Courtesy of AndrewWk.com Andrew W.K. took a
brick and applied it to his face for the cover of his album, "I Get
Wet."
By Alex Palmer
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
[email protected]
It’s hard to believe that Andrew Wilkes-Krier, better
known as Andrew W.K., is not completely out of his mind.
For one thing, the blood gushing down the singer’s face on
the cover of his album, “I Get Wet,” is in fact
W.K.’s own blood. The 24-year-old metalhead smashed himself
in the nose with a brick for the cover shot.
“It hurt real bad, but it worked. I will always be
extremely proud of that picture,” W.K said.
For another thing, Andrew W.K. concerts have a tendency toward
the sort of death-defying stunts that would make Johnny Knoxville
nervous.
At a recent show in Philadelphia, a few excited audience members
climbed onto one of the venue’s hundred-plus pound
chandeliers and brought it crashing into the audience.
At his first concert in England, W.K. cracked heads with an
audience member when he attempted a stage dive. The injury still
causes him to have occasional convulsions.
Thrill seekers and the just plain curious will have a chance to
witness the party animal’s antics tomorrow night when W.K.
brings his carnival of hard-hitting pop/metal to the House of Blues
in West Hollywood.
Andrew W.K.’s music is pure hard rock cheese. It’s
the music of frat parties and beer commercials, with grinding
guitars, pounding drums and the singer’s guttural
vocals-packaged into three minute, bite-sized tracks with catchy
hooks that the Backstreet Boys would kill for.
But though W.K.’s hard partying may seem pretty crazy,
what’s even more unbelievable is how unflinchingly serious
W.K. is about his music and his “carpe diem”
message.
In a phone interview, the gruff-voiced W.K. discussed his
outlook on music and life in general.
“Every person, place, and thing is good, just by existing.
It’s up to me to accept it all and try to understand as much
of the world as possible,” W.K. said.
The singer absolutely refuses to discuss the negative side of
anything, even the mangled fans that lay in his wake. He has a
penchant for using words like “amazing” and
“fantastic” multiple times in a sentence, but sounds
like he means them every time.
“The audiences have been really, really amazing. Each
place we perform has its own feel but everyone’s been equally
amazing,” said W.K., reflecting on his brief world tour
through Australia, Mexico, and Japan.
Though violence tends to follow the singer, split lips and head
trauma are merely the side effects of having as much fun as
possible. For W.K., life is a pool where some people stand on the
side and some people jump in and get wet. Andrew W.K. gets wet.
The son of a law professor father, who taught at UCLA during the
70s and 80s, and a law secretary/violinist mother, W.K. began
learning to play the piano at four years old, an event he describes
as “very, very huge.”
He played in various Detroit metal and punk bands during his
high school years, all the while writing and performing his own
songs.
“I never had a goal when I wrote. I just came up with
melodies and songs because it felt good and it felt pleasurable. I
never said “˜I want to achieve this,'” W.K.
said.
With his classical training, W.K. sees music as a powerful force
more on a scientific level than a political or sociological
level.
“There are these tones, there are these sonics that create
melodies that people just respond to,” W.K. said. “It
doesn’t matter what the attitude or the look or the opinion
of the performer is. The music should just strike at the core of
people.”
W.K.’s debut album, “I Get Wet,” has certainly
struck at the core of some people. Besides charting high in both
Europe and America, his music has gotten a warm response from
critics and live audiences who view the singer as everything from a
lovable moron to a spiritual messiah.
“I Get Wet” was a labor of love for W.K., who
arranged and performed almost all the instrumentation on the disc,
spending months in the studio, layering and fine-tuning each
song.
But it’s at live shows that W.K. is truly in his
element.
“There is no typical show for us. I go out and have as
much fun as possible and get everyone else to have as much fun as
possible,” W.K. said. “If for some people that’s
running around, that’s fantastic. If for someone else
that’s standing by the wall, that’s fantastic
too.”
Tomorrow’s show at the House of Blues will be a chance for
audiences to get wet, get violent, or just stare blankly at the
madman with the weirdly uplifting message as he moves frantically
about the stage. But just by showing up to have fun audience
members will be paying homage to Andrew W.K., a man who is fighting
harder for their right to party than is probably healthy for
him.
Party on, dubya.