ANDREW W.K.

Andrew W.K. was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan. At age 4, he began learning classical piano at The University of Michigan School of Music. He attended the private college preparatory Greenhills School for middle school before attending the alternative Community High School from 1993-1997, where he studied jazz keyboards. His father is Professor James E. Krier, a well-known legal scholar at the University of Michigan Law School and co-author of the widely used Dukeminier & Krier Property casebook. On Oct 4 2008 Andrew married Cherie Pourtabib, four years after the couple met. They were introduced by their heavy-metal voice teacher. Andrew currently resides in Midtown, Manhattan, New York City. Early work In 1993, when he was 13, Andrew joined the band Slam, later to be called Reverse Polarity. His first public recording, "Mr. Surprise", came out on a compilation released by the Westside Audio Laboratories label (now known as Ypsilanti Records) out of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Over the next 5 years he was in many different bands in Michigan such as Lab Lobotomy, The Pterodactyls, Music Band, Mr. Velocity Hopkins, Kathode, The Portly Boys, Kangoo, The Beast People, Stormy Rodent, a later iteration of Scheme, the Malt Lickers, Isis and Werewolves, and Sucking Coeds. In 1994 he also started a group called Ancient Art of Boar, later making it a solo project titled AAB, which ended in 1998, when Andrew moved to Ypsilanti to New York City. Later in 1998, his first official solo record, as Andrew Wilkes-Krier, was the Room To Breathe, was released on the Brighton (later Ann Arbor) label Hanson Records. The release was cassette-only and only 35 copies were made. Another tape, titled You Are What You Eat was supposed to be released shortly after, but the masters went missing. That same year, he appeared on the Hanson Records compilation Labyrinths & Jokes. The track appearing on the compilation was a portion of the soundtrack Andrew made for Poltergeist, a movie made by Aaron Dilloway and himself. The whole soundtrack also went missing for over 10 years, but it too has recently re-surfaced. In 2000, he released his first EP, AWKGOJ on Bulb Records, which would be the first solo release under the Andrew W.K. name (he appeared under the name on a Wolf Eyes EP earlier that year). He released one more EP on this label, Party Til You Puke, before moving on to Island Def Jam. Solo career Andrew released his first album on Island, I Get Wet , in 2001. The album is known for its recognizable cover art: a photo of Andrew W.K. with a large stream of blood running from his nose, down his chin and onto his neck. I Get Wet soon rose to the #1 position on Billboard's 'Heatseekers' list. Andrew W.K. joined Ozzy Osbourne's Ozzfest that summer. The track "Party Hard" was featured as the lead track for EA Sports video game Madden NFL 2003 and on the Girls Gone Wild Music Volume 1 CD, and is the subject of a popular internet meme (its repetition of the words "party hard" ad nauseam made it an ideal caption for animated .gif images). The opening track, "It's Time To Party", was featured in commercials for the video game Nascar Thunder 2004, Hotwire.com, Coors Beer, Expedia.com, and several movie and TV soundtracks. "She Is Beautiful" was used in the Disney remake of Freaky Friday starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan and also in early Nintendo GameCube advertisements. His track "Don't Stop Living in the Red" is featured in a Target commercial. The song has been played at the kickoff of every Saint John's football game since 2003. It was also featured during KSDK-TV's coverage of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2005. In 2002, he re-recorded his song "We Want Fun" from AWKGOJ for the soundtrack of Jackass: The Movie that also had a video made, filmed and directed by Jeff Tremaine with additional camera work by Spike Jonze. In late 2003, W.K. released The Wolf. The album featured Andrew playing all the instruments on the recording (he had his full live band play on I Get Wet). It spawned the singles "Tear it Up" and "Never Let Down" in the US (both had videos made, but only "Tear It Up" had a full retail single released) and the song "Long Live the Party" was a minor hit in Japan. "The Wolf" has many overdubbed instrument parts. The Cover to Who Knows? The Wolf was not as commercially successful as I Get Wet. On tour for The Wolf, Andrew was injured on stage and broke his foot. After the concert, he signed autographs from the ambulance. Not wanting to let his fans down, he performed the remainder of the tour in a wheelchair. A live-concert DVD entitled Who Knows? was released in February 2006. Similar to his audio recording the DVD combined many sources into single events - a technique Andrew refers to as "Synch Stacking". Andrew presented five screenings of the movie in New York City and Hollywood, in February and April, 2006. He also attended a screening of the movie at the University of Michigan Law School, presented by his father. In March 2006, during an episode of Sex Pistols' guitarist Steve Jones' radio show, "Jonesy's Jukebox", Andrew W.K. debuted a new song "I'm A Vagabond". In his early years, Andrew had signed an agreement with his creative manager which contractually bound him to certain terms, including the rights to the ANDREW W.K. name, and music. Due to an uncongenial parting with this manager in late 2005, Andrew was contractually prohibited from releasing CDs of his new music in the United States. Close Calls with Brick Walls was released in Japan and South Korea in July 2006. The Korean version includes 4 bonus tracks, while the special edition Japanese version contains a bonus DVD with footage found nowhere else in addition to the 18 tracks included in other releases. In the US a vinyl-only edition of the album was released on Load Records in August 2007, as vinyl was a convenient way around the USA compact disc restrictions. On November 26, 2008, Universal Music released three new Andrew W.K. collections. The first CD was brand new album of J-Pop covers entitled, The Japan Covers. The second CD is a Greatest Hits Compilation entitled, The Very Best So Far, which includes a previously unreleased song, "Party (You Shout!)". Both new releases are also available as a combined 2-disc package entitled, Premium Collection. Universal Music released on September 9, 2009 a new Andrew W.K. album called Gundam Rock. The album consists of covered music from the legendary Gundam anime TV series to celebrate its 30th Anniversary in Japan. Self-help and motivational performance In 2005, Andrew announced that he would begin performing as a self-help, new age motivational speaker. He accepted invitations to speak at Yale University, New York University, The University of Wisconsin, Carnegie Mellon University, The Cooper Union, Missouri Western State University, and Northeastern University. During 2007, Andrew performed a series of unpredictable happenings as part of his "One Man Show" tour. Each event began with Andrew improvising on the piano alone on a stage before they frequently evolved into giant parties, with most of the audience dancing on stage with Andrew, themselves playing the piano and singing the lyrics. In March 2007, The New York Times put Andrew on the front page of its Arts section, in a feature article on Andrew's lectures. In 2008, Andrew's self-help work led to his second appearance as a sit-down guest on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. In November 2008, Time Magazine called him "truly cute." Other work Outside of his solo work, Andrew also performs with and produces music for the avant-garde ensemble To Live and Shave in L.A.. He first appeared on the band's 2004 release "God and Country Rally!". He co-produced their 2006 studio album Noon and Eternity, and appears on the group's other 2006 release, the "chronological remix" project Horoscopo: Sanatorio de Moli?re. In late 2006, Andrew re-worked his song "Fun Night" into a theme song for the Arizona Sundogs, a hockey team. The song was titled "Sundogs (It Just Got Hotter)". The song "Fun Night" also appeared in the film Old School during one of the party scenes. Andrew was also a judge for the 5th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In September 2007 Andrew's piano playing was featured on a jazz fusion CD release "?lectricit?" with Mike Pachelli on guitar, Rich Russo on drums, and Dennis Harding on bass for Los Angeles based Fullblast Recordings (2007). Also in September 2007, Andrew appeared as one of the 77 drummers in the 77 Boadrum concert held in New York City which was organized by Japanese noise rock group Boredoms. Andrew has also performed and recorded electric bass guitar for the artist Baby Dee, whom he met while playing live as the bassist of Current 93. Andrew played bass and drums on Dee's "Safe Inside The Day" album, and performed with her group at a 2008 show Manhattan. Andrew has performed bass guitar with Current 93 at the Donau Festival in Krems, Austria in April 2007, the UK All Tomorrow's Parties festival in May 2007, and the European tour in April 2008. On Friday, December 5 2008, a die hard Andrew W.K. fan named Dominic Owen Mallary died after an accident while his band Last Lights performed at Boston University. Dominic had always said his dying wish was to have Andrew W.K. blasted at his wake. Catching wind of this, Andrew came to the wake, and played classical piano for the entire time after paying his respects. Andrew has formed a group The Brill Sisters with guitarist Matt Sweeney and producer Don Fleming. They played their first show (without Fleming) at Santos Party House on April 2 2009. . The entire group performed together on April 21, 2009. TV and film appearances Andrew has made multiple appearances on MTV, MTV2, and VH1, hosting shows such as The Most Outrageous Frontmen, with Johnny Knoxville and Backstage Pass at the Warped Tour. Andrew was the focus of a televised live performance at Cleveland's Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame, broadcast on MTV. He's also made appearances on the shows, I Love The 90's, I Love The New Millennium, Black To The Future, I Love The Holidays, The Great Debate, Best Week Ever and The Osbournes. Andrew was also featured on a popular MTV show called Crashing With Andrew W.K., which documented Andrew's visit to a girl's dorm at North Carolina Central University. In 2004, Andrew had a television show on MTV2 titled Your Friend, Andrew W.K.. In the series, fans would write letters to Andrew, asking for his help. Andrew would pick certain letters and go to visit them. The series lasted 1 season, and had 9 episodes each about 9 or 10 minutes in length. During the filming of the show, Andrew was in a car crash but sustained no serious injuries. Andrew has performed on TV shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Last Call with Carson Daly, Saturday Night Live, and the Spike TV Video Game Awards. His most recent performance was with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He recently had a cameo in the show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, singing "Party Party Party", a song that combines elements of multiple previous Andrew W.K. songs. The song was released on Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters the Soundtrack. Andrew's only confirmed movie role is in Punk Rock Holocaust, playing himself. Andrew was also featured on the finale of the third season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List as Kathy's date in New York. The two attended one of Andrew's performance art shows. Late Night with Conan O'Brien has twice featured Andrew as a sit-down interview guest ? the first in 2003 to speak about the Your Friend, Andrew W.K. show, and then again in 2007, to speak about his motivational performance tours. Andrew is a frequent guest on the Fox News late-night program, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Andrew has also been a featured interviewer and guest on The Daily Show, DirecTV, and mobile telephone network, GoTV. Andrew also appears on the vocal-instructional DVD The Zen of Screaming. In the Summer of 2009, the Cartoon Network announced that Andrew would be hosting and creating music for a new live-action TV program called, Destroy Build Destroy. The show features Andrew working with two teams of teenagers, competing to "blow stuff up and use the wreckage to build amazing machines". The show premiered on June 20, 2009. Cartoon Network also used Andrew W.K. in a video about the network's shift away from cartoons toward live-action shows. The song and video, "Hearing What I Say" (adapted from his 2006 song "Not Going to Bed") aired on YouTube; it also aired extensively on Cartoon Network (and was continuing to do so as of late July 2009). Music producer In addition to producing his own music on the albums I Get Wet, The Wolf and Close Calls with Brick Walls, Andrew has continued to expand his musical output to include producing and mixing music for other artists as well as working on special commercial and corporate music projects. These include the production of music exclusively for commercial use on television and radio. In 2008, Andrew gained new notoriety for recording a song called "The McLaughlin Groove", based on an exchange between Pat Buchanan and John McLaughlin on the political television show The McLaughlin Group. The song was commissioned by the Public Radio International show Fair Game, on which Andrew has appeared for interviews. In 2004, Andrew recorded a television jingle for Kit Kat candy bars, and rewrote their trademark "Give Me A Break" slogan into a new song. The recording appeared in a variety of 30 second, 45 second, and 1 minute commercials, broadcast on television worldwide. "I avoided working with other people for many years, partly out of paranoia, and partly out of an earnest desire to stand on my own. After a while, I got tired of thinking that way, and it just seemed natural to do the opposite of what I had done before. I like making music with other people. I can still make music by myself too." . Andrew's earliest external production work was with the group Wolf Eyes, on their now out-of-print 12" EP Fortune Dove. The last track on that album, "what kind of band?" features Andrew W.K. on vocals explaining why he enjoys listening to Wolf Eyes. Since then, he's chosen to work on a select and seemingly random set of projects. Most recently, he completed production and mixing on the album, Through The Panama, by Brooklyn, NY based three-piece art rock band, Sightings. The album was jointly released by Load Records and Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label in October 2007. At the end of 2007 Andrew accepted an invitation to produce a new album, Repentance, for veteran reggae artist Lee "Scratch" Perry. The two had met when Andrew interviewed Perry for DirecTV. The album is slated for release in 2008. On February 20, 2008, Andrew released an exclusive ringtone commissioned by Universal Music Japan for the Japanese mobile phone market. The song is called, "Sonnna no Kankei Ne Rock", which celebrates a then popular catch-phrase by a TV Talent, "Sonna no Kankei Ne, Hai Oppappi!" This translates to, "I Don't Give A Damn, Yes Oppappi!" The ringtone was first announced on a Japanese national T.V. program called Music Station and had over 3,500 downloads that day. Cumulative sales of ringtone are over 20,000. Andrew's song debuted at No.1 in Label Mobile's International daily ringtone chart. Label Mobile is the biggest mobile retailer in Japan. "Steev Mike" and "frontman" internet rumours Popular internet rumours suggest that another person, known as "Steev Mike", is behind Andrew W.K.'s music. The rumours began with a series of websites that appeared in November 2004 supposedly created by someone calling himself "Steev Mike". Andrew WK's website also appeared to have been hacked during the same time period. These sites are now all off-line, but archived versions can be found at: http:www.awk.dudeguy.com In November 2004, Andrew addressed the hacking in an open letter posted on his official website, saying, "PLEASE DON'T BELIEVE STEEV MIKE. I USED TO CALL MYSELF STEEV MIKE A LONG TIME AGO AND IT'S NOTHING NOW. Someone is trying to confuse you and make me look bad.". A 2000 article from UK magazine Dazed & Confused, which featured a full-page story on "Steev Mike", but showed a photo and discography of "Andrew W.K.". Steev Mike was listed as "Executive Producer" on Andrew's first album "I Get Wet". Three years later, Steev Mike was listed again on Andrew's DVD "Who Knows", and on Andrew's third album, "Close Calls With Brick Walls", as "Executive Producer". In March 2006, a 1992 Bulb Records 7" 45 recorded under the name Steev Mike was discovered. The tracks on the record were found to be the same as Bulb band Couch's first EP, except for the last track, which was Couch's track Old Man instead of the listed track (Is This) Time Travel Man. In May 2009 Andrew discussed the "Steev Mike" internet rumours once again in an interview with British magazine, Front. In the interview he states, "Steev Mike is the executive producer on my first album. The nature of how we presented my initial offerings caused some confusion, even though I tried to make it as straight forward as possible". He also adds later in the interview, in reference to rumours of him being a "puppet" for a record label, "Most of what you've heard is exaggerated but the parts that are true may be more disturbing than you'd hoped". Record label In February 2009, Andrew formed the record label, "Skyscraper Music Maker", based in Manhattan, New York City, and London, England. The label is manufactured and distributed exclusively in partnership with the UK based, Cargo Records. The first release for the label was the promotional compilation CD, "DAMN! The Mixtape Vol. 1", featuring Andrew's work as a producer for Skyscraper Music Maker artists, Bad Brilliance, Aleister X, and Cherie Lily. The CD was released in the UK on May 25, 2009, and on digital download sites like iTunes and Amazon. Nightclub and live music venue In Spring of 2008, Andrew and three partners opened a multi-level nightclub and live concert hall in downtown Manhattan, New York City. The venue is named Santos Party House, and features 8,000 square feet of dance floor and concert facilities, and over 150 loud-speakers. The space is designed for disco dancing and live music. It was one of the few new venues in New York City to be granted a liquor license and a cabaret license. The cabaret license means people can legally dance until 4am.. Since opening, Santos Party House has received numerous awards, including: The People's Choice Award for Best Night Club, Best New Club, Best DJ Night (from Paper Magazine), Best New Dance Floor (from The Village Voice), and many more. In May 2009, Andrew and his work with Santos was the subject of an extensive four page article in New York Magazine.