An Interview with Andrew W. K.: The Party Party, the Power of Partying, and New Party Music
Photography: Bryan Yalta
From the moment we arrived on site, we were told numerous times a variation of, "You'll have maximum 12 minutes with Andrew." We were repeatedly told about his tight schedule, so we knew we had to make every minute we had count. The challenge was acquiring credentials and authorization from the festival directors prior to the time we were allowed to set up. The thing was, we had gone through Andrew W. K.'s PR and set everything up directly through them but had missed contacting the festival he was playing: Oaktopia. It was roughly 3:10 PM when we were at this step, 30 minutes before our allotted time with the musician, and we still had to get things straightened out. First, it must be noted just how hard people work to plan a festival, because, as may or may not be known, time backstage goes by quick. There are countless people helping bands set up, from arranging all sorts of equipment to communicating with tour managers and festival directors--so forth. For this reason, we would like to very much thank Oaktopia for being really kind to us and showing us endless amounts of love. We were led through the backstage area fast, as we arrived around the same time as Andrew W. K. did. We got our authorized credentials just minutes before our designated time, and ever since we met up with the singer, he was nothing but friendly and amiable to us. Being tight with time did not seem to bother him nor did he seems pushy to wrap things up--the guy was extremely cool. So, for allowing us to interview him before his performance given the circumstances, we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts Andrew W. K. for being really, really good to us. Andrew is currently on a full-blown 50-state national tour, dubbed the Power of Partying, where he will be doing speeches about his nonpolitical political party, the Party Party. On this particular date of the tour, however, he did not prepare a speech for the city of Denton but instead had his live band perform--the last band performance he will give on this tour, to clarify. Andrew W. K.'s dynamic personality shone through his entire set, ranging from ecstatically thumping on his keyboard to delivering an impressive guitar solo. He played all the fan favorites from "Party Hard" to "We Want Fun," starting parties in the crowd with every song performed. As mentioned earlier, we met up backstage with Andrew an hour before his performance in his trailer room. We talked about the motives and hopes of the Party Party, an upcoming album, and, as is proper, general partying. Here below is our interview with the singer prior to electrifying the main stage with his band of party animals and their partying anthems. Watch Andrew give a few words summing up what he will be talking about for the rest of the tour.
Big thanks to Andrew W. K. for taking time to chat with us and special thanks to Oaktopia for being excellent hosts. Check out some pictures from Andrew's performance below.
