Andrew WK 3
By Ben Kharakh
This was going to be an article for Time Out New York, but they said they don't use e-mail interviews.
Rock star Andrew WK has always used his music as a means of sharing his joyous outlook on life. Now he's bringing that message to the People's Improv Theater with The Joy Trilogy, a three part lecture series on March 12th, 19th, and 26th.
When should people expect to see your latest album released in the US?
I'm working towards a U.S.A. limited vinyl release of "Close Calls With Brick Walls", which was originally released exclusively in Asia. The vinyl version has new artwork and 5 new songs. It's due out in June, 2007. I've also been continuing the recording process on several other new full length albums, including "Young Lord' and "The Carrier". We're still on schedule for 2007, and 2008 releases, with several new developments that I'm real excited about- like a solo piano album. That will be coming up in the future, too. It's just a matter of order and time.
You've also got a series of lectures coming up. Where did you do your first one and how'd that go?
When I did my first big lecture at the New York University Skirball Center, I decided not to plan at all, figuring that the experience would be more spontaneous and subconsciously driven. But I realized I was planning not to plan, and that paradox became a primary topic of the lecture - the idea of paradoxes in general and how they illustrate, or perhaps encapsulate, the human soul and will to live.
So you don't use notes of any kind?
I thought about taking cue cards, but I've found it more interesting and exciting to take cues from the audience, or the surroundings, or just go with impulses - then it's like I'm watching what's happening as it happens, with no sense of what will come next - I think it makes the lecture more into a creative collaborative conversation.
Your lectures are of an inspirational nature. Who do you look to for inspiration and who inspired you growing up?
All of my interactions with people have improved recently, and I think it's largely from allowing other people to guide me, to inspire me, and to show me more than I've already seen. Everyone seems to be a source of some kind of wisdom.
When I was growing up, certainly my parents provided me with the most guidance. I feel fortunate to have had relationships with them that produced such memorable lessons and ideas - and still continue to. I think this kind of guidance is so effective because it is ultimately guiding us from within. Even though we may picture our mother or father giving us advice, or answering our questions - even if they're standing there talking to us, or on the other end of the telephone - the ideas and our reactions to what they're telling us come from within us. I think that's why once parents die, they're guiding presence is long felt - it's the idea of the parent that was the parent all along, and that idea will remain with the child forever.