In this life, it is my belief that you have to try and feel that “to exist is inherently positive”, especially when life seems unfair. You can be inspired by a parent, a love, an artist, an author or a place. You get a sensation deep within when you are being inspired and you have to answer that call. For Andrew W.K., every song he writes is an attempt to conjure up that feeling once again, of vibrancy, and life-affirming energy. As he creates, he amplifies that feeling, and sustains it, which gives him the energy to then to do it again, day after day, week after week, until an electrified life takes shape, forged from a hard-won pattern//habit of adrenaline and courage.
Says Andrew, “I get there sometimes – little jolts of clarity, where the feeling is there. But it’s fleeting. It slips away. That’s what makes you try again. Everything I try to do is an attempt to get to that feeling. And to worship that feeling. I guess that feeling is the life force – that strange and mysterious vitality we rely on in order to live – but we don’t quite understand it – maybe it’s not meant to be understood. It’s just meant to be experienced. And enjoyed.”
The things that inspire us can also be the same things that bring up memories; even memories can inspire us. Memories are the very definition of our lives. Andrew remembers that he started piano lessons around age four. Those memories are very vivid for him. He can picture the room, the teacher, the smell and the feeling of the keys on his fingers. He has only vague memories of music prior to that when he would reach up to the upright piano his dad played.
“I remember vaguely chewing on the keys and the way the wood tasted. But that was back when I thought the piano was food, and not an instrument,” Andrew tells me.
I am sure it was a shock to his fans when he transitioned from energetic punk music about partying and having fun to becoming a motivational speaker on depression. When people look to him for answers to their intense and confusing questions such as “Dear Andrew, please talk me out of killing myself”, he tries to answer his audience in the best way he can, though he may not feel he has all the “answers”, or maybe that any objective answers really exist at all. But in sharing his own vulnerability and pain humbly and honestly, he helps others to feel less alone. And this is a key to human healing and development, creativity and forward motion.
For this inspiring Musician-turned-Mental Health Advocate and Life Coach, the transition is very natural, a meaningful progression in work and creativity. “Sometimes that’s all we want from one another, to just talk about life in a “straight-to-the-heart-of-the-
Andrew goes on to say, “{I believe in} celebrating the adventure of being alive, in all its ups and downs, confusion and clarity, depth and shallowness. The whole thing must be a party, or why would it be happening in the first place? That’s a leap of faith that you decide to make once you embrace the party mindset. The best part is, even not partying still counts as partying. The absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth. And if you can celebrate the feeling of that, the party really never ends.”
I think that when you are a fan of someone or look up to them, it is a good feeling to know that they are “just” human also. Famous or not, we are all cut from the same cloth (so to speak). Andrew W.K. will be here in Philadelphia on November 16th at the Trinity Center for Urban Life for his “The Power of Partying”, 50 state speaking tour. Visit his website for more information on this tour.
I leave you today with what I personally find to be a great quote from Andrew W.K. “All the best things I’ve ever done I never planned on doing or even dreamed of. That includes partying. It all happened to me, not me to it.”
