Party man

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Andrew W.K. is known for his upbeat, relentlessly positive, ecstatic rock music and his unusual personal philosophy epitomized by his 2001 hit song “Party Hard.”

Is your whole tour right now, the Party Messiah Tour, you doing solo shows with keyboards?

The majority of the shows on the Party Messiah tour are, as you said, a very special solo show. Which I recently did, a few months ago, more on the east coast and really enjoyed that. People seemed to have fun, so we extended it and added more dates on the West Coast. I'm also playing a few shows with my band¡™like tomorrow, we're playing in Chicago. But yes, the show that I'm bringing to Reno is the special solo show. I'll have my keyboard and my drum machine and of course a microphone. I'll be playing songs off all my albums. It's just a very more intimate, intense, up close and personal show where I really feel like the audience becomes my band.

What made you want to do solo shows?

I've done solo shows throughout my whole career. I just wanted to stay connected to that feeling. I get a lot of energy playing with my band but a very different kind of energy that's to me very valuable from the vulnerable, risky feeling of being up there all alone and really relying on the entire room to become the stage. It brings me closer to the best of my abilities as a performer. .. It's just a challenge that's very rewarding. Hopefully it's fun for other people. It's definitely more chaotic and spontaneous, when you're by yourself, you're able to make up what you're doing as you go along and respond to how you feel and how the room feels. These shows are hopefully like hanging out with a bunch of your friends and singing these songs together that you hopefully love.

The venue you're playing here is the Holland Project. I don't know the capacity, but it's not super big. Are you choosing more intimate venues for this tour?

We tried to pick venues that allow the most close interaction with the folks that are coming to the party, rather than having folks far away and behind barricades. We really tried to pick places that really feel more like you're in a room and you're not watching performance, you're hanging out, celebrating and partying with people in a really interactive way.

Is this the first time you've played in Reno?

This is the second time and I remember the first time really, really well. It was at an outdoor festival called Dot Fest, put on by a radio station there. It was one of my favorite shows we've ever done in terms of the feeling in the air and the time we had in Reno. For whatever reason, it was really memorable and a really good feeling. We've been wanting to get back there for a long time, and I'm excited to bring a different kind of show and see what happens.

A few years ago, you were doing some shows where you were doing motivational speaking. Are you still doing that?

Absolutely. None of these tour dates are lecture dates but those are always coming up. We had to reschedule some, but I've spoken at some colleges and universities and some freestanding venues, and now that school's back in, I look forward to doing some more speeches.

What do you say in those speeches?

I just talk about partying for the most part. It's a pretty open format. It's a lot of questions and answers, a lot of conversation, and a chance for me to ask questions of other folks. It's just another way to get to that place of excitement hopefully. Music works, talking can work. I'm trying to use many different modes and ways to get this exciting feeling across.

Tell me more about that feeling.

It's difficult to describe, which I think is part of the value of the feeling itself. When you feel it, you can tell. It's very physical. I don't know if it's emotional. It's not really a mood or a state of mind¡™though a state of mind can be used to get to that place. It's a lot of raw energy that lifts up every part of you, not just your feelings, but your body itself. It gives you that surge of of real raw energy that you can use for whatever you want . That's how I want to feel as much as possible, and I figure there's other folks out there that want to feel that way too. And we can help each other get there.

In preparing to talk to you today, I stumbled on some of the internet conspiracies. I'm sure your aware of some of this stuff ¡K that you're an actor playing a role created by some guy named Steev Mike. What can you tell me about that? Where did these rumors come from?

As you can imagine, a lot of it is just misunderstandings or people running away with some facts and exaggerating them or letting their imaginations take over. At it's best, it's just something that can be ignored, and at it's worst, it's been very frustrating and challenging to have to defend one's own existence. But, most of the time, it's not really been a major issue. There were some challenges I had, business and personal, that were amplified and exacerbated by these confusions. But most of the time, people just focus on the fun stuff, and let that stuff just be what it is. You can wrestle with it and just toss it to the side. I've tried just about every single method: ignoring it, or responding to it, or trying to fight it, and none of it really works. So it is what it is at this point. I am really person that exists, and just because I work with a team of handlers that's not proof that I'm not a real person. It gets confusing at times, but be confident that I am Andrew W. K.

Some of these theories that people have would make for a great rock opera. It's like a Faust type story.

If you want to write it, go for it. That would be a positive way to deal with these situations to turn them into something interesting.

Have you ever felt inclined to take that approach?

No, not really, but now that you mention it, that would be a very noble, high road to take. It often seems like people are trying to harm me and everything we're working on. Maybe embracing it¡™we've tried to do that too and it didn't really work. But I really like musicals. To take any dilemma and turn it into a song that seems like a positive, magical approach.