Andrew W.K. is the undisputed heavy rock party king. He’s preached the power of partying since breaking into the mainstream with his infectious hard-driving anthem “Party Hard” in 2001.
The 39-year-old rocker, singer-songwriter and motivational speaker is out spreading the good word of partying once more in support of his first new album in nearly a decade, “You’re Not Alone.” The release features a majestic, celestial painting of W.K. created by artists Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell, in all of his iconic glory — the flowing brunette mane, the all-white stage uniform with his microphone tucked safely inside the front of his pants. The album is loud, raw and exciting. It’s beaming with positivity, hope and it’s brutally honest. It seems to play out like a cohesive concept album, kicking off with the mighty instrumental “The Power of Partying” and finishing strong with the reassuring album title track, “You’re Not Alone,” however W.K. insists that’s not how it came together in the studio.
“So much of the creative process, at least for me, there’s always so many twists, turns and false starts,” he said during a recent interview before bringing the live party to the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Sept. 5. “The thing you were the most excited about turns out to be the worst idea and the idea that came from nowhere, that you didn’t put any time or effort into, that you had the most reservations about, becomes more meaningful than you could have ever planned on. That’s how this whole album was. There was no forethought or concept to adhere to and yet it’s the most coherent, lucid album I’ve ever made to the extent that people rightfully think it was a concept album, written with a clear idea from start to finish. There was no idea!”
Though it has been a decade in between albums, W.K. has kept busy. He’s been out touring and delivering motivational speeches across the country. In reality, W.K. said that he had been trying to put out a new album for years, however the music industry had drastically changed since the release of his previous albums, but finally the right opportunity came along for him to be able to release new music.
“I had been very frustrated over the years with my inability or the inability of life to bend to my will,” he said. “But it seemed at one point I just gave in. Not in a defeated sense, but more in a state of acceptance and that’s when things came together in a really surprising and beautiful way. I was also getting desperate and began to think, ‘Wow, maybe I’ll never be able to put out an album again.’ That had never crossed my mind to even be a possibility to consider and when I considered it, I was teary-eyed on one level, but had also sort of made peace with it. It reminded me of back when I was dating, when I was the most desperate looking for a girlfriend, the harder it seemed to find anybody. When I was the most lonely and isolated and in those moments it seemed like once I accepted that or released the craving, all of a sudden there was someone there.”
W.K. is happy that people are still showing up to his party and responding to it with such enthusiasm. So much of the record is W.K. getting straight to the point. He’s always been rather blunt: How does he party? He parties hard! But with a song like “Music is Worth Living For” he found himself writing some of the most candid lyrical content he’s ever created with the powerful line, “Music makes me wanna stay alive.”
“I was as straightforward as I could possibly make it with that lyric,” he said. “Especially in the past there have been doubts I’ve had about being so blunt that maybe the music I’m making or the lyrics should be more nuanced. I suppose sometimes they are, but there’s also times when I feel like I’m going to explode if I don’t say exactly what I feel or what I want to feel.
“It’s more of an aspiration feeling, to say it as clearly as possible. That’s probably the most straightforward, honest lyric that I’ve written in terms of how I relate to music. It has been the single most reliable source of absolute goodness in my life and I’ve had a lot of blessings so I don’t say that lightly. But there’s a superhuman quality to music that is at the same time extraordinarily personal and human. It’s both angelic and divine, but also very immediate, close and delicate. I know I’m not the only one that feels that way and it’s great to be able to worship that feeling together with other people.”
W.K. also included three short spoken word pieces on the record, which is something he had never done before and was initially hesitant to do. Karen Glauber, one of W.K.’s managers, made the suggestion and it took some coaxing, but he’s glad he included that side of him on the new album.
“I could tell she was right and I should do it,” he said. “Now what I ended up saying in those very brief passages was originally what I would say to myself during the entire making of the album. Those were the mindsets that i didn’t realize I had formalized, but would return to in a semi-unconscious way to keep myself going. I basically just said to the listener what I had been saying to myself for the past 10 years.”
In a time when we’re losing so many talented and incredible artists, as well as everyday people, to suicide, drugs and alcohol addiction and metal illness and depression is rampant, W.K.’s album wraps with a very timeless statement, but a much needed reminder that no matter what you’re going through, you’re not the only one. You are not alone.
“Whether it was fully conscious or not, there’s a pattern on a lot of the songs and the words that talk about different sides to the same coin,” he said. “Being alone can be a beautiful thing and having the presence of someone there can also be disconcerting. I was trying to grapple with all of those things in some kind of a hazy way, but that last song was very straight forward again and tries to also go through the wrestling matches of having faith and having doubt, having conviction, frustration, confusion and clarity, but to come out at the end of it with a determination.
“The feeling of the last song was the overriding mindset which is the party mindset,” he continued. “Celebrate the entire thing, including or even especially the things that seem impossible to celebrate.”
Andrew W.K.
With: The Saint James Society
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 5
Where: Fonda Theatre, 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
Tickets: $26 in advance or $28 at-the-door (if still available)
Information: AXS.com
