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Andrew WK Unedited Transcript
- Issue #289 (Mar 08) | In Writing
- By: Marc Masters | Featuring: Andrew WK
- Printable version
Read the full unedited transcript of Andrew WK's Invisible Jukebox test with Marc Masters
Lightning Bolt
"The Faire Folk"
FROM RIDE THE SKIES (LOAD) 2001
ANDREW W.K.: Ruins?
MARC MASTERS: Good guess.
ANDREW W.K.: The fidelity of the recording is very clear. I think that's a bass guitar, but even that I'm not so sure about. Is it Lightning Bolt?
MARC MASTERS: Yes. [Distorted bass comes in]
ANDREW W.K.: Ah, there it is. Now it sounds much more like them. A lot of the recordings I've heard by them are grittier, more raw and overdriven. The drumming I thought could be Brian Chippendale, but then I thought the singing sounded like the guy from the Ruins, when he sings high and kind of shaky.
MARC MASTERS: Have you seen them perform?
ANDREW W.K.: Probably years ago, at Fort Thunder in Providence. I would often visit there after I moved to New York, and went to Fort Thunder a few times. But I don't remember specifically if Lightning Bolt played any of those times. There was a time when a band called Barnyard Animals played, another band Brian Gibson [of Lightning Bolt] was doing. I also think I saw them at one of the first concerts they ever had at Warsaw, the Polish National Hall, before they started doing events there often. I think they played there, but I couldn't see them because they were on the floor, with people all around them. But I could hear them, and they sounded amazing.
MARC MASTERS: Was it from those trips that you hooked up with Load Records?
ANDREW W.K.: Yes, it was. I remember meeting [Load Owner] Ben McOsker at my friend [Bulb records owner] Peter Larsen's house, where he was having a concert. It was actually a very big, nice industrial space. It was good for shows, and he had set up a show there. I played, and Barnyard Animals played, and that was the first time I met Ben McOsker. I think before I even met Ben, Peter had said, "dude, check this out." And it was some 7-inch with a photograph on the cover where he had positioned himself so that he could give himself oral sex. And it was real! It made a certain taste come in the back of my throat, no pun intended actually (laughter). But it was disturbing and very inspiring simultaneously. I think because I had always wanted to do that, so I was jealous in a way, and also really shocked that I was seeing that. And then I met him a few hours later, and I was kind of star-struck, because I had seen that picture of him (laughs). He was very nice, and I was interested in the work that he was doing with Load. I don't remember how long Load had been going at that time, it might have been near the beginning. So a lot of goodness came out of that Providence time, a lot of amazing energy collected right in that space of 3 or 4 years. I was living in Brooklyn at the time.
MARC MASTERS: How did having Load do the vinyl version of Close Calls come about?
ANDREW W.K.: Well, I like to think that it was a development from those years of being familiar with one another. I'm trying to remember if we were already doing the Sightings record when he asked me to do the vinyl. I think we hadn't even started it yet. I saw Ben, after not having seen him for years, at Bowery Ballroom. It was for a concert, I can't even remember who, it might have been a Sightings show actually. He was very friendly and it was really great to see him after those few years. He said that he liked Close Calls, and he asked if I was going to put it out here. I said, ‘No, we don't want to release it here yet, I want to release other stuff, and keep that in other countries.' And he said, ‘If you ever want to do vinyl, I'd love to do that.' I'd never even thought of that, a way to do a special version of it here without releasing it widely on a traditional format. So we did, and I was very honored to work with him.
Napalm Death
"Unchallenged Hate"
FROM BOOTLEGGED IN JAPAN (LIVE) (EARACHE) 1998
ANDREW W.K.: Napalm Death, "Unchallenged Hate."
MARC MASTERS: Correct.
ANDREW W.K.: Is this the version from Bootlegged in Japan?
MARC MASTERS: It is.
ANDREW W.K.: Everything about them was really innovative, but the drumming especially. Just little things like that, like that kind of beat. Not to mention the blast beats, or the holocaust beats, the very fast grind beats. But some of those mid-tempo, sort of rock'n'roll beats he did were very exciting, and those were the moments that would really amp me up into the most. They have an album called Harmony Corruption which has a lot of really great middle tempo beats - not too fast, not too slow, but these really perfect tempos that are very, to me, energizing. They really amp me up. I listened to it for years and years and years, that album, every day. Especially when I moved to New York, there was something about it that really made itself necessary - a kind of consistency in the middle of all the chaos, even though it was a chaotic consistency. I've talked about that album quite a bit. A lot of people didn't like because it was different than before, and the production especially was very unusual. Kind of the way that live recording has a very unusual sound, sort of loud in a quiet way, and powerful in a weak way. There are all these opposites in their music. They're a very unique band, you can really only compare them to themselves.
"The Faire Folk"
FROM RIDE THE SKIES (LOAD) 2001
ANDREW W.K.: Ruins?
MARC MASTERS: Good guess.
ANDREW W.K.: The fidelity of the recording is very clear. I think that's a bass guitar, but even that I'm not so sure about. Is it Lightning Bolt?
MARC MASTERS: Yes. [Distorted bass comes in]
ANDREW W.K.: Ah, there it is. Now it sounds much more like them. A lot of the recordings I've heard by them are grittier, more raw and overdriven. The drumming I thought could be Brian Chippendale, but then I thought the singing sounded like the guy from the Ruins, when he sings high and kind of shaky.
MARC MASTERS: Have you seen them perform?
ANDREW W.K.: Probably years ago, at Fort Thunder in Providence. I would often visit there after I moved to New York, and went to Fort Thunder a few times. But I don't remember specifically if Lightning Bolt played any of those times. There was a time when a band called Barnyard Animals played, another band Brian Gibson [of Lightning Bolt] was doing. I also think I saw them at one of the first concerts they ever had at Warsaw, the Polish National Hall, before they started doing events there often. I think they played there, but I couldn't see them because they were on the floor, with people all around them. But I could hear them, and they sounded amazing.
MARC MASTERS: Was it from those trips that you hooked up with Load Records?
ANDREW W.K.: Yes, it was. I remember meeting [Load Owner] Ben McOsker at my friend [Bulb records owner] Peter Larsen's house, where he was having a concert. It was actually a very big, nice industrial space. It was good for shows, and he had set up a show there. I played, and Barnyard Animals played, and that was the first time I met Ben McOsker. I think before I even met Ben, Peter had said, "dude, check this out." And it was some 7-inch with a photograph on the cover where he had positioned himself so that he could give himself oral sex. And it was real! It made a certain taste come in the back of my throat, no pun intended actually (laughter). But it was disturbing and very inspiring simultaneously. I think because I had always wanted to do that, so I was jealous in a way, and also really shocked that I was seeing that. And then I met him a few hours later, and I was kind of star-struck, because I had seen that picture of him (laughs). He was very nice, and I was interested in the work that he was doing with Load. I don't remember how long Load had been going at that time, it might have been near the beginning. So a lot of goodness came out of that Providence time, a lot of amazing energy collected right in that space of 3 or 4 years. I was living in Brooklyn at the time.
MARC MASTERS: How did having Load do the vinyl version of Close Calls come about?
ANDREW W.K.: Well, I like to think that it was a development from those years of being familiar with one another. I'm trying to remember if we were already doing the Sightings record when he asked me to do the vinyl. I think we hadn't even started it yet. I saw Ben, after not having seen him for years, at Bowery Ballroom. It was for a concert, I can't even remember who, it might have been a Sightings show actually. He was very friendly and it was really great to see him after those few years. He said that he liked Close Calls, and he asked if I was going to put it out here. I said, ‘No, we don't want to release it here yet, I want to release other stuff, and keep that in other countries.' And he said, ‘If you ever want to do vinyl, I'd love to do that.' I'd never even thought of that, a way to do a special version of it here without releasing it widely on a traditional format. So we did, and I was very honored to work with him.
Napalm Death
"Unchallenged Hate"
FROM BOOTLEGGED IN JAPAN (LIVE) (EARACHE) 1998
ANDREW W.K.: Napalm Death, "Unchallenged Hate."
MARC MASTERS: Correct.
ANDREW W.K.: Is this the version from Bootlegged in Japan?
MARC MASTERS: It is.
ANDREW W.K.: Everything about them was really innovative, but the drumming especially. Just little things like that, like that kind of beat. Not to mention the blast beats, or the holocaust beats, the very fast grind beats. But some of those mid-tempo, sort of rock'n'roll beats he did were very exciting, and those were the moments that would really amp me up into the most. They have an album called Harmony Corruption which has a lot of really great middle tempo beats - not too fast, not too slow, but these really perfect tempos that are very, to me, energizing. They really amp me up. I listened to it for years and years and years, that album, every day. Especially when I moved to New York, there was something about it that really made itself necessary - a kind of consistency in the middle of all the chaos, even though it was a chaotic consistency. I've talked about that album quite a bit. A lot of people didn't like because it was different than before, and the production especially was very unusual. Kind of the way that live recording has a very unusual sound, sort of loud in a quiet way, and powerful in a weak way. There are all these opposites in their music. They're a very unique band, you can really only compare them to themselves.
Posted 27/02/08
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