Dfest: Andrew W.K. On Bloody Noses For Fun and Profit

Andrew W.K. speaks at Dfest. Photo by George Lang.

Andrew Wilkes-Krier, aka Andrew W.K., said he receives countless generic CD-Rs with labeling rendered with a Sharpee and nothing to catch the eye. Andrew W.K. knows better than that.

For his debut disc, I Get Wet, Andrew W.K., keynote speaker at Dfest, said he went through several concepts, but the one that he knew would earn the attention of both label executives and fans was this one:

He gave himself a bloody nose.

“There’s only one photograph of that image,” W.K. said during his address at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Tulsa. “I said, ‘Let’s do a photo shoot, I’ll do this for my demo.’ We showed up, we took about 30 or 40 photos. I got a bloody nose. It was a painful process. I won’t tell you exactly how I did it. Then I took one when I was smiling.
“There was a lot of debate about this bloody nose,” he said. “At the same time, I thought. Everybody’s had a bloody nose. Even your grandmother, if it was a dry day, or if she had a rough night with Grandpa Chester.”

“Ultimately, the I Get Wet cover was censored with a sticker. While some artists might consider this a defeat, Andrew W.K. was eternally thankful.

“This was my dream all along: I wanted an album cover that had to be censored,” he said. “Sure enough, a lot of people who bought the CD said they wanted to see what was behind the black sticker.”