago. I'm a better person than I was three weeks ago and I can point out specific reasons. The more successful this has become in terms of the quantity of people that are a part of it, the more insignificant I am. The more humble I am in it all because I realize that it's not me, it's not mine, this is not my thing, this is our thing. The minute that I give it to someone else, the more each person takes of it the less I have of it. And I don't want any of it in the end. I want it to be an even portion of everyone on the face of the earth ideally. Maybe that will someday happen, but if it doesn't I've just become better. I have not made myself better, other people have made me better. My friends, the people I meet on a daily basis from doing this. The people that play in this band, my parents are making me better. You just have to let them and so I'm just letting them. I gotta close this window. I've come in here on nights as cold as this or colder and the windows will be open and the air-conditioning will be on. Isn't that weird? Trevor - Yeah. Christopher - Yeah. It is. It's cause some people get more hot than the others. All right. Christopher - So how did you start playing music? My dad had played piano off and on. My dad is a guy who gets into stuff. You know like, "Oh, Dad's getting into painting this week." He'll get a lot of books about painting, buy a bunch of stuff. My dad is really thrifty so instead of going out and buying canvas he would buy drywall at a hardware store, or wood, which was kind of cool. And that's what he thought was cool about it, he was like, no this is better. If he was going to use canvas he would stretch it himself and use house paint. He thought that was cool too. He'd read a lot of books. He'd get in to yard-work or he got into making candle-stick holders out of plumbing, like copper plumbing piping, stuff like that. I realize now a little more how funny he is. He got into piano and that stayed steady for a while. And right when we moved to Michigan, my dad teaches at the University of Michigan and they have a great music school there. Like a real deal, you know, full separate campus, it's good. And one of the programs there for piano that these graduate, I think it's graduate students, take this program where part of their study is to teach. They teach real young kids and when I was about five my Mom took me to enroll in this thing and they said I could do it. It was definitely my choice, but I would have never thought of it. There's pictures of me playing piano when I'm real, real little, that kind of stuff. So that was the beginning of it and I wouldn't trade that for anything because what that was, was learning about music from notes. Piano's a great instrument just because it's so musical. It's so playable. And you don't have to make the note. That's one thing I've always realized, someone will play trombone, and I'm so impressed because you have to make that note in many different ways. And piano you just play it. It's all laid out. It's black and white. It's a visual thing. It's really appealing. Actually, that probably had a lot to do with all kinds of other parts about me as I grew up, just visual stuff. Now, all music I see as a keyboard. When I listen to music without even trying I see it as a keyboard. The guitar I play as a keyboard. So it overtook everything. But I always say this, there's no wrong way to get into music and the way that I got into it is not better or the right way compared to any other way. It's just the way it happened to go. I'm glad of it because it's a foundation of a love of melody, a love of notes in a particular order. So if I liked the notes in a song I didn't care who it was by or what it was about or what they were singing or how they looked. And if I didn't like the way it sounded I also didn't care how they looked or what it was about, it was just about melody. I lived in this kind of void because I didn't have older brother and my parents weren't the kind of parents that would go out buy albums and say listen to this. I had two older half-sisters that were much older and lived far away and there was not a lot of kids in the neighborhood. I didn't have MTV, all these things, so thank goodness I had that piano cause there was no other way music would have been around until I was much older. It wasn't until high school that I found out about a lot of bands and things. We're conducting an interview. Eric - No problem. Rich is in the back if you want to hang out. Eric - Cool. But you can do whatever you want. That's Eric. It's for a Christian Magazine. Eric - Right on. Cool. Christopher - So you have two half-sisters? Yeah from my dad. Christopher - Do you have any other siblings? Yeah I have a younger brother. Full-fledged. Christopher - Is he musical at all? Oh, he's awesome, he's amazing. He loves music. He played saxophone. It's so sad cause he thinks he's no good at saxophone and he was great. For whatever reason, he got discouraged and gave up on that. You never know he might get back into it, but I thought he was great. I was impressed. He plays piano too and wants to take piano lessons, he's getting more motivated now. He's funny, he's eighteen and he just started college in Indiana at Ball State and he went there for golf. He was obsessed with golf and he has been for years. Like, "I am going to play golf. I want to be on the PGA Tour." All day, every day, playing golf for hours. That was it. He went to college, moved away. It was his first time away from home it was a big deal. I never thought of this, but I should of, I talked to him the other day, I asked him about golf he's like, "Hey you know golf is not all I'm about." And I said, "Oh I know Patty. Well you're still into it?" He said, "Yeah, but not as much. I'm getting bored with it. I like the competition, but I don't like the game." Of course he moves away from his life and the whole world opened up and anything was possible. He's like, "I want to play keyboard and learn how to play piano better and come on tour with you." I'm like "Patrick that'd be awesome. You have to do it. You totally can." He was like "Are you sure?" I was like "Yeah!" He's like "It's great because I already know everybody in the band!" I'm like "Yeah you gotta do it! We'd love to have you and you can bring your golf clubs on stage" and he said "No, I don't want to have that." So it was really interesting that it all changes, you know what I mean? Your whole life you wanted to be a doctor and you go to college and you meet someone who likes cars and you want to be an engineer. Being five years younger than me he dealt with the worst that I had to offer as a person. I apologize to him all the time. I apologized to him the other night when I was driving back from a concert and I was talking to my friend about how I felt bad. But he is stronger because of it and I told him "Patty I'm so sorry" and he said "It's okay Andy, I was mean to you too." I said "Okay, good. As long as it's even." People who go through hardships are ultimately centered. It's true. My friend pointed that out. She said a lot of the most collected together people you'll meet are the ones who have gone through the most crazy stuff. That's so true. It's not always the case, but the most together people I know, or the coolest people I know, the smartest, have been through a lot. Christopher - What are your musical influences? The most influential time in my life musically was definitely those piano lessons. The instrument of the piano is really what this is all about. I think that's kind of where, that's what this music is to me. It's piano. It's not guitar, well it's very heavy on the guitar, but it's piano. I write all the songs on piano. So that musically is definitely the thing, but the most influential time was in high school and I haven't been able to elaborate any further past that. I've heard lots of great bands and lots of amazing songs and music that just blows my mind since then, but when I went to high school, I went in knowing about this and came about knowing about like wow! I had the good fortune of going to a really crazy high school, populated by weird, bad kids that all played in bands. The best way I can say it is, not only I had I never seen or heard these things before, I couldn't have imagined them and wished to have seen them, cause they didn't exist as far as I knew. The way they played music, the songs they wrote, the way they lived, the way they did stuff was so full-bore and so without hesitation it was scary. Really, really scary to me. I would follow these kids around, they were juniors and seniors and I was a freshman. I would follow them around like a good fifteen feet, twenty foot, maybe fifty foot distance and try to talk to them every now and then. They'd be mean, you know, they were punk kids. But way weirder than your average, I don't know if there is such a thing as average, but just weird. I can't describe them, it's hours of conversation alone. Just hearing that and seeing that motivated me in ways that last to this day. And I still think about it every day. Christopher - What are you trying to say with your music? To take things as they are. I don't know, I'm not trying to say anything really. I guess I'm trying to say everything and at the same time say nothing. I really don't want to say anything. The most exciting thing to me is when you hear a song, or you see a painting or a photograph or read a book or meet a person or go to a place, any thing in the world and it isn't anything more or less than what it is. And that's rare I guess. Just when you hear this song, what is it? What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that these notes going in this order at this tempo with these instruments played at this volume sounds great. That's what I'm trying to say. With these words screamed with this bunch of people, just sounds, it's just so wonderful. And that's all I'm trying to say and I want to say it over and over and over again. I'm not trying to tell anybody to do anything. There's all kinds of other stuff that seems to come from that feeling of letting life live you and wash over you and not fighting it and not trying to figure it out or explain it because it's already all there. Realizing how big and vast and huge everything is and how lucky we are to be in the midst of it all and that most of us, whether we realize it or not, have things pretty good, are in a pretty good situation, especially in this country. It's unfair how good we have things. It's really unfair how good I have things. I'm just trying to make people laugh and smile and dance and feel better rather than worse. Christopher - What drives you to stand out in the cold for hours to talk to all your fans and sign autographs? A lot of things. This is another thing that I don't feel the need to talk about or explain so much but there's many reasons and I'll list off some of those reasons, but I only would ever need one of these reasons to give reason enough to do it. It's basically the golden rule. Which is to do unto others, as you'd want to have them do unto you. If I was me and I wanted to talk to me, I'd want me to talk to me, you know what I mean? Trevor - Yeah, yeah. Christopher - Totally. I think a lot of these people that I get to talk to would do that for me and would do it for other people if they had the chance and I would hope they would. It's just an even trade. If they have the time and the patience to wait out there I'm gonna have the same. It just seems like the right thing to do. There's not that many times in life I think where you have such a clear choice. You're so lucky to have a clear choice of this is the right thing to do. A lot of times it's not so black and white. This is a very clear, right thing to do in my eyes. It's just the right thing to do. And I don't even have to think about it that hard. It's a challenge that I like. I like doing things that seem like they shouldn't be done. You know lines that are easy to cross. Again for me it's not easy or hard. There's a line, cross it. Just knowing that tomorrow may not come and I want to know that I gave more or less the best I could do on this night with this concert. I don't want to be lazy. I don't want to waste this. I have too many good things in my favor. I live this life of absurd privilege and luxury and I don't really want that. So I try to make it more enjoyable for me by facilitating it with a challenge, cause a lot of times what people try to do is de-void it. A lot of our society is actually built up with trying to ease anybody of any discomfort or challenge at all. Especially, I think it's really easy for people who are privileged to achieve that and it's not very fun. I just feel better about things, knowing that people will be made happy, but I didn't take the easy way out. So all those things, above all the golden rule. Because what else is left? What else is the point of any of this? What is the point of anything at all except to try and make other people feel good? As humans we know a few of the things that are so special about us as far as we know so far is one we're unique to this planet. We're vastly different than any other living thing. And our ability of how we feel and how we are able to think. As far as we know, we've yet to meet other life forms from other planets or from around. Although, I for one believe they're there. It would be absurd to think that they're not, considering how vast things are. What do you guys think about that? That's a good question! Here we go! Trevor - I don't know I, it just seems like a . . . Have you seen Contact? Christopher - No. Trevor - No. You guys have got to see that. It's Carl Sagan, who's amazing. It talks about the dilemma of science and faith. Jodie Foster plays this scientist who does not believe in God, [she] believes in science and proof. Very hard nosed about it. Wonderful woman, lost her dad when she was very young. He died and she felt responsible and I think she felt why would God do that? This is science. There's this other guy who's very, very religious and he's a Christian and he's a wonderful, wonderful man. He falls in love with her, it's very, very moving. It's one of my favorite movies of all time by a long shot. The opening scene in this movie is one of the best moments in cinematography period. It's devastating. But anyway, this guy is talking to her and they have this continuing conflict about her disbelief in God and his disbelief in scientific necessity. His thing is, has science and technology really made our lives better? It's brilliant; the whole thing is good. She says to him prove that God exists. And he says to her, did you love your dad? She says yes. He says prove it. And that's it. That's faith. That's belief. And that's more powerful than anything. In the end she's forced to have faith because she has this experience that no one else witnessed, but that she believes happened and the only way she could believe that it happened is if she had faith in that it did and that it was beyond. That was so exciting to me, the whole concept of a higher power and God. I do believe in a higher thing, even if it's a collective consciousness or a grand plan, who knows. I don't feel threatened by it one way or the other. I find it exciting. And I don't feel the need to commit either, to say I stand and believe in this, because I know it's all going to become clear. I'm being patient with myself to figure it out. Christopher - That's very true. It's so vast, the universe. Christopher - Yeah. Trevor - Yeah, definitely. It's so vast that who knows what's going on. And that's what I believe in. Christopher - I think I can agree. Yeah? Christopher -In my opinion I believe that God has always been. He never started and he's never gonna to end. Trevor - That's a weird thought. Yeah. Christopher - That just makes everything seems so much smaller. An overwhelming sense of non-insignificance. Christopher - Yeah. It's a good feeling . . . Yeah! Exactly! Christopher - To know that there's . . . The opening scene of this movie freaks a lot of people out. It's basically the earth and it zooms away for infinity. I know people actually, that couldn't watch that. They're like, "I can't think about that stuff man! It freaks me out!" Some of my closest friends are the exact opposite they say, "It gives me comfort to see that, because I see my place. And whether my place is a spec of sand in an infinite beach, it is my place and it gives me comfort to see that it's bigger than me." That's the one thing that let's me know it's all gonna be okay. It's just a great movie, I think you guys would like it. I often think about whoever he is up there, I'll think like I don't need his approval, but I think sometimes he is approving of this. Or I'll think that he would be happy about this. And I think what would he say? Or she or whatever it is. What would it say?