Andrew W.K. “I’m actually not at liberty to discuss the specifics.”

Andrew Wilkes-Krier has had one of the most interesting career trajectories I've ever seen; from bloody-nosed party conductor to life-coach-esque advice columnist, Direct TV entertainment interviewer to Fox News panelist and guest weatherman, college lecturer to reality TV host. The thread that holds it all together is WK's enthusiasm and an eagerness to put himself in an uncomfortable position.

This point in time is no different for Andrew, who just released 55 Cadillac (which was recorded during a two-hour improvised piano session) and a Gundam Rock album. He's also signed on for a second year of his Cartoon Network game/challenge show Destroy Build Destroy. 55 Cadillac happens to be the first Andrew W.K. release available in the U.S. since beginning a legal struggle with his management in 2005.

Mr. W.K. took the time out to share some sage advice, discuss the idea of persona, and tell me a little bit about him and peanut butter.

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The first time I thought “Man, that Andrew W.K. could really help some people out” was when I saw “Crashing With Andrew W.K.” and you went to that college.

I'm glad you saw that.

Not necessarily because they had problems or anything but because I thought anyone could benefit from seeing someone so happy to be in new situations and seemed to live so sincerely. I guess MTV agreed because that's when Your Friend, Andrew W.K. came about right?

That is true.

So how did you get started with that first show? When did you think of TV as being a good forum for that. Had you already started public speaking at that point?

They presented to me the concept of going to college and not just any college but an all-girls dormitory at a college and a primarily black college in the South on top of that. It was a real new kind of situation for me. I never went to college and I certainly never stayed in a girls dormitory before and I certainly never stayed in a primarily black girls dorm so it was really a whole lot of new exposure to me. That was really thrilling, I just like the idea of putting myself in unfamiliar situations. I understood that the idea was going to be me and the people on the show having fun and doing different things but ultimately trying to get a good feeling going and that really made a big impression on me. That there were all different types of ways to get a good feeling, you could do it through a song, you could do it through talking to someone, you could do it through television. And the fact that you saw that show and remember it at all and had those types of thoughts still to this day about it really shows me there is this power that can be taken advantage of. I just want to create an energy, an excitement, using whatever means I can.

Would you say the “Crashing” show was the origin of the advice columns and everything.

More or less. It's hard to say where it all started. I started doing interviews when I started doing music and those interviews were sort of where I had these opportunities to talk about ideas, to talk about the feelings I was having with the music and what I was trying to accomplish. I realized that just talking and doing those interviews was a potentially powerful way to create a feeling right there. Because I was meeting people who said they read an interview with me or heard something that wasn't a song and they were able to get excitement from those words. That made me think that maybe it doesn't need to be just music. I used to think that music was the only way to get the feeling across, it's definitely one of the best ways, an undeniably powerful way, but there's lots of ways to get that feeling of energy out into the world.

You do visual art too though, I didn't realize that until very recently. What type of work do you do?

At one point I thought I was going to be a painter and go and do visual art as my main work but then I realized that if I were to do music or entertainment it would allow me to do all those same things and have a lot more room to maneuver. That's how I thought about it. Visual art is amazing but I get to do visual art as well as a bunch of other kinds of work in the field I'm in. If I was just doing visual art it wouldn't be as exciting. So I got to a point where for me I would most like doing a painting if it was for an album cover or I would most like doing some art work if it was for a logo or somehow serving a larger vision. That's just where I found I thrived. I like commercial artwork the most and I like working with commercially minded projects.

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"People at concerts, people at festivals, people at music video shoots and music-related events just are always in the best mood."
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One of the most interesting things about your career to me is how flexible it's been. For instance to have the image of the rocker and the controversial bloody nose cover and songs like “party til you puke” and go into having a Cartoon Network show... Are you ever surprised executives are so accepting? I would think that there might be some complications because of the obsession with perfection from role models.

Oh, I've never thought of myself as a role model so maybe other people don't too and that takes away that kind of problem. I don't put myself out there like that so I guess if you're not asking to be looked at that way then maybe people aren't so concerned as to whether you should be.

What do you think of of the idea of role models in general?

Well, I think people can model other people. You can look at what someone else has done and make a learn from it, whether its to do something similar or do the exact opposite or some variation. I don't think any one person is defined a role model for other people. It's up to each individual to decide who they're going to learn from and who they're going to follow in terms of their example or to be influenced by. The idea that certain people are role models and other people aren't... I mean anyone can be a role model, or not. And role models can work in mysterious ways that aren't as literal as “do what this person does. Don't do what this person does.” There's many shades, like so many things in life. It's a touchy area but I don't think you can so much responsibility as a role model where you would say whatever this person does has to hold up to the scrutiny of everybody else that everybody else could live from. Everybody can only live their own life and allow others to do the same.

Keeping with the idea of flexibility, your work has such a range. I've never heard anyone say a bad word about your classical work even though rock fans can be pretty unforgiving to change or variety sometimes. Do you think that's because you're honest and don't try to identify yourself with one thing?

Uhh, I don't know how to answer that. I don't have an answer that I would feel good giving.

Ok, what do you think is the most commonly ignored or unknown detail about you?

[Thinks for a while] Well, I really like peanut butter a lot. I mean it's something that's been talked about a little bit. More they talk about how I like peanuts, which is related to peanut butter but I don't if that's something that people have focused on as much as other things I've done or aspects of my life. I've always really loved peanut butter. I mean it's out there but not as much as other stuff. People have kind of ignored that.

There's a kind of aspect of Andrew W.K. that is a persona right? Stage performer vs. the individual...

I'm only one man who is going through life and behaving as he does in each specific setting one day at a time. I don't really have different modes. When you go to a funeral you're in one state of mind, when you go to McDonald's you're in one state of mind, and when you're playing keyboard on stage you're in another state of mind but it's still all one mindset. It's all my mind. You're in one head. I don't know if it's different personas, I think you're always asking of yourself and choosing how to act. There's no one that's more authentic or more fake, I really believe that, it's just all different versions of you.

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"It's beautiful when you're able to work off something that you're so naturally compelled to do, that you're so inspired and have so much inertia just out of pure will."
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My follow up to that was going to be how you think you've developed as your performances have changed. You have incorporated different things and your style has changed a little. How do you think you personally have grown as your stage performance has changed and evolved.

I just try to make a better and better show. I can definitely see how I've changed and I think it's gotten better over the years. I mean I'd like to think so. I really just try to put on the best show I can and I learn every time I play a bit more how to do that.

You've been all over the world by now, is there anyplace you saw people that were the happiest you'd encountered? More so than anywhere else?

People at music events. People at concerts, people at festivals, people at music video shoots and music-related events just are always in the best mood. It's just something about music. Getting to work in the music business is so great just because when people are listening to music they're in an elevated state and when you get around people taking the effort to go to a concert you get to enjoy people in this heightened state of mind they're in. Everywhere I've gone the most exciting thing has been to see how people from all different parts of the world, from all different contexts, different backgrounds, ages, languages, just different social tones, everyone's still tapping into this sense of excitement and joy that they're getting from music or entertainment. That's a possibility.

I want to go into some of the things you talk about during your lectures or spoken performances. It seems like approaching happiness or attaining your desires can essentially be broken down into two strategies or outlooks, making it happen vs. allowing it to happen. When do you need to be active and when do you need to accept?

Well, there's all different types of action. I guess the best kind of action from my experience is taking action when doing so provides and instantly satisfying result. If you feel like playing music, sitting there and not playing or hoping that you'll somehow allow yourself to play won't have a very powerful result. So if you want to play music you have to actually get up and start playing the piano or pick up a guitar. I think if you follow your desire to take action when it's instantaneous and immediate and gratifying in the way it is to play music, then I think you should. But, for example, if I wanted to play guitar but the guitar I had access to was locked in a room for the next 10 hours then I probably wouldn't put in a lot of effort to try and get that guitar out of the room for those 10 hours. Maybe allowing time to pass would be the right kind of action to take at that point. I think when it starts to feel stressful or frustrating to take action that's when I think you let it go and let it roll out on its own. But when it feels satisfying and exhilarating and empowering to take action in some way, and you get that undeniable joy from taking action then I say do it.

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"I don't think it's important to break up ages into young and old and when you're a kid and when you're an adult... "
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So how do you balance responsibility or the idea of hard work in the present for something that'll pay off in the future? I imagine your experiences haven't been all instant gratification, you've had to put in time.

Yeah, well if you enjoy doing it... For example, I really love the process of recording so it's not been difficult to motivate myself to record myself for long stretches of time or to work for many many months doing it because I get so many layers of joy, so many types of joy, from the process. It's beautiful when you're able to work off something that you're so naturally compelled to do, that you're so inspired and have so much inertia just out of pure will. That's how you can tell your doing what you're really meant to do in life I think, when there's nothing you'd rather be doing. I don't think you'll ever be successful doing something that you don't like because how would you ever find the energy to go through with it? I would never be able to do what I've worked on if I didn't love it more than anything because it's completely tedious and exhausting.

Can you talk about the idea about trying vs. doing a little bit. You're very encouraging towards attempting things, and realistically everything is an attempt or an effort, but there's still the philosophy that you need to get the idea of “trying” out of your mind because it sets you up for failure.

I remember my dad saying around the time I moved to New York, I was talking to him about what I was working on and my dreams. This was before I maybe even got signed or put out my first album and I told him, “I'm trying this and trying to work on that and I have a plan to try to do this” and he said, “Andrew, I think you're at the point now where you don't really need to by trying, you just should be doing.” I think the difference between trying and doing is that when you're trying something there's this uncertainty about whether or not it will be accomplished. If you're doing something, then even the part of the process where you're first beginning and feels like trying is actually part of the doing. It's just one of those additional steps that was part of the entire undertaking. So, if you walk to the store and back to get milk part of that process is just getting out the door and putting those steps one after the other to get to the store, buy the milk, and walk back. Sure there might be a thunderstorm and you have to stop walking or take shelter. Eventually when you get the milk you can see that even that first part of the walk when you had to stop and you thought you might not make it was just part of this one big accomplishment. Even the ups and downs of it were all crucial or at least instrumental to the whole experience. It's not just the moment you put the money in the cashier's hand and walk out with the milk, the whole thing, walking to the store was just as much a part of buying the milk.

What type of preparation goes into one of your lectures.

Usually none. None at all.

Since you've started your cartoon network show, congratulations on getting picked up on another season by the way, what's been the best part of working with kids?

Thank you very much! Well, the young people on this show are generally between the ages of 12 and 15. It seems to me that there's something about this age that lends itself well to enthusiasm, to open-mindedness and curiosity, to joy and to real focus on things that are enjoyable. It's true we handpick the cast members for the show. I mean, these are very remarkable, special young people that are being selected to participate in the program, but I think they do represent in the overall mindset of that age group, which is just psyched to be alive. That's a time in your life when you're really reveling in the things you enjoy. It's sort of like the highpoint of being a kid before you start to become a young adult. I think age is an interesting thing. I don't think it's important to break up ages into young and old and when you're a kid and when you're an adult... what age you officially become an adult and all that. There are certainly eras to everyone's life time though and the time of being truly a kid is a very precious and amazing time. It's an honor to be around the young people on this show, they're especially smart too.

I read on that Paste interview you did that you insisted on an all white outfit on the show, why didn't the same rules apply for “Your Friend, Andrew W.K.?”

I guess just to have some point of consistency in the midst of all the other stuff that's going on. Especially these days as I'm doing more and more things I want to have these kind of anchors that've been there from the beginning to help keep a connection to the foundation of what this really is. I can go off and do crazy stuff and spread out and try new things and still have a thread running through it all.

For 55 Cadillac, is that going to be fully released in the U.S.? I know you've had some legal problems with that. Will it be coming out everywhere?

Yes. Yes, that's the plan.

Is that because, if you don't mind me asking, it's because the music isn't normally associated with the Andrew W.K. name or have the legal issues just been fully resolved.

That's an insightful question and there's some truth to what you say but I'm actually not at liberty to discuss the specifics.

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