ANDREW W.K. Talks About 'Who Knows?' DVD

Ada Calhoun of Nerve.com recently conducted an interview with ANDREW W.K. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Nerve.com: I saw you live four or five years ago here in New York, and I remember feeling kind of worried for you. There were so many people onstage.

Andrew: "I think it spread as this word-of-mouth expectation that the point was to get as many people onstage as possible. There's actually a moment on the [recently released 'Who Knows?'] DVD in the bonus footage of this show in Atlanta: the band came out and played the introduction song, then when I came out, the entire stage was full of people. I couldn't tell what was going on. I said, 'Where's the stage?' It looked like I had walked right into the crowd."

Nerve.com: One theme that comes across is that you're atoning for a former life of crime. You mention stealing.

Andrew: "A lot of the narration in the movie is taken from interviews I've done. The beginning, about stealing money, that was when I was working at a lot of jobs, primarily back in Michigan before I moved to New York, but in New York as well. I would run various schemes to take money from the job. You know, not usually very much, but it was stealing nonetheless. And in the context of that interview I was talking about not wanting to disappoint my parents when they found out about me stealing. For a few years I told my mom that the reason I would get fired from a job was, 'They have too many employees.' Or 'Somebody came back, I was asked to leave.' But years later I ended up telling her."

Nerve.com: Was there something specific that happened that turned you from a thief into such a good person?

Andrew: "Well, I got mugged when I was about nineteen or twenty in New York on my way to work one day. When that happened I said, okay, well, clearly I've never mugged anybody, but I can't wish these things won't happen to myself and then essentially do something like that to someone else."

Nerve.com: Is it true you never drink or do drugs?

Andrew: "No, I've never been dry or straight edge. I didn't drink or do drugs until I was twenty-one, but it wasn't a formal idea I was working with. Back then, I had a lot of friends who were really into drinking and drugs, and it was around enough that I almost felt like I was doing it without doing it. It was fun times either way. Now I enjoy drinking and anything else."

Nerve.com: The movie doesn't reveal much about your personal life. I was left curious about what your love life was like during those four years.

Andrew: "There were parts where I wasn't seeing anybody at all and there were some parts where I had a very committed relationship, but I wasn't around very much, so it was it was difficult to sustain any kind of substantial relationship. But there were relationships that were had, and they were fine."

Read the entire interview at Nerve.com.