Andrew W.K. emerged in late 2001 with the album I Get Wet, but that’s his first major-label studio album, released by Island Records, according to Andrew W.K. Music. It’s nowhere near his first recording let loose into the world, just the first big one and which survived the least amount of hassles.

In the late 90s, W.K. struck up a deal with small, independent label Hanson Records to release two cassette-only singles, in advance of a full-length album. In 1998, and under his full name of Andrew Wilkes-Krier, the musician put out the single, “Room to Breathe.” It was produced in such limited quantities that most W.K. fans didn’t hear it until a fan site uploaded it in 2016. The second just-tape single Wilkes-Krier was supposed to release was called “You Are What You Eat. It was never actually publicly available, because someone involved with the production lost the master. However, Hanson Records owner Aaron Dilloway made the only known dub of the song… and then that tape got lost, too. That promised album never quite saw the inside of a record shop, although a 19-song demo of the record, set to be titled Necronomicon, eventually surfaced.

With songs like “Party Hard,” “Party Party Party,” “Long Live the Party,” “Party Til You Puke,” and “The Power of Partying” — and it being a major part of his personal brand — Andrew W.K. is probably the modern world’s chief advocate of partying — and the benefits therein. 

“Party” means different things to different people, and to Andrew W.K., “it really can be whatever helps express that essential excitement and gratitude and awareness,” he told Vice. “Anything that brings that sort of enthusiasm. That type of unbridled joy seems appropriate for a party.” That happiness came from a dark place, as W.K. was sick of “feeling so bad about life so much of the time,” that he wanted to dedicate himself to “getting cheered up and about feeling good about existing.” The pleasures of partying speaks to some deep-seated personal truths for W.K. “You wouldn’t be able to feel this good, if you weren’t meant to exist in order to feel it. I want to feel that way, even if for just a glimpse,” he told Articulate.

Andrew W.K. made his major-label debut with the November 2001 album, I Get Wet. It stood out from the sea of other mass-produced, mass-marketed albums in part because of its striking and unforgettable cover — it consists of a close-up shot of W.K., soulfully staring into the camera, seemingly unaware of (or not bothered by) the massive amount of blood pouring out of his nose, over his mouth, and down his neck. It definitely told the world that W.K. was perhaps a little more intense and extreme than your average rock singer.

To whit — that blood is, mostly, real. In order to “fulfill the vision of the bloodiest nose that I ever imagined before,” as he told Loudwire of the cover’s concept, W.K. violently struck himself in the face with a chunk of a cinder block. That didn’t provide quite enough blood, and he also tried picking his nose with “extreme intensity,” because that habit led to a lot of childhood nosebleeds. But that still wasn’t enough blood to W.K.’s liking, so he and his associates brought in some extra to make his face gruesomely camera-worthy, purchasing “the reluctant offerings of some poor pig or cow” from a butcher shop.

There wasn’t anything more to the cover than that, but according to The Independent, the United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority asked W.K.’s label to remove or replace the cover, on account of how it could “frighten children and vulnerable people.”

After five studio albums, Andrew W.K. is still most known for “Party Hard,” his anthemic first single. “I hated being at a party and someone coming up and saying: ‘Why aren’t you drinking?’ ‘Why aren’t you dancing?'” W.K. told Metal Hammer of the song’s genesis. “So I thought, I’m gonna make a song telling people to party, but party however they want.” W.K. devised the song’s melody — propelled by a one-note riff — while in the mosh pit at a Sonic Youth show, aiming to make a song “where music doesn’t just change the thoughts in my head, it changes the way my body feels.”

W.K. recorded “Party Hard,” with the song planned for inclusion on I Get Wet. Then the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened, and in the climate of the subsequently devastated American collective psyche, executives at Island Records considered blocking the song’s release, theorizing that it would be bad taste to release a party song at that point in time, and for W.K. to be himself to reporters. “I would get coached on what I should say in interviews. They’d say don’t talk too much about having fun or enjoying your life.” But W.K. held firm, arguing that “Party Hard” was exactly what people — especially New Yorkers — needed in late 2001. “Celebrating what you had was never more important. To be grateful for the life we have and this incredible city.”

Andrew W.K. seems to have a pretty solid worldview and knows how to enjoy life for all it’s worth. He’s not selfish about his discoveries about the secrets of the universe, either. In addition to recording music and staging concert tours, W.K. spreads his truths as a motivational speaker. After launching the lighthearted political group The Party Party in 2016, according to Pitchfork, the group sponsored a nationwide tour (meaning all 50 U.S. states) called The Power of Partying. “This is my attempt to add something positive and unifying to the divisive atmosphere surrounding us.” That capped a years-long side career on the speaker circuit, delivering encouraging words to large, receptive groups, such as a My Little Pony fan convention in 2012.

The rocker has also shared his wisdom in print. New York’s Village Voice magazine employed him as an advice columnist. From 2014 to 2015, W.K. earnestly answered readers’ questions on everything from how to handle infidelity to dealing with depression to coping with PTSD.