page_title: Andrew W.K.
section_title: Close Calls with Brick Walls and legal disputes: 2004–2008
hierarchical_section_title: Andrew W.K. / Music career / Close Calls with Brick Walls and legal disputes: 2004–2008
caption_attribution_description: Andrew W.K. cropped from group photo
context_page_description: Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier is an American rock singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Raised in Michigan, Wilkes-Krier began his musical career in the mid-1990s performing in a number of local bands before eventually moving to New York, where he produced his first recordings under the Andrew W.K. moniker.
  After gaining initial attention with the 2000 EP Girls Own Juice, Wilkes-Krier rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album I Get Wet in November 2001, as well as its singles "Party Hard" and "We Want Fun". In the years following its release, Wilkes-Krier has also undertaken a number of other musical and non-musical ventures such as television and radio work, including motivational speaking, and writing.
context_section_description: In November 2004, an unknown entity identifying as "Steev Mike" – a pseudonym Andrew W.K. had previously used for himself – launched a number of websites accusing W.K. of fraud and not being behind his own career, as well as threats from someone demanding compensation for work on the third studio album."
  Around this time W.K.'s official website was hacked, apparently by the same entity, W.K. attempted to address the confusion in a public statement in which he wrote, "Please don't believe Steev Mike. I used to call myself Steev Mike a long time ago and it's nothing now. Someone is trying to confuse you and make me look bad." 
  In subsequent years, W.K. denied various theories accusing him of being a fake entity, declaring himself to be "a real person who thinks for himself" and "not the victim of anyone or group of people trying to influence my career or life", and later reaffirming himself as "the same [Andrew W.K.] that has been here from the beginning" at a Q&A event at the Santos Party House. Later discussing the accusations in an interview with British magazine Front, W.K. stated that "the nature of how we presented my initial offerings caused some confusion, even though I tried to make it as straightforward as possible... Different people I've worked with and different parts of my back story have gotten twisted and changed. But I made the music on my albums – I had a lot of help from incredible people, but not the kind of help that some people think." He also added, "most of what you've heard is exaggerated but the parts that are true may be more disturbing than you'd hoped".
  W.K. recorded his third studio album Close Calls with Brick Walls from 2005 to 2006, but legal disputes surrounding ownership of W.K.'s name prevented it from receiving its intended full-scale release in 2006, and as a result it only saw official release in Japan that year. He later acknowledged, writing in The Guardian, that the legal disputes surrounding his name had originated from a former colleague, disputes which were apparently also connected to the "Steev Mike" website hacking:
  At the end of 2004, an old friend of mine got in some business trouble and basically decided to take it out on me. To cut a long story short, this person is someone I worked very closely with and had a formal and family business relationship with. Due to various complaints this person had with me, they were able to turn my life and career upside down. I wasn't allowed to use my own name within certain areas of the US entertainment industry and we were in a debate about who owned the rights to my image, and who should get credit for "inventing" it. This made my life complicated and intense for a few years, but I kept working and doing whatever I could to keep moving forward.
  Though Close Calls with Brick Walls failed to see wide release in 2006, Wilkes-Krier continued to be active, releasing a live concert DVD entitled Who Knows? in February that year and presenting five screenings of the film in New York and Hollywood. In March 2006, during an episode of Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones' radio show Jonesy's Jukebox, Andrew W.K. debuted a new song entitled "I'm a Vagabond". On November 26, 2008, under Universal Music Group, he released his fourth studio album, The Japan Covers, which consists of cover versions of J-pop songs, as well as a compilation entitled The Very Best So Far.
caption: Andrew W.K. in 2006
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