Didn't know this about Andrew W.K.. Lately I've mostly considered him a bit of a has-been, but I also know depression and creativity tend to go hand in hand.
I would rather say that a connection between depression and creativity might exist rather than go "hand in hand." I also know formerly depressed creative people who say that, after they got help or when they were not depressed, they were more creative and productive than ever before.but I also know depression and creativity tend to go hand in hand.
This statement worries me. I've known severely clinically depressed people who wouldn't get the help they needed because they were afraid they would lose something.
It's not like depression makes you creative, it does the exact opposite. Having to go to the post office turns from an annoyance to a feat of endurance. An accomplishment you can't brag to anyone about. If you're depressed and you're creative and not a liar you know this but there is a worry that this can go away. That you are obviously seeing things in a different way and to a degree it's helping you do like one thing, but an important one. Stephen King had terrible anxiety that if he quit drinking he couldn't write. That's not exactly a 1:1 example but I doubt he was a happy man when he almost killed himself with cocaine, beer and NyQuil. I'd say he's never been as good since he got sober but he was pretty fucking awful for a period when he was blind drunk. The two things are connected but it's not like they're chained together inexorably.
Donald Glover seems to be in the same boat.
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/donald-glover-childish-gambino-interview He says he's not clinically depressed (http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.25852/title.childish-gambino-denies-being-clinically-depressed), but from the first interview it sounds like he's got something really serious going on.
A guy named Jim fixed my first album he is one of the most creative people I know. Halfway through working together on the album he stopped returning my phone calls for about three months. Turned out he fell into a severe depression and was returning no ones calls. I doubt Jim would say that his depression facilitated creativity. Actually, I am pretty sure he'd say the opposite.