STACK #161 Mar 2018

MUSIC

NEWS

very low-pitched sitar: twangy and bendy with a lot of personality. Otherworldly, or inorganic, as well. I really like inorganic songs and sounds that can’t be placed exactly, but are very appetising. How do you envisage these particular parts when you're writing, especially when they ‘can’t be placed’ in the way you describe? You hear what you want the sound to be in your head ... you feel it’s missing, I guess. I don’t want to say “replicates” the sound that you’re hearing inside, but it makes it audible. That’s the strange thing about making music: you hear it, it exists inside you. But it doesn’t actually feel to me like it’s inside – it’s in front, kind of like a movie screen. Then you have to find a way to make it possible for it to be heard. A way to manifest it? 'Manifest' – give it a voice, yeah. I imagine with the writer, there’s many words that could be said that equate a particular vibe. There’s this idea that there is a perfect word and there is only one right word. I think that’s the same with recording. You’re trying to isolate that sound, that instrument, that approach or playing style that was made specifically to get this certain feeling across. BreakThe Curse tells a whole story in itself, and it’s in two very distinct parts.Was it very obvious to you how you wanted to communicate that moment of triumph in the middle? The first half of the song, that’s one of the oldest parts of the whole album. That’s a part I’ve been working on since 2005, [and] for whatever reason never had working words. It was just waiting. I never could forget it. Sometimes it seems these ideas just wait until they’re ready to be recorded. I was playing along with it and I was just still contemplating whether to try recording it again or working on it more… [and then] it just happened very instantaneously.

You're Not Alone by Andrew W.K. is out March 2 via Sony.

ANDREW W.K. INTERVIEW

and on the other hand completely elusive, it doesn’t mean you’re not still having the experience. Like you’re almost able to liberate the experience from its source. Yeah, I’d like to think that’s what I’m trying to do. I want it to be liberated from me, but I’m also bound up in it ‘cause I’m a major part of the delivery mechanism, but I really am only a delivery mechanism and ultimately the experience should be liberated from me. You use some terrific keys sounds across the record: Party Mindset has some neat blippy synths, and The Devil’s OnYour Side has this pointy clavichord doing the arpeggios. How do you muck about with piano and keyboard effects?

The album is a real exploration into these conflicting states of being, and I think that can be reflected onto your specific position too: your status as either a saviour or a fraud has been discussed repeatedly in the media. Do you think the veracity of who you are even matters, if a listener derives something useful from your message? Incredible question. I can’t thank you enough for approaching my work with this kind of perspective. I think [it] maybe doesn’t even need an answer because the question itself is so thought-provoking – it’s more fun to just contemplate it. With that in mind, it seems as though the polarities that are present in life in general have a strange way of both balancing our experiences and oddly cancelling them out, and what you’re left with in that process of cancellation, or that balance, seems to be some type of truth. If you’re having an experience and the nature of that experience or the source of that experience is on one hand verifiable, The inimitable AndrewW.K. has just released You're Not Alone , an album which dissects the 'party on' message of self-empowerment through rock which he first coined in 2001, while acknowledging that confusion and doubt are absolutely a part of the journey.We spoke to the iconic musician at length; head online for the full interview.

I think it's a very successful union. Thank you so very much for your time, Andrew.

I really am only a delivery mechanism

Thank you. I’m thankful to anyone who listens to the

music... I always wonder what people hear when they listen to music. Not just my music, but any music. What are they looking for? What do they recognise? I’m desperately trying to get this across, and you’ve made me feel as though it’s working. I’m really grateful. ZKR

The very beginning of [ Party Mindset ] is quite stripped away, there is just a piano… then there are layers. It’s kind of bendy. There’s a sliding guitar and keyboard combination sound, manipulated [to make] a bass sound and also mimicking a

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