Nowadays, Andrew W.K. has been grabbing headlines as a record-breaker, an advice columnist, a Playtex spokesman, and a motivational speaker (soon to be speaking at the Oxford Union). However, many will always remember the king of partying for his pivotal and simply fun debut album, I Get Wet. Spawning hits like “Party Hard” and “She Is Beautiful,” I Get Wet is now the latest album to have a book written about it for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 book series. To celebrate its release, W.K. joined the book’s author Phillip Crandall at New York’s Strand Book Store for an intimate and in-depth discussion, reflecting on the book, the album, and music in general.
The mood of the evening was pretty much set when Crandall presented a personal gift to Andrew: a Crayon box featuring a hand-made “Andrew W.K.” crayon (with the point resembling Andrew’s famous bloody-face). From there, the night was a mix of open dialogue between Andrew and Phillip, and questions from the 50+ in attendance. Andrew touched upon a range of topics, from how the song “I Love NYC” was written in 1999 (and not after 9/11, despite what some people in London thought at the time) as a way to motivate himself in the midst of transitioning from rural Michigan to the chaotic city he now calls home, to why the song he recorded with Third Eye Blind at Lucas Films Studios likely never saw the light of day (yup, that actually happened, and apparently all came down to the fact that Andrew wasn’t willing to curse on the song).
Yet the biggest theme that was present throughout the night was a simple love for music. Hearing him explain an argument he got into with an ex over whether there was a right or wrong reason for liking music emphasized that Andrew’s motives are pure and simple. No matter how unusual something he does might come off, Andrew only pursues things that moves him (the type of inspiration that inspires most of the books produced under the 33 1/3 series).
The 33 1/3 series’ Andrew W.K.’s I Get Wet book is available for purchase online.
