VINCE’S TELL ALL / TELL NOTHING INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW W.K.
Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 2:33pm by Vince Neilstein
In the interview with “Andrew W.K.” that you’re about to read, the man on the phone with me uttered these words:
It’s been very tricky for me, and that’s why I hope you understand and other people are able to grasp is that I’ve been trying to deal with this as much as I can and have many different people to please or satisfy. Not just my friends and the people who like what I’ve been doing in music, but people that I’ve worked with for a long time before anybody had any idea of who I was. I’m trying to do the best I can with all these different responsibilities.
What the words on the e-printed page don’t communicate is the level of concern and earnestness in his voice, and the slow manner in which a person speaks when they’re trying to be very careful about the words they use. And that was the tone of this entire interview, encapsulated by that one quote; through the course of my 45-minute chat with “Andrew W.K.,” I got the impression that the man on the phone with me was really, really worried that he was about to blow it, that if he said the wrong thing the floodgates would burst open and he’d be fucked.
Could it be that the man I spoke to is just one of many actors slated to play the role of Andrew W.K.? Could it be that his advisors — of which he talks frequently in our chat — have advised hm to perpetuate these rumors for the sake of publicity? Who knows. Then there are evasive statements like this one which popped up throughout our interview:
Regardless of whatever confusion there was, there should be no confusion about the fact that I am Andrew W.K. and can go out there and be it and have people understand that.
To me, uttering the words “I am Andrew W.K.” could be total truth if the idea of “Andrew W.K.” was a construct from the very beginning. If Andrew W.K. is just an idea, then anyone hired to play the role could say “I am Andrew W.K.,” as in “Right now I am in the role of Andrew W.K.” and not be lying at all. I also find it very curious that the man I spoke with said he can “go out there and be it” as if he isn’t inherently Andrew W.K. but has to go out and “be” or act the part. And several times throughout the interview he answered questions specifically phrased to determine whether or not the man with whom I was speaking was the same man that performed at other events with the simple statement “I am Andrew W.K.” which would fit through the above ontological loophole.
Okay, yeah. So I guess the situation is, as I’ve stated earlier in our interview tonight, that on one hand I was wanting to follow some advice that was presented to me on how to address this and that advice involved certain language that was deemed the most appropriate on how to not avoid the truth but address the issue in a way that allowed me to still retain my own standing. See, it’s even hard for me to talk about this now because, again, this video wasn’t meant to be seen like this. It wasn’t anticipated that this kind of questioning would come up and the very nature of how I spoke that night was based on limitation that I’m still within now.
“How not to avoid the truth?” That seems like an admission that there is truth being hidden. And seeming admissions of defeat such as this one:
I wouldn’t be in this situation if I didn’t sign up for it a long time ago… I’m just really sorry. I’m really sorry that I can’t answer these questions better. I can keep trying. I’ll continue to, and I have been. I feel like I’ve been doing better. I feel like most people that are close to me understand what’s going on. Some people have a sense of what it is and let it go.
Wow. Loaded. What situation did he sign up for? Doing better at what — learning how to not to answer questions directly?
Of course, Andrew and his team could all just be laughing at the insane amounts of publicity this conspiracy theory has given his new album.
Read my interview with “Andrew W.K.” after the jump. It’s a doozy.
Up to this point, the Obituary that reunited in 2003 only bothered to resuscitate their exasperating tendencies. After two, um, unsatisfactory outings, a third post-reunion album must feel like a potential strike three to many. And like the ‘05 and ‘07 albums, 2009’s Darkest Day can be painfully simplistic and inattentively performed. But unlike those dull albums that preceded it, Darkest Day has stretches of greatness (at least 24 bars of most songs), a pair of classics (“Payback,” “Your Darkest Day“), their best-ever album closer (The Crown-hinted “Left To Die”), and brilliant performances from the inimitable John Tardy and frowny lead guitarist Ralph Santolla.
