My Dinner with Andrew
Ann Arbor's most beloved bloody nose speaks to Dd in an exclusive video interview.
30.April.2007

Last week was among Andrew WK's ripest moments in recent memory. No, there wasn't a new Coors Light commercial tie-in or smash rock success with the word "party" in it, but for a man who's lost his initial limelight, he sure doesn't act like it.

Fresh off of an interview with Conan O'Brien and a "motivational performance" at Carnegie Mellon University, not to mention a recent "softer side" interview on NPR, the 27-year-old has been everything you might expect as of late. Which, of course, means he's delivered the unexpected.

Thanks to my friends at Kittenpants, Andrew WK was available for a surprise, last-minute interview this weekend before he performed a particuarly memorable show, first by himself with a bizarre solo piano set and continuing with the help of Corn Mo and 357 Lover (his first collaboration with a band other than his own). If you're not a fan of AWK, I strongly encourage loading that Conan interview--if only to see AWK and Conan do the running man side-by-side--before bothering with mine, as I chose not to repeat any questions.

Those who aren't as familiar with him might wonder what I'm talking about at times--for example, "Smokeshow" is a television program he's working on for New York public television, a project that he says he has "no idea" when it'll actually air (though he had a friend filming me for the sake of said show...eep). We also talk about Close Calls with Brick Walls, an album that has only seen release in Asia in spite of being his most provocative and direction-turning work yet. And if you're curious about the Astronautalis/AWK interview I mention in the chat, just clickity here.

It was an equally insightful and confusing interview, as Andrew WK is as much a classically trained pianist and thoughtful, open man as he is a bit of a stumbling savant, overthinking himself into a corner pretty frequently. With that in mind, I put the final "bonus question" at the beginning here, as it's quite possibly the shortest answer he gives to a question in this whole thing.

24 minutes, split into five parts: