In the early 2000's Andrew W.K. burst onto the music scene seemingly from nowhere and made major waves with his debut album I Get Wet. He was loud, energetic, radiating positivity, and wanted the whole world to party with him. Soon his career would be wrapped in mystery that still has people questioning him to this day.

Andrew W.K. was born Andrew Wilkes-Krier, May 9 1979. He was raised in Ann Arbor Michigan. Andrew started learning to play the piano at 4 years old at the University of Michigan School of Music. Andrew played in various Michigan based punk rock and heavy metal bands and began his solo musical career when he moved to NYC in 1998. NYC is where he adopted the W.K. moniker. He worked numerous jobs like fashion photography and bubblegum machine sales before relocating to Florida to start recording new music and building a live band with drummer Donald Tardy from Obituary. By 2000 they caught the attention of major labels. Andrew's stage presence, particularly his ability to win over every last person in the crowd, impressed the execs and he was offered a record contract.

I Get Wet was released in November of 2001. It was known for its controversial cover art—Andrew with a very bloody nose. Andrew started to tour with festivals like Ozzfest, and his own tours. In 3 years the band did around 500 shows. Shortly after the release of his second album, The Wolf, (where he played every instrument on the album) things got strange and many questions about the identity of Andrew were raised. Someone claiming to be Steev Mike started making accusations and threatening him publicly on his own website—was it hacked, or did someone who worked for him have a grudge? The message was quickly taken down and replaced with a rambling note from Andrew asking everyone “not to believe it.” The accusations revolved around “Who is Andrew W.K.?” Andrew was accused of being a corporate creation, an actor hired to play a role. More accusations came out that there was many Andrews out there and if you saw him in concert twice, it was likely you didn't see the same person twice.

Legal trouble soon followed and Andrew's third album was blocked from being released in the U.S. because he couldn't “use his own name.” This seemed to confirm the rumours.

Andrew did very little to dissuade fans that the rumours were false. In fact he did the opposite, claiming in 2008 that "I'm not the same guy that you may have seen from the I Get Wet album." And, "Andrew W.K. was created by a large group of people, almost a conference of people, and they met, and I was there, and we talked about how we could come up with something that would move people, and it was done in the spirit of commerce, it was done in the spirit of entertainment, which usually goes hand in hand with commerce, and I was auditioned alongside of many other people to fill this role of a great front man, a great performer."

Andrew later recanted these statements claiming he was “forced” to make them. The rumours swirled for years, mostly due to Andrew's “Kaufman” like reactions when asked about it.

Fans have tried many ways of confirming or disproving the rumours--comparisons of photos from various points in his life, checking to see if tattoos match etc. Andrew has played up the rumours and then denied them many times. But largely he has stuck with the story that he had contractual constraints and "at the end of 2004, an old friend of mine got in some business trouble and basically decided to take it out on me... they were able to turn my life and career upside down. I wasn't allowed to use my own name within certain areas... This made my life complicated and intense for a few years, but I kept working and doing whatever I could to keep moving forward."

The rumours are almost certainly false but make a great mythos to surround the musician. Andrew is a showman after all and those that know him, like Donald Tardy claim he is very intelligent and has had a vision for his career since the very beginning. Also, it's hard to be a fake when Andrew's father is a well known legal scholar at University of Michigan Law School.

Donald Tardy was interviewed in 2010 and had this to say, “Andrew is a dude. He is a dude that I know. I think it’s when something happens so quickly and so successfully, people can’t accept that..... It’s weird to me, I guess, because in hindsight I understand why rumors start especially with Andrew. He wrote me a letter, and the next thing you know, we’re developing a band. It went from 0 to 100 m.p.h. in a split second.”

Andrew confirmed on an interview with Larry King that Steev Mike is a “collective” of people he has worked with and still works with some who had helped him early on in his career and in some way still do. A Steev Mike credit appears on all of Andrew's albums in a producer role and now days Andrew is free to use his name and image in any way he wants.

Andrew has since released several more albums under his own label Skyscraper Music Maker and on Napalm Records. His latest album came out last year and shortly after Andrew deleted all his social media accounts and website, and cancelled the supporting tour. Again, rumours swirl as to why.

Andrew has also done motivational speaking tours, monthly columns, short lived T.V. shows, radio shows, and co-owned Santos Party House in NYC.

Andrew has two children but keeps them out of the public eye. Andrew keeps his personal life very secret but those who claim to know him have said that he runs with Anarchist crowds.

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  • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    basically, history to them goes:

    • cavemen ooga booga, plus tribes hunting deer and getting attacked by sabretooth tigers
    • idk, pyramids and ancient Egypt? I heard the word "Sumeria" and "Persia" once. oh, and Greece, I think. Sparta was so based
    • Rome, bestest civilization in the world. Lasted a thousand years, just like America will. no problems really, height of civilization. Library of Alexandria was based, we could have been on Mars centuries ago if it wasn't burned down! :(
    • uhh dark ages. nothing happened. churches and stuff. feudalism.
    • epic renaissance thinkers come along and introduce us to science. we're back on track, baby! America discovered by Columbus, who sailed the ocean blue, what a cool guy
    • first american immigrants get helped out by the natives, very friendly, very cool
    • George Washington and his band of epic bacon heroes make the British seethe and cope and start the bestest country in the world based on freedom for all and stuff like that
    • we start taking over states on the frontier because the natives are all dying for whatever reason. eh, whatever, we're very grateful for their help and are sad to see them go!
    • CIVIL WAR, worst thing that's ever happened on the planet until the world wars, very sad, but we freed the slaves! now white people and black people live in harmony.
    • nothing happens until World War 1, where we saved Europe from the menace of, uhh... well, the war was a conflict between... the whole point was that, uh, was Franz Ferninand was killed? uhh hmm...
    • anyway, then everybody is rich, but then poor and sad for a while, not very nice
    • Hitler casts a magical spell over the German populace to make them all evil, except they weren't actually evil they were just tricked by the Nazi warlock mind spell. we save the day AGAIN (no need to thank us!) from the evil Nazi hordes, mowing them down, hahahaha! evil communists and Nazis form an alliance of evil because fascism = communism, then they start fighting each other. very bad that Most Evilest Man Ever, Joseph Stalin, kills the Nazis because they're not evil, just confused smol puppers :(
    • America makes mistakes for a while but we're still GOOD PEOPLE godDAMN IT!! nobody's perfect! evil communism is a mind virus taking over people until it's epically owned and stopped in 1990! capitalism won, socialism lost, we've found the best system, time to stay like this forever! also we get civil rights and now white people and black people live in harmony!
    • Middle Easterners fly planes into the twin towers for no reason at all, we go show them what for and start fixing the Middle East and showing them how to do democracy properly!
    • first black president! racism is over and now white people and black people live in harmony!
    • 2016, Trump ruins everything and the project collapses, very depressing, world is ending, we must resist!
    • we defeat Trump, the fascist dictator, and now things are back on track. but China and Russia are forming the Evil Alliance and we must oppose them in the name of freedom and democracy!