Andrew W.K. Has A Christmas Message For You All…

As told to us by Andrew W.K.:

“Christmas is the partiest time of the year. It’s like the entire year has been one long party, building up and getting partier and partier as Christmas approaches, and then when December hits, the party power kicks up to the max, culminating in New Year’s Eve. It’s pure party euphoria – and I carry on the celebrations not only after Christmas Day and into New Year’s, but for every day thereafter! It’s a perpetual holiday party mindset.

“An average Christmas Day for me is this: I have dreams about partying with Santa all night, wake up, drink something, go to the bathroom, wash my hands, put on my dirty whites and a Santa hat, head to the nearest Christmas tree to make sure Santa came, open presents, eat bacon and eggs, eat flapjacks with butter and syrup, play with gifts, hug people, eat more, drink more, call people on the phone, and of course, non-stop engage in extraordinarily hard partying throughout. In terms of when to actually open the presents, I follow the traditions of whichever people I happen to be with. I’m flexible when it comes to the particular holiday patterns of different people. I’ve opened presents the night before, the morning of, after lunch – all sorts of different ways.

“I give the gift of partying. And I get the gift of partying. It’s a win-win. The best Christmas present I’ve ever received, though, was my first electric piano keyboard, when I was seven years old. It was something I had dreamed of. A keyboard where you could play drum sounds and orchestral sounds and even a dog barking sound effect. Santa changed my life with that gift. When I was 18, I learned how to play guitar by playing along with Christmas songs. I love them very much. That style of music had a huge impact on me, and my favourite Christmas song is Silent Night – it’s actually one of my favourite songs, full-stop.

“All my Christmases have essentially blended together into one giant blur of Christmas bliss. But there was one Christmas time when we were on tour with Aerosmith in the States. It was a December tour and the entire month felt like a humongous advanced Christmas present from the party gods themselves.

“In terms of my favourite Christmas movies, I suppose I have the most memories of watching the original How The Grinch Stole Christmas cartoon, as well as the stop-motion Rudolf movie. But I have the deepest and most emotional memories related to The Nutcracker ballet. Whether seeing it in person at the theatre, or a TV version, or just hearing the music. I just went and saw it a few days ago. I wept. It gets more beautiful and more powerful the more times I experience it.

“At the same time, it’s okay to not like Christmas, and it’s okay to find it sad. As long as you continue to party, you’ll be fine.”