By Rachel Lux
Source
If You C Jordan: 10 Years Later With Something Corporate’s Andrew McMahon
ME: You mentioned briefly that your 10-year high school reunion is coming up. I thought that was interesting in the context of “If You C Jordan.”
ANDREW McMAHON:I don’t know if I’m going to go to my 10-year high school reunion; and I would imagine that we’re all grownups and nothing would happen. I never made a point to apologize for [the song] in one sense, because I felt like it was pretty fair at the time. But did I expect it to be what it was? No. We kept that song off the record. I’m going to tell you a story… It was this thing that happened when we were putting together the Audioboxer EP. We had two songs written in 6/8 [time]. Which is essentially a swing; a waltz-y time signature. Two rock songs in 6/8, and this was in 2000. And one of the songs was called “If I Were A Terrorist, I’d Bomb The Graduation.” And it was this hysterical song, with obviously none of what happened on Sept. 11 having happened at that point. But it and “Jordan” were so similar because they were these tongue-in-cheek rock ’n’ roll 6/8 numbers. But “Terrorist” was the better of the two songs. And so we were like, “Let’s get rid of this ‘Jordan’ tune on the EP, because whatever, no big deal, we’ll get it out. It’s gonna come out as kind of just this no big deal sort of introduction to the bands and fans at Drive-Thru.” And the idea was that we would sandbag the other tune for the full-length because it was the better of the two songs, and even funnier. Fast-forward: the Audioboxer EP came out in September of 2001. If we had put ["Terrorist"] on the record, the trajectory of the band would’ve changed entirely. The album would’ve been shelved, there would’ve been a bad taste in everyone’s mouth, and it would’ve been horrible.
So instead, everyone only heard “If You C Jordan.”
And this was [a song about] some childish shit that happened after my high school graduation. It pretty much boiled down to a fight over a girl, and me not being a dude that rocks the machismo thing, I spent a summer sort of hearing about how I was going to get my ass kicked. It just tells the story. I was never a fighter, and that was never my thing, and so when this almost came to blows in a parking lot, I sort of pleaded no contest and was like, “Go ahead and hit me.” And didn’t get hit, needless to say. But it was really just a disturbing experience for me because it seemed so silly. So instead of fighting with my fists, I fought with my words.
So did you get the last laugh?
I did and I didn’t. If you know me as a person and if you know my catalog of music, I’d say quite the contrary of that song, most of it is about love or finding positivity in hard spots. There is a part of me that really regrets the fact that that song ever became what it did because of that. It came from a really real place, so in that sense I never really completely regretted it. It was very honest at the time, and I felt justified. But I never wanted that to enter the public consciousness. I never thought it would. And for that, I truly really am sorry. Because I thought it would be this funny thing—again you’re processing it as, “I’m 17, and when I get mad I write some silly song and my band go and play it.” It’s not like I write it and think, “Oh, this is going to get played on the radio.” That wasn’t even the ambition for that EP.
That was pretty much the only bit of controversy I had my whole [time in] high school. And it happened the night of my graduation. I think that’s why it affected me so much and why I put it in that song. I’d gone through all of high school, not as a fly on the wall, but definitely just trying to leave relatively unscathed. When I felt too exposed, I hid, like a lot of kids. I definitely stepped out in certain respects, but in others, I did want to be a fly on the wall. So when the biggest drama of my entire experience ended up being something that happened at my high school grad night, and then yeah, this whole thing developed out of an argument essentially over a girl. And it ruined—not ruined, but it really became the staple of my summer, was this guy is hunting for me, [people would say,] “He’s looking for you and he’s going to beat your ass,” and he’s approaching all my friends and saying stuff, and here I am, just chilling, trying to get my summer underway, and everywhere I go, I’m having people be like, “You’re going to get your ass kicked?” And it’s like, “For what?” And we were the big men rolling around, we just graduated, everyone’s getting ready to go off to [college], and you’re at parties and seeing all your friends, and I’m being told not to go to this place or that place. And meanwhile, I’m this 120-pound kid going, “Who wants to fight me?” You could pin just about anybody against me and they’re going to win, unless I fly into a rage and then… [Laughs.]
Were names changed for privacy?
[Shakes head.] And so I’ve heard about it over the course of time. And some people laugh and some people think it’s really shitty what I did. I’ll defend myself in the sense that if I had written or painted a picture that was different than what had actually happened, if I tried to glorify my own position in it, but I didn’t. I just said it. That’s about the most literal song I’ve ever penned in my entire life. I think it was the quickest song I’ve ever written in my entire life. I wrote it that night. I came home from the beach where I was supposedly going to meet my doom and found it all to be a show of just this weird, macho thing that I had never really ever experienced in my whole life. I was disgusted, and I wrote a song about just being fucking disgusted. But at the core of the character involved, he’s a good person and I know that, and he’s gone on to do good things, and I think that I’ve probably in a way that I’ve never anticipated made him really regret that, and in that sense, I’ll sort of always have a little bit of guilt underlying there.
As to what will happen if I go to the 10-year reunion, my money’s on probably nothing. It will probably just be uncomfortable, which is probably the reason I won’t go. I don’t love the idea of being a “figure.” [Laughs.] And the reality of most of my success being fairly underground, it never really has been a thing. I’ll get it in the airport here and there… Every couple of days I might be someplace and people will come up [who recognize me]. But those are the people who know my music. If someone comes up to me, chances are they really know me. It’s never been a fame thing. But you go into a place where you’re notorious—your old high school—I would just feel like I’d pry be as self-conscious at the 10-year reunion as I was for all of high school. And I guess we’re probably all thinking the same thing. alt
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Saturday, 26 December 2009
20 Watts Interview - September 13th, 2009
By Caitlin Dewey
Source
20 Watts: Some of our readers might not be familiar with Jack’s Mannequin or what you do. So could you tell us who you are, what kind of music you play?
Andrew McMahon: Well, my name’s Andrew McMahon… [and] I don’t know, I think we just sort of play melodic rock ‘n’ roll. I happen to play piano, so people tend to focus on that. It’s pretty traditional, melodic, kind of pop rock ‘n’ roll.
20W: And you’ve been playing piano since you were how old?
AM: Nine.
20W: When did you decide you wanted to be a full-time musician?
AM: Then. Well, I think it was pretty immediate for me. I discovered the piano as an act of songwriting. The first thing I did was write a song. I had always tinkered as a kid but as soon as that first song came through me, it was over, there was never really anything else after that. And I was making my first demos when I was ten years old, playing school assemblies and things like that all through elementary school and middle school and I started my first band in high school, so it was pretty much my trajectory since I was a little kid.
20W: Now, you’ve put out two albums as Jack’s Mannequin and many releases as Something Corporate. The two Jack’s Mannequin albums in particular are very personal albums, and that appeals to people. Can you tell us what was going on in your life during the first album and during Glass Passenger – what influenced your songwriting during those times?
AM: The first record was definitely – I hate to use the cheeseball term – like a coming-of-age record. But it really was, you know? I was 22, I had made a pretty seismic shift away from Something Corporate at that point which was — needless to say – scary. But it was also this very enlivening moment in my life, with ties to a lot of people and a lot of things and experimenting with this idea of living on my own for the first time – probably for the first time ever. I started my first band in high school and got away from my parents with my successful rock band. But I stepped into sort of a familial environment again with Something Corporate. A lot of the record is about a break-up that occurred during that period of time and how that really tweaked with my heart and my head – and I think – all colored with thoughts of finding myself alone for the first time. And that’s where the first record came from.
The second is a little cloudier than that because the subject matters are a myriad and equally confusing. It was a pretty confusing period of time. It was a crisis of confidence that spawned a lot of that album — the aftermath of recovering from having gotten sick, and finding my voice again against my fear of losing my way altogether. I think a lot of Passenger is tinged with the question mark of whether or not I am finding my voice and even if it’s working when I find it. It was a hard one to make, but I think it also set me free of from a lot of those demons. Hopefully it paved the way for the next thing too.
20W: Yeah, let’s talk about your next album! Are you working on anything now?
AM: Well, I’m always working on stuff [laughs]. I definitely have spent a lot of time in the studio between Passenger and now, sort of trying to get closer to those ideas and figure out what the theme of that will be. It’s very much in its infancy now, but I rented a little house down by the beach where I’ve hatched my best stuff, and I’m sort of trying to reconnect with where I hatched some of my best stuff.
20W: What do you think is your best stuff?
AM: Well, I think it’s scattered throughout the records. Transit is sort of my best collection, where my best pop music lives in one spot. I just think that clear-headedness -– those songs that come quickly and are inspired from start to finish, and you don’t have to work at one song. You spend a week or two weeks refinining so that a thought is so clear that it just comes out. I’d like another solid batch of ten that I could say were my favorite.
20W: As a longtime fan, I’m curious to know which of those songs came easiest for you.
AM: Well, you name them, I’ll tell you if they did [laughs]. In the early days, when you’re young and you’re writing, you’ll write fearlessly and just put stuff out and not even think about it. I mean songs like “If U C Jordan” [laughs] you know, that shit came in ten minutes. It probably would have been better if I put it under the shelf. But yeah on the last record, songs like “The Resolution,” “Swim” and “Crashin’,” all those came easily. Transit was a lot of easy writing, all the way through, because I had so much to say. Transit was that moment where I was like “This is you, this is your chance to speak up.”
On the Something Corporate stuff, “The Astronaut,” that one wrote itself quickly. “Me And The Moon,” there’s definitely a drug-addled Amsterdam story there. But yeah, my perception and my memory are probably widely out of sorts with what actually happens. You tend to put on rose-colored glasses when you look at your past.
20W: You also have a documentary, what can you tell us about that?
AM: Well, it’s heavy, but it’s finally a movie – something that took us years of editing and re-editing. It’s a hard thing to make a movie about recovering when you’re still doing it. In the past year, and having used Passenger as a torch to cauterize those wounds, made it a lot easier for me to look at this and gain perspective. It was really just a couple of months ago that I sat down with the directors and said, “This is what’s wrong with the movie. I know this now because it’s over.” And I think that’s what you’ll find in the movie, that I was not well in this really prolific and really satisfying period of time in my life. And sort of having to pump the brakes and watching it disintegrate and rebuild itself.
20W: It’s interesting to me that you chose that medium…
AM: Well it sort of chose me…
20W: How did that happen?
AM: A label back in the day, back when I signed – probably about halfway through the making of Transit at that point – the record company, the first thing they did was give me a video camera. They said to film in the studio. They wanted to know what was going on or to use it for extra content. And because I had separated from my girlfriend and was sort of on this new exciting journey, it became this sort of obvious thing to sort of chart it with this camera. It sort of became my ancillary best friend. I was shooting anything and everything – tape after tape of stuff that you would never even imagine – little art movies and little home movies, and I had gotten very confessional with this camera, and if you listen to the sound bites throughout Transit, a lot of them came from those videos.
When I got sick, it had become such a part of me that in the hospital, I needed my keyboard and I needed my camera. It was sort of art therapy. I filmed with my left hand as they were putting a PICC line in my right. It became this place for me to keep it all and get it off my plate and it was really natural. A couple of friends a year after my recovery said “Would you consider letting us see these tapes and put them together to tell this story, and use this story to let people know that there’s a hopeful side to this.”
It seemed like a good idea at the time. It turned into a lot more than I expected it to be. It ended up being a big part of my life, but again having perspective and boiling it down to make it a movie, it did a lot to heal me. I don’t know at what stages in the process of recovery this will be a helpful tool to people but I think that, if nothing else, it’s a good education on what somebody goes through from a very personal viewpoint. Ninety percent of the interview footage was shot by me in the midst of it. I think it’s a very honest portrayal of the disease and what it’s done to the person.
20W: You’ve really done a lot to reach out to other people by starting your charity [The Dear Jack Foundation, for leukemia awareness and research]. What can students at this school do to help?
AM: Well, you guys have a Light the Night Walk. You can join the Jack’s Mannequin team. Over the last couple of years we’ve raised a couple hundred thousand dollars just through those walks. Last year we raised over $100,000 just from that team. This year I think we’re up to $50,000. You can sign up at dearjackfoundation.com to be a team walker. Truthfully, whether it’s us or whether you do it with some other team, Light the Night and Leukemia Lymphoma Society are great places to start. If you want to contribute to Dear Jack Foundation, it’s our conduit charity to channel money to different foundations and organizations we feel are making an impact on the cause.
20W: Awesome! So I guess I have some more music questions now. You’re about to embark on a solo tour. How do you feel about that? Have you ever done a solo tour before?
AM: Scared! And no, this will be the first. It was largely because we’re going to be doing premieres of the documentary along the tour. It’s expensive for me to tour the way that I tour. It makes money when I’m going to the 2,000-seat venues, but I obviously didn’t want to do that on a solo tour, because I wanted it to be a more intimate affair. The goal was that through merchandise sales and various different fundraisers to use the tour to contribute to the walks as well. I decided to go out alone, driving the car across the country—
20W: Oh, you’re not going to have this swanky tour bus?
AM: [Laughs] No swanky tour bus. I’m going back to as basic as I’ve ever gone, actually. I’ve been touring so constantly since 2006 that I’m almost hitting my last legs. But I know that I want to be out to support the documentary, and I figured this is a good way to do it. I love driving, that’s one of my huge inspirations, just getting in my car, putting in CDs and rolling. I threw this idea out, “What if I got in the car and brought my camera again and released this documentary in a very personal way?” That’s where it came from. I still have to go home and learn all these songs — just me and a piano. Bob my guitar player is going to come out and sing some harmonies and play some acoustic stuff. But yeah, I’ve got a lot of music to learn… it’s exciting. It’s fun after being on the road — God, it must be eight or nine years now.
20W: It has to be exhausting.
AM: Yeah, but to say that I’m doing something I’ve never done before is cool. It’s a challenge and sort of a final frontier in a lot of respects as far as my abilities go.
20W: There have been a lot of Something Corporate reunion tour rumors flying around. How true are they?
AM: It’s not untrue. It’s not scheduled. It’s not planned. It’s conversational at this point. But there are conversations that we’re having. You know, I just haven’t seen the guys lately, but we’ve been talking about it. It’s just a matter of finding the right time. I mean I definitely will have one last round of Jack’s Mannequin headlining. We have to make up all of the dates that we canceled to accommodate the Fray tour. So that’ll probably happen in February, at which point we’ll open up the conversation.
20W: My last question for you. I saw your MGMT cover, and I’m kind of curious if you personally are into the more indie/obscure scene, or if you tend to listen to things like The Fray. What are you listening to right now?
AM: Well, that MGMT record was my favorite of the last couple of years. Regina Spektor’s new record is probably my favorite right now. I don’t lean towards indie music per se. I mean, recent stuff that’s come out that I really dig is like Low Vs Diamond, I love their record. And I listen to a lot of classic rock, but also, I mean The Dead Weather is something I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Anything Jack White, I’m a pretty big fan of. Dare I say, I’m having a little bit of a guilty pleasure with this Owl City record right now too.
I’m a melodic sort of dude, and I gravitate towards anything with a melody. Whether it’s signed or not is irrelevant. Yeah, but the MGMT record was massive for me. I love The Fray dudes and I really enjoy their songs, but I mean that’s not really what I listen to. It really just depends on the mood. I’m a big Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers guy, and I’m a big Beach Boys guy. So I gravitate towards those things and fill in the blanks with the modern music that really turns me on, which at the moment is Regina…
20W: I reviewed it and I wasn’t into it, but maybe I’ll give it another listen.
AM: Have you spent any time with it?
20W: I listened to it a couple of times.
AM: It’s so fantastic. I think she’s really brilliant. I really love that record. I think “Laughing With” is just one of the better tracks that’s come out recently. But you know I’ve been checking out bands like Gaslight Anthem, I listen to everything, I always have. If it’s got a good melody and a good hook, there’s a good chance it’s in my CD player.
Source
20 Watts: Some of our readers might not be familiar with Jack’s Mannequin or what you do. So could you tell us who you are, what kind of music you play?
Andrew McMahon: Well, my name’s Andrew McMahon… [and] I don’t know, I think we just sort of play melodic rock ‘n’ roll. I happen to play piano, so people tend to focus on that. It’s pretty traditional, melodic, kind of pop rock ‘n’ roll.
20W: And you’ve been playing piano since you were how old?
AM: Nine.
20W: When did you decide you wanted to be a full-time musician?
AM: Then. Well, I think it was pretty immediate for me. I discovered the piano as an act of songwriting. The first thing I did was write a song. I had always tinkered as a kid but as soon as that first song came through me, it was over, there was never really anything else after that. And I was making my first demos when I was ten years old, playing school assemblies and things like that all through elementary school and middle school and I started my first band in high school, so it was pretty much my trajectory since I was a little kid.
20W: Now, you’ve put out two albums as Jack’s Mannequin and many releases as Something Corporate. The two Jack’s Mannequin albums in particular are very personal albums, and that appeals to people. Can you tell us what was going on in your life during the first album and during Glass Passenger – what influenced your songwriting during those times?
AM: The first record was definitely – I hate to use the cheeseball term – like a coming-of-age record. But it really was, you know? I was 22, I had made a pretty seismic shift away from Something Corporate at that point which was — needless to say – scary. But it was also this very enlivening moment in my life, with ties to a lot of people and a lot of things and experimenting with this idea of living on my own for the first time – probably for the first time ever. I started my first band in high school and got away from my parents with my successful rock band. But I stepped into sort of a familial environment again with Something Corporate. A lot of the record is about a break-up that occurred during that period of time and how that really tweaked with my heart and my head – and I think – all colored with thoughts of finding myself alone for the first time. And that’s where the first record came from.
The second is a little cloudier than that because the subject matters are a myriad and equally confusing. It was a pretty confusing period of time. It was a crisis of confidence that spawned a lot of that album — the aftermath of recovering from having gotten sick, and finding my voice again against my fear of losing my way altogether. I think a lot of Passenger is tinged with the question mark of whether or not I am finding my voice and even if it’s working when I find it. It was a hard one to make, but I think it also set me free of from a lot of those demons. Hopefully it paved the way for the next thing too.
20W: Yeah, let’s talk about your next album! Are you working on anything now?
AM: Well, I’m always working on stuff [laughs]. I definitely have spent a lot of time in the studio between Passenger and now, sort of trying to get closer to those ideas and figure out what the theme of that will be. It’s very much in its infancy now, but I rented a little house down by the beach where I’ve hatched my best stuff, and I’m sort of trying to reconnect with where I hatched some of my best stuff.
20W: What do you think is your best stuff?
AM: Well, I think it’s scattered throughout the records. Transit is sort of my best collection, where my best pop music lives in one spot. I just think that clear-headedness -– those songs that come quickly and are inspired from start to finish, and you don’t have to work at one song. You spend a week or two weeks refinining so that a thought is so clear that it just comes out. I’d like another solid batch of ten that I could say were my favorite.
20W: As a longtime fan, I’m curious to know which of those songs came easiest for you.
AM: Well, you name them, I’ll tell you if they did [laughs]. In the early days, when you’re young and you’re writing, you’ll write fearlessly and just put stuff out and not even think about it. I mean songs like “If U C Jordan” [laughs] you know, that shit came in ten minutes. It probably would have been better if I put it under the shelf. But yeah on the last record, songs like “The Resolution,” “Swim” and “Crashin’,” all those came easily. Transit was a lot of easy writing, all the way through, because I had so much to say. Transit was that moment where I was like “This is you, this is your chance to speak up.”
On the Something Corporate stuff, “The Astronaut,” that one wrote itself quickly. “Me And The Moon,” there’s definitely a drug-addled Amsterdam story there. But yeah, my perception and my memory are probably widely out of sorts with what actually happens. You tend to put on rose-colored glasses when you look at your past.
20W: You also have a documentary, what can you tell us about that?
AM: Well, it’s heavy, but it’s finally a movie – something that took us years of editing and re-editing. It’s a hard thing to make a movie about recovering when you’re still doing it. In the past year, and having used Passenger as a torch to cauterize those wounds, made it a lot easier for me to look at this and gain perspective. It was really just a couple of months ago that I sat down with the directors and said, “This is what’s wrong with the movie. I know this now because it’s over.” And I think that’s what you’ll find in the movie, that I was not well in this really prolific and really satisfying period of time in my life. And sort of having to pump the brakes and watching it disintegrate and rebuild itself.
20W: It’s interesting to me that you chose that medium…
AM: Well it sort of chose me…
20W: How did that happen?
AM: A label back in the day, back when I signed – probably about halfway through the making of Transit at that point – the record company, the first thing they did was give me a video camera. They said to film in the studio. They wanted to know what was going on or to use it for extra content. And because I had separated from my girlfriend and was sort of on this new exciting journey, it became this sort of obvious thing to sort of chart it with this camera. It sort of became my ancillary best friend. I was shooting anything and everything – tape after tape of stuff that you would never even imagine – little art movies and little home movies, and I had gotten very confessional with this camera, and if you listen to the sound bites throughout Transit, a lot of them came from those videos.
When I got sick, it had become such a part of me that in the hospital, I needed my keyboard and I needed my camera. It was sort of art therapy. I filmed with my left hand as they were putting a PICC line in my right. It became this place for me to keep it all and get it off my plate and it was really natural. A couple of friends a year after my recovery said “Would you consider letting us see these tapes and put them together to tell this story, and use this story to let people know that there’s a hopeful side to this.”
It seemed like a good idea at the time. It turned into a lot more than I expected it to be. It ended up being a big part of my life, but again having perspective and boiling it down to make it a movie, it did a lot to heal me. I don’t know at what stages in the process of recovery this will be a helpful tool to people but I think that, if nothing else, it’s a good education on what somebody goes through from a very personal viewpoint. Ninety percent of the interview footage was shot by me in the midst of it. I think it’s a very honest portrayal of the disease and what it’s done to the person.
20W: You’ve really done a lot to reach out to other people by starting your charity [The Dear Jack Foundation, for leukemia awareness and research]. What can students at this school do to help?
AM: Well, you guys have a Light the Night Walk. You can join the Jack’s Mannequin team. Over the last couple of years we’ve raised a couple hundred thousand dollars just through those walks. Last year we raised over $100,000 just from that team. This year I think we’re up to $50,000. You can sign up at dearjackfoundation.com to be a team walker. Truthfully, whether it’s us or whether you do it with some other team, Light the Night and Leukemia Lymphoma Society are great places to start. If you want to contribute to Dear Jack Foundation, it’s our conduit charity to channel money to different foundations and organizations we feel are making an impact on the cause.
20W: Awesome! So I guess I have some more music questions now. You’re about to embark on a solo tour. How do you feel about that? Have you ever done a solo tour before?
AM: Scared! And no, this will be the first. It was largely because we’re going to be doing premieres of the documentary along the tour. It’s expensive for me to tour the way that I tour. It makes money when I’m going to the 2,000-seat venues, but I obviously didn’t want to do that on a solo tour, because I wanted it to be a more intimate affair. The goal was that through merchandise sales and various different fundraisers to use the tour to contribute to the walks as well. I decided to go out alone, driving the car across the country—
20W: Oh, you’re not going to have this swanky tour bus?
AM: [Laughs] No swanky tour bus. I’m going back to as basic as I’ve ever gone, actually. I’ve been touring so constantly since 2006 that I’m almost hitting my last legs. But I know that I want to be out to support the documentary, and I figured this is a good way to do it. I love driving, that’s one of my huge inspirations, just getting in my car, putting in CDs and rolling. I threw this idea out, “What if I got in the car and brought my camera again and released this documentary in a very personal way?” That’s where it came from. I still have to go home and learn all these songs — just me and a piano. Bob my guitar player is going to come out and sing some harmonies and play some acoustic stuff. But yeah, I’ve got a lot of music to learn… it’s exciting. It’s fun after being on the road — God, it must be eight or nine years now.
20W: It has to be exhausting.
AM: Yeah, but to say that I’m doing something I’ve never done before is cool. It’s a challenge and sort of a final frontier in a lot of respects as far as my abilities go.
20W: There have been a lot of Something Corporate reunion tour rumors flying around. How true are they?
AM: It’s not untrue. It’s not scheduled. It’s not planned. It’s conversational at this point. But there are conversations that we’re having. You know, I just haven’t seen the guys lately, but we’ve been talking about it. It’s just a matter of finding the right time. I mean I definitely will have one last round of Jack’s Mannequin headlining. We have to make up all of the dates that we canceled to accommodate the Fray tour. So that’ll probably happen in February, at which point we’ll open up the conversation.
20W: My last question for you. I saw your MGMT cover, and I’m kind of curious if you personally are into the more indie/obscure scene, or if you tend to listen to things like The Fray. What are you listening to right now?
AM: Well, that MGMT record was my favorite of the last couple of years. Regina Spektor’s new record is probably my favorite right now. I don’t lean towards indie music per se. I mean, recent stuff that’s come out that I really dig is like Low Vs Diamond, I love their record. And I listen to a lot of classic rock, but also, I mean The Dead Weather is something I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Anything Jack White, I’m a pretty big fan of. Dare I say, I’m having a little bit of a guilty pleasure with this Owl City record right now too.
I’m a melodic sort of dude, and I gravitate towards anything with a melody. Whether it’s signed or not is irrelevant. Yeah, but the MGMT record was massive for me. I love The Fray dudes and I really enjoy their songs, but I mean that’s not really what I listen to. It really just depends on the mood. I’m a big Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers guy, and I’m a big Beach Boys guy. So I gravitate towards those things and fill in the blanks with the modern music that really turns me on, which at the moment is Regina…
20W: I reviewed it and I wasn’t into it, but maybe I’ll give it another listen.
AM: Have you spent any time with it?
20W: I listened to it a couple of times.
AM: It’s so fantastic. I think she’s really brilliant. I really love that record. I think “Laughing With” is just one of the better tracks that’s come out recently. But you know I’ve been checking out bands like Gaslight Anthem, I listen to everything, I always have. If it’s got a good melody and a good hook, there’s a good chance it’s in my CD player.
The Audio Perv Interview - September 18th, 2009
Source
The Audio Perv: Your documentary, Dear Jack, shares the same title as one of your songs about a friend’s brother who had leukemia. How much of this film is a tribute to them and how much of it was a therapeutic outlet for you when you were ill?
Andrew McMahon: You know the title in some ways is a tribute to Jack but I think in more ways it sort of speaks to the strange universal circle back through my life that he and the song and it relates to the name of the band and this moment where everything seems very kind of connected. I wrote that song for him and that ended up becoming the name of the band. All of this kind of happened over a year before I was actually diagnosed with the illness myself. In a lot of ways, that’s where the title came from and we decided to go with it as the name of the film.
The Audio Perv: What were the events that transpired to you finding out that you yourself had leukemia?
Andrew McMahon: I think that I was at an age where it was pretty easy for me to deny my body, what it was feeling, etc. For probably about a month or two leading up to me finding out I was sick, there were a handful of indicators. I was on the road with Jack’s Mannequin when I found out on and throughout the course of that tour, I was getting progressively weaker. I was starting to lose my breath walking from place to place. One of the biggest moments I recall and starting to worry that something was very wrong was going from one place to another and not being able to carry my bags farther than 100 yards without stopping to catching my breath. Eventually my voice was giving out on me and I had all these shows. Sure enough, the only thing that actually got me to the doctor was when I couldn’t perform longer. It was at that doctor’s office that they told me that my complexion was off and that was sort of how I found out. They took my blood there. The next day, they told me that I was extremely anemic and needed a transfusion. Those were the events that led to me finding out.
The Audio Perv: In the trailer for Dear Jack, you say that you were afraid. Did you ever think that you wouldn’t survive?
Andrew McMahon: I always believed that it wasn’t my time. I had a pretty positive outlook and I felt pretty peaceful during my entire treatment. I think the moment you see in the film is a couple of weeks before my transplant. It was sorta when the transplant conversation opened up and we decided to go for it. We found out all the risks involved in the transplant even though we felt confident that it was the right treatment that was going to lead to the most successful remission and cure for me. At the moment I learned all the realities of what a transplant entails and how dangerous it is for the body and what it goes through, there was a moment where I at least had the idea that there is a chance that I could pass. I had been knocked back with pneumonia at that point and there was a lot of fear that it could come back. But yeah, there were moments but I felt pretty confident that I was going to survive.
The Audio Perv: How long have you been in remission now?
Andrew McMahon: Over 4 years now. It’s been a while. I’m doing well and have been for some time now.
The Audio Perv: On your album, The Glass Passenger, you have a very inspirational song, “Swim.” What and who inspired you to help you fight and pull through?
Andrew McMahon: There were a lot of people. In some ways, a large part of my motivation was just the idea of getting back to music and the Everything In Transit record that was going to come out when I was sick. That would be my legacy to inherit should I survive long enough to play it. There was that and obviously, my girlfriend, now my wife, my family and I think that the support of a lot of my fans. In some ways, the universe was conspiring to get me well and there was a lot of love out there and a lot of people pulling for me. There’s that sorta scene of people being there, and willing me and praying for me to be healthy were all huge factors in the recovery.
The Audio Perv: I haven’t had a chance to see the film yet. Is all the music in the documentary by you?
Andrew McMahon: No, we actually had this group called the Newton Brothers who did most of the score. There is a lot of live music from Jack’s Mannequin and some myself solo that appears in the movie as well but the score was done by the Newton Brothers.
The Audio Perv: Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee narrated the film. You’ve both worked on each other’s albums. How did that friendship come about?
Andrew McMahon: It was set up by the manager at the time who worked with both me and Tommy. Tom had gotten his hands a couple of Something Corporate records and gotten really into it. One day while I was in the studio doing the Jack’s project, he called me and asked if I would come in and write some songs for his record and play on it. What do you do when Tommy Lee calls you? You sorta drop everything (laugh) and work with him! We became buds throughout the process and I spent a lot of time in the studio with him working on his album over the course of the 2004 summer into fall. By the time we got to December, we were spending so much time working together that I said “Tom, why don’t you come play drums on my record since I don’t have a drummer at the moment”. It was something formed from our mutual love of music that wedged him into that period of time in my life that I think that made us feel that he would be a very relevant candidate to narrate this movie and add a little bit of gravitas and celebrity to the story as well.
The Audio Perv: You’re going out on a solo tour this fall. What can we expect? Will you be playing any Something Corporate songs like “Konstantine?”
Andrew McMahon: There’s no “Konstantine” for sure. I’ve sort of stayed committed to the fact that song won’t appear unless I’m on stage with Something Corporate. At least not now. So no, you wouldn’t see that but I would expect us to play a few Something Corporate songs for sure.
The Audio Perv: What is the current status of Something Corporate? Are you guys on hiatus or broken up?
Andrew McMahon: I don’t think we ever officially broke up. The reality is that we want to leave the door open with the possibility that we might get together and do something again in the future. We’ve all stayed close friends and we put the band on hiatus a few years back because our friendships were starting to be jeopardized by our business. That was the moment that we all stepped back. That said, I think we all settled into much different places in our lives and I don’t anticipate that we’ll be making aSomething Corporate record anytime soon, if ever. But I think that we all open to being on a stage at one point and play some shows for the people who supported us for sure.
The Audio Perv: What are your plans for after the solo tour?
Andrew McMahon: There’s a number of them. At this point, gearing up and making some new music is an important part. There are a couple of loose tour ideas now. We had to cancel some dates with The Fray tour in the summer. We’re thinking of at the end ofthe year making up the shows we had to cancel. Anything else other than that would probably be a little premature but that’s what we have on the books now for now: making music, making the record.
The Audio Perv: Your documentary, Dear Jack, shares the same title as one of your songs about a friend’s brother who had leukemia. How much of this film is a tribute to them and how much of it was a therapeutic outlet for you when you were ill?
Andrew McMahon: You know the title in some ways is a tribute to Jack but I think in more ways it sort of speaks to the strange universal circle back through my life that he and the song and it relates to the name of the band and this moment where everything seems very kind of connected. I wrote that song for him and that ended up becoming the name of the band. All of this kind of happened over a year before I was actually diagnosed with the illness myself. In a lot of ways, that’s where the title came from and we decided to go with it as the name of the film.
The Audio Perv: What were the events that transpired to you finding out that you yourself had leukemia?
Andrew McMahon: I think that I was at an age where it was pretty easy for me to deny my body, what it was feeling, etc. For probably about a month or two leading up to me finding out I was sick, there were a handful of indicators. I was on the road with Jack’s Mannequin when I found out on and throughout the course of that tour, I was getting progressively weaker. I was starting to lose my breath walking from place to place. One of the biggest moments I recall and starting to worry that something was very wrong was going from one place to another and not being able to carry my bags farther than 100 yards without stopping to catching my breath. Eventually my voice was giving out on me and I had all these shows. Sure enough, the only thing that actually got me to the doctor was when I couldn’t perform longer. It was at that doctor’s office that they told me that my complexion was off and that was sort of how I found out. They took my blood there. The next day, they told me that I was extremely anemic and needed a transfusion. Those were the events that led to me finding out.
The Audio Perv: In the trailer for Dear Jack, you say that you were afraid. Did you ever think that you wouldn’t survive?
Andrew McMahon: I always believed that it wasn’t my time. I had a pretty positive outlook and I felt pretty peaceful during my entire treatment. I think the moment you see in the film is a couple of weeks before my transplant. It was sorta when the transplant conversation opened up and we decided to go for it. We found out all the risks involved in the transplant even though we felt confident that it was the right treatment that was going to lead to the most successful remission and cure for me. At the moment I learned all the realities of what a transplant entails and how dangerous it is for the body and what it goes through, there was a moment where I at least had the idea that there is a chance that I could pass. I had been knocked back with pneumonia at that point and there was a lot of fear that it could come back. But yeah, there were moments but I felt pretty confident that I was going to survive.
The Audio Perv: How long have you been in remission now?
Andrew McMahon: Over 4 years now. It’s been a while. I’m doing well and have been for some time now.
The Audio Perv: On your album, The Glass Passenger, you have a very inspirational song, “Swim.” What and who inspired you to help you fight and pull through?
Andrew McMahon: There were a lot of people. In some ways, a large part of my motivation was just the idea of getting back to music and the Everything In Transit record that was going to come out when I was sick. That would be my legacy to inherit should I survive long enough to play it. There was that and obviously, my girlfriend, now my wife, my family and I think that the support of a lot of my fans. In some ways, the universe was conspiring to get me well and there was a lot of love out there and a lot of people pulling for me. There’s that sorta scene of people being there, and willing me and praying for me to be healthy were all huge factors in the recovery.
The Audio Perv: I haven’t had a chance to see the film yet. Is all the music in the documentary by you?
Andrew McMahon: No, we actually had this group called the Newton Brothers who did most of the score. There is a lot of live music from Jack’s Mannequin and some myself solo that appears in the movie as well but the score was done by the Newton Brothers.
The Audio Perv: Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee narrated the film. You’ve both worked on each other’s albums. How did that friendship come about?
Andrew McMahon: It was set up by the manager at the time who worked with both me and Tommy. Tom had gotten his hands a couple of Something Corporate records and gotten really into it. One day while I was in the studio doing the Jack’s project, he called me and asked if I would come in and write some songs for his record and play on it. What do you do when Tommy Lee calls you? You sorta drop everything (laugh) and work with him! We became buds throughout the process and I spent a lot of time in the studio with him working on his album over the course of the 2004 summer into fall. By the time we got to December, we were spending so much time working together that I said “Tom, why don’t you come play drums on my record since I don’t have a drummer at the moment”. It was something formed from our mutual love of music that wedged him into that period of time in my life that I think that made us feel that he would be a very relevant candidate to narrate this movie and add a little bit of gravitas and celebrity to the story as well.
The Audio Perv: You’re going out on a solo tour this fall. What can we expect? Will you be playing any Something Corporate songs like “Konstantine?”
Andrew McMahon: There’s no “Konstantine” for sure. I’ve sort of stayed committed to the fact that song won’t appear unless I’m on stage with Something Corporate. At least not now. So no, you wouldn’t see that but I would expect us to play a few Something Corporate songs for sure.
The Audio Perv: What is the current status of Something Corporate? Are you guys on hiatus or broken up?
Andrew McMahon: I don’t think we ever officially broke up. The reality is that we want to leave the door open with the possibility that we might get together and do something again in the future. We’ve all stayed close friends and we put the band on hiatus a few years back because our friendships were starting to be jeopardized by our business. That was the moment that we all stepped back. That said, I think we all settled into much different places in our lives and I don’t anticipate that we’ll be making aSomething Corporate record anytime soon, if ever. But I think that we all open to being on a stage at one point and play some shows for the people who supported us for sure.
The Audio Perv: What are your plans for after the solo tour?
Andrew McMahon: There’s a number of them. At this point, gearing up and making some new music is an important part. There are a couple of loose tour ideas now. We had to cancel some dates with The Fray tour in the summer. We’re thinking of at the end ofthe year making up the shows we had to cancel. Anything else other than that would probably be a little premature but that’s what we have on the books now for now: making music, making the record.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
SPIN Interview - October 30th, 2009
By Pier Harrison
Source
What inspired you to keep the camera rolling and record this experience on film?
Andrew McMahon: It was what my gut was saying. I had been given this camera by Maverick [Records]. I was filming not just the making of the record but I would carry it with me everywhere, for months. I feel weird saying it but it became kind of friend in a way. And then I got sick. I don't think we ever intended for other people to see it, especially considering the nature of what was shot. But I think along the way we realized that having a window into that world from a first-person perspective might be of some value.
At what point did you actually decide to make the documentary?
It was about six months into my recovery. A couple of my close friends came to me and said, "Look, I don't know if you're comfortable with this, but if you let us see some of these tapes and figure out if there's a way to put this together, we would be interested in doing it." And I think because they were close friends and because I trusted them it became easier to do so.
How personal does the movie get?
Oh, it's about as personal as you can get. It's me with my video camera just trying to get things off my chest and film some of these scientific things that were being done to me, what went into putting this body back together. So, yeah it's deeply personal, but it's about the music too. We ended up focusing a lot on Transit and my separation from my girlfriend, for whom I wrote a lot of that record, who ended up at my side while I was fighting it and became my wife. And [it was] a period of time that my family and I weren't as close, and they ended up at my side, too, really getting me well. So it's a lot more of my dirty laundry than I'm used to airing.
How did Tommy Lee get involved as the narrator? Have you guys stayed in touch since you worked on Tommyland?
Absolutely. Tommy would come visit me in the hospital, and we talked regularly while I was recovering. He came out and played with us on one of our first shows back. We got close in that period of time, so when it came to finding a narrator, Tommy was a no-brainer.
What are the songs about on the Dear Jack EP?
There's a song called "There, There, Katie," which was half written during Transit, and the other half after I found out my sister would be my stem-cell donor. It's a song about and for my sister. Diane from "Diane the Skyscraper," was my nurse in the first week that I was in New York, getting diagnosed. It was really the only song that I wrote while I was in the hospital, probably on the second night that I was there, and did a demo of it a year or two later. I love the song.
With all of your experiences, what is your opinion on the healthcare debate?
I think it's horrible. We're sitting in a horrible place. I have health insurance and I went into the doctor's office the other day and got sent a bill for $1100 after they went to my insurance company. I think there's this crazy effort to stall, or accommodate the people who are robbing our entire society blind for the sake of profiting in the most grotesque way humanly possible over people's diseases and illnesses. I was lucky. I had health insurance and a business manager. But it certainly was a topic of much conversation among myself, my friends and my family, that what if I had not been in such an advantageous place? I'm scared that they're going to go "reform" the industry but make such a point to make concessions to these pigs who are robbing us blind that we might not actually get reform.
Source
What inspired you to keep the camera rolling and record this experience on film?
Andrew McMahon: It was what my gut was saying. I had been given this camera by Maverick [Records]. I was filming not just the making of the record but I would carry it with me everywhere, for months. I feel weird saying it but it became kind of friend in a way. And then I got sick. I don't think we ever intended for other people to see it, especially considering the nature of what was shot. But I think along the way we realized that having a window into that world from a first-person perspective might be of some value.
At what point did you actually decide to make the documentary?
It was about six months into my recovery. A couple of my close friends came to me and said, "Look, I don't know if you're comfortable with this, but if you let us see some of these tapes and figure out if there's a way to put this together, we would be interested in doing it." And I think because they were close friends and because I trusted them it became easier to do so.
How personal does the movie get?
Oh, it's about as personal as you can get. It's me with my video camera just trying to get things off my chest and film some of these scientific things that were being done to me, what went into putting this body back together. So, yeah it's deeply personal, but it's about the music too. We ended up focusing a lot on Transit and my separation from my girlfriend, for whom I wrote a lot of that record, who ended up at my side while I was fighting it and became my wife. And [it was] a period of time that my family and I weren't as close, and they ended up at my side, too, really getting me well. So it's a lot more of my dirty laundry than I'm used to airing.
How did Tommy Lee get involved as the narrator? Have you guys stayed in touch since you worked on Tommyland?
Absolutely. Tommy would come visit me in the hospital, and we talked regularly while I was recovering. He came out and played with us on one of our first shows back. We got close in that period of time, so when it came to finding a narrator, Tommy was a no-brainer.
What are the songs about on the Dear Jack EP?
There's a song called "There, There, Katie," which was half written during Transit, and the other half after I found out my sister would be my stem-cell donor. It's a song about and for my sister. Diane from "Diane the Skyscraper," was my nurse in the first week that I was in New York, getting diagnosed. It was really the only song that I wrote while I was in the hospital, probably on the second night that I was there, and did a demo of it a year or two later. I love the song.
With all of your experiences, what is your opinion on the healthcare debate?
I think it's horrible. We're sitting in a horrible place. I have health insurance and I went into the doctor's office the other day and got sent a bill for $1100 after they went to my insurance company. I think there's this crazy effort to stall, or accommodate the people who are robbing our entire society blind for the sake of profiting in the most grotesque way humanly possible over people's diseases and illnesses. I was lucky. I had health insurance and a business manager. But it certainly was a topic of much conversation among myself, my friends and my family, that what if I had not been in such an advantageous place? I'm scared that they're going to go "reform" the industry but make such a point to make concessions to these pigs who are robbing us blind that we might not actually get reform.
Musiqtone Blog Interview - October 13th, 2009
By Cristina Carrazza
Source
For years, fans of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate have praised Andrew McMahon not only for his musical genius but also his inspiring personal story. After being diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, McMahon will release the documentary "Dear Jack," a personal recollection of his battle, November 3rd. Andrew will also be doing a leg of solo acoustic shows this fall. We had the chance to talk to Andrew about his current tour and the long awaited release of "Dear Jack."
Cristina: You are currently on a Solo Tour. How is that going?
Andrew: It’s going well. We just kicked it off in Denver and it was an awesome first show. I’m very excited it’s definitely a good experience.
CC: What can people expect from it? This is the first time you’re playing acoustic by yourself since you started Jack’s Mannequin.
AM: Yeah. The first show was kind of terrifying, to be honest. Like you said, it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. You know, other than growing up in High School playing song on the piano for my friends. I haven’t really done this kind of stripped down thing – or at least a whole set of it. There are a lot of new arrangements; I think we played around 20 new arrangements in the first night. I think it went really well. It’s definitely a different kind of gig.
CC: Something I know you do often is changing the arrangements of your songs. One example that comes to mind is “Kill The Messenger” which you’ve gone back and forth playing it acoustic and electric.
AM: Pretty much everything we do is an alternate version. I made a list of about 25 or 40 songs. Over the course of a few weeks we sat down at the piano with the acoustic and would run them and see if it made sense arrangement wise. We did that for instance with ‘Holiday From Real.’ We did kind of an acoustic version of that a while back and played with that version of it. It’s all pretty much new acoustic arrangements of that and some new Something Corporate songs.
CC: So tell me about the new documentary you have coming out, Dear Jack. I know you’re having a couple of screenings for it as well.
AM: As far as screening goes, we’re showing it in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. The idea behind the screening was to give the fans the first look at what this documentary is and also a chance for us to donate the proceeds of the screening back to the foundation and raise some money for the charity. The Documentary itself was sort of an accident of documenting. Before I got sick I was filming the making of “Everything In Transit” with a video camera the label had given me. When I got sick, I had been recording my life for about 6 months, so it became a sort of natural reaction to what was going on. I continued to document. I just continued to tape while I was there and through my recovery. Some friends approached me and said “we know these tapes exist, would you let us see them.” They also wanted to know if there was a story there worth telling and if there was enough footage for it. They spent a couple of years putting it together and here we are now.
CC: How is it going back to that time? I know the most personal account the fans have about it, besides all the blogs, is the song “Caves.”
AM: I have mixed feelings, obviously. Part of me is nervous to show it. I’m a pretty forthcoming person about a lot of things. There is that window into my life pretty regularly through my songs. But that’s it. But after all, I’m also a private person. I tend to tell what I want to tell, not necessarily everything else. But this will definitely be the most personal view anyone will ever probably have of me at a pretty pivotal moment in my life. It makes me a little nervous in some senses but in others, I think the best thing to do is to put it out there. I think this story has followed me for so long, and I understand why. I think where I’m sitting now, maybe the best way for me to put this all behind me and say this chapter is done – I’m moving forward – is to show just what it was. There is no need for speculation; no need to ask me what happened. If you really want to know what it was like, watch it. Hopefully you can find hope in it – it is something very true and very honest. It’s really raw. That’s all I can say about it.
CC: I feel as if your story sometimes become the focus of your career – and very wrongly so, because you’re an amazingly talented musician. Is this your way of saying I’m moving on, let’s focus on something else now?
AM: Exactly. Absolutely. It’s strange but I’ve been looking for a way to artfully tell people what happened. For my fans, people follow the music and they listen to the songs. To those who know about it, the story of me getting sick is tied closely to my music. Again, I understand it. There was a period in time where it frustrated me. It’s still a very relevant part of my life and of the last record, no question. But needless to say, it’s something I prefer to not discuss every time I talk to someone. To be able to have this movie out, there are questions I don’t have to answer anymore. If you do your research, you’ll hear about the movie. But otherwise there is nothing else to say. Absolutely, like you said this is a chance to put it behind me and say this is what it was. And also, I can start focusing on the positives like donating some money to charity and become a positive influence by continuing to play music. I didn’t come to be a hero or a survivor; it’s just a situation I encountered.
Source
For years, fans of Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate have praised Andrew McMahon not only for his musical genius but also his inspiring personal story. After being diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, McMahon will release the documentary "Dear Jack," a personal recollection of his battle, November 3rd. Andrew will also be doing a leg of solo acoustic shows this fall. We had the chance to talk to Andrew about his current tour and the long awaited release of "Dear Jack."
Cristina: You are currently on a Solo Tour. How is that going?
Andrew: It’s going well. We just kicked it off in Denver and it was an awesome first show. I’m very excited it’s definitely a good experience.
CC: What can people expect from it? This is the first time you’re playing acoustic by yourself since you started Jack’s Mannequin.
AM: Yeah. The first show was kind of terrifying, to be honest. Like you said, it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. You know, other than growing up in High School playing song on the piano for my friends. I haven’t really done this kind of stripped down thing – or at least a whole set of it. There are a lot of new arrangements; I think we played around 20 new arrangements in the first night. I think it went really well. It’s definitely a different kind of gig.
CC: Something I know you do often is changing the arrangements of your songs. One example that comes to mind is “Kill The Messenger” which you’ve gone back and forth playing it acoustic and electric.
AM: Pretty much everything we do is an alternate version. I made a list of about 25 or 40 songs. Over the course of a few weeks we sat down at the piano with the acoustic and would run them and see if it made sense arrangement wise. We did that for instance with ‘Holiday From Real.’ We did kind of an acoustic version of that a while back and played with that version of it. It’s all pretty much new acoustic arrangements of that and some new Something Corporate songs.
CC: So tell me about the new documentary you have coming out, Dear Jack. I know you’re having a couple of screenings for it as well.
AM: As far as screening goes, we’re showing it in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. The idea behind the screening was to give the fans the first look at what this documentary is and also a chance for us to donate the proceeds of the screening back to the foundation and raise some money for the charity. The Documentary itself was sort of an accident of documenting. Before I got sick I was filming the making of “Everything In Transit” with a video camera the label had given me. When I got sick, I had been recording my life for about 6 months, so it became a sort of natural reaction to what was going on. I continued to document. I just continued to tape while I was there and through my recovery. Some friends approached me and said “we know these tapes exist, would you let us see them.” They also wanted to know if there was a story there worth telling and if there was enough footage for it. They spent a couple of years putting it together and here we are now.
CC: How is it going back to that time? I know the most personal account the fans have about it, besides all the blogs, is the song “Caves.”
AM: I have mixed feelings, obviously. Part of me is nervous to show it. I’m a pretty forthcoming person about a lot of things. There is that window into my life pretty regularly through my songs. But that’s it. But after all, I’m also a private person. I tend to tell what I want to tell, not necessarily everything else. But this will definitely be the most personal view anyone will ever probably have of me at a pretty pivotal moment in my life. It makes me a little nervous in some senses but in others, I think the best thing to do is to put it out there. I think this story has followed me for so long, and I understand why. I think where I’m sitting now, maybe the best way for me to put this all behind me and say this chapter is done – I’m moving forward – is to show just what it was. There is no need for speculation; no need to ask me what happened. If you really want to know what it was like, watch it. Hopefully you can find hope in it – it is something very true and very honest. It’s really raw. That’s all I can say about it.
CC: I feel as if your story sometimes become the focus of your career – and very wrongly so, because you’re an amazingly talented musician. Is this your way of saying I’m moving on, let’s focus on something else now?
AM: Exactly. Absolutely. It’s strange but I’ve been looking for a way to artfully tell people what happened. For my fans, people follow the music and they listen to the songs. To those who know about it, the story of me getting sick is tied closely to my music. Again, I understand it. There was a period in time where it frustrated me. It’s still a very relevant part of my life and of the last record, no question. But needless to say, it’s something I prefer to not discuss every time I talk to someone. To be able to have this movie out, there are questions I don’t have to answer anymore. If you do your research, you’ll hear about the movie. But otherwise there is nothing else to say. Absolutely, like you said this is a chance to put it behind me and say this is what it was. And also, I can start focusing on the positives like donating some money to charity and become a positive influence by continuing to play music. I didn’t come to be a hero or a survivor; it’s just a situation I encountered.
The Chronicle Interview - October 13th, 2009
By Lisa DiCarlucci
Source
The Chronicle: Can you start off by giving me a short synopsis as to what your new documentary, “Dear Jack” is about?
Andrew McMahon: Basically it’s the period of time starting around the beginning of the new project with Jack’s Mannequin and I was given the camera from the record company to document the beginning of the first album. Soon after, I was diagnosed with cancer and it became something I could do to occupy my time while I was not feeling well. When I was having a really bad day I would use the camera to talk to. It turned into this great collection of footage, interviews, and family videos that just documented the entire time in my life.
TC: What was your original reasoning for making this film?
AM: It was really just the label giving me a camera to document the making of the album but it was never meant to be a full-length documentary. It was more the record company hoping to have footage to make some viral videos of studio footage as an extra to the album or something. It was actually the first time I had ever had a camera. I was 20 years old at the time and it was the first time I had ever been away from my family so I thought it would be something great to have on film and maybe it would turn into internet clips or something. I never had the intention of making a movie. When I got sick I wasn’t really able to do much song writing. It really just became another way that I could express myself. If I was having a hard day or something the camera almost became like a friend. It was a place I could get the bad stuff out. It wasn’t until later on that some friends found out I had been filming myself that I even thought about making it into a documentary.
TC: Who were the friends that reached out to you about making the film?
AM: One of my friends from the band Mae reached out to help form it into a documentary and a few other people. I explained to them that I had shot my life through the last few years and they asked if they could watch it. They had done similar stuff before and had experience. They basically did the first edit and had a few friends step in and finish it out and put the first story together.
TC: What do you hope the audience will get out of this film?
AM: I think originally as we were doing it we wanted people to see that there is a lot of hope to be found in a really scary situation. The real story is of the love of my family and friends helping me in a really dark situation. I wanted people to see a really raw experience from a first hand perspective. I think that there are a lot of other people who have gone through the same thing and it will be good for them to see it.
TC: Does it scare you to have so many people witnessing such personal events in your life?
AM: I go back and forth you know? It’s been a story that, whether or not I like it, has followed me closely. I can’t seem to get away from it even as a recover. I’m hoping that this film is kind of a way for me to close the tracks on this whole thing. It’s a way of closure. People will see something deeply personal, but they are always digging for it. If you really want to know, this is what it really looks like.
TC: In that sense do you feel that this documentary will give your fans a better understanding or context for your songwriting?
AM: Maybe yes and maybe no. It might shed more light on where I come from. It’s about my battle with cancer but also it’s about my family and the people who shaped me. It’s about their will and who they are have made me who I am. I think it won’t shed light on my creativity so much as it will shed light on my drive.
TC: I understand that you are doing a small solo tour currently to promote the documentary. What is it like performing alone as opposed to with the band?
AM: It’s pretty strange. I’ve only done these things a couple of times and it’s pretty terrifying to be by yourself. I knew that I wanted to do something intimate and personal, though, mostly because it was just a challenge. I’m up there alone playing songs I haven’t played in years to crowds of 200 or 300 people. I like that almost a decade into my career I’m having a brand new experience. It’s about as personal as it can get. It’s a cool moment to sort of have a connection that you don’t have when you are playing for crowds of thousands of people.
TC: So the proceeds of this documentary are going towards your charity, The Dear Jack Foundation. Can you tell me a little about what kind of work you do?
AM: The foundation essentially helps fund initiatives and various different partnerships. It’s not a full functioning non-for profit; I don’t have a staff. We raise money and donate to bigger charities. Such as the Lukemia and Lymphoma society and UCLA which saved my life. We collect money and find great places to put it so we can help find a cure for blood cancers.
TC: Is there any possibility of a Something Corporate reunion?
AM: I mean it’s hysterical how these rumors are started. No one ever said that Something Corporate is going to get back together. Me and the guys have discussed getting together for some reunion shows. Nothing is on the books, but it’s something we would all be up for. We still hold the band close to our hearts and we would never want to just let it go. People can expect reunion shows at some point, I just can’t say when.
Source
The Chronicle: Can you start off by giving me a short synopsis as to what your new documentary, “Dear Jack” is about?
Andrew McMahon: Basically it’s the period of time starting around the beginning of the new project with Jack’s Mannequin and I was given the camera from the record company to document the beginning of the first album. Soon after, I was diagnosed with cancer and it became something I could do to occupy my time while I was not feeling well. When I was having a really bad day I would use the camera to talk to. It turned into this great collection of footage, interviews, and family videos that just documented the entire time in my life.
TC: What was your original reasoning for making this film?
AM: It was really just the label giving me a camera to document the making of the album but it was never meant to be a full-length documentary. It was more the record company hoping to have footage to make some viral videos of studio footage as an extra to the album or something. It was actually the first time I had ever had a camera. I was 20 years old at the time and it was the first time I had ever been away from my family so I thought it would be something great to have on film and maybe it would turn into internet clips or something. I never had the intention of making a movie. When I got sick I wasn’t really able to do much song writing. It really just became another way that I could express myself. If I was having a hard day or something the camera almost became like a friend. It was a place I could get the bad stuff out. It wasn’t until later on that some friends found out I had been filming myself that I even thought about making it into a documentary.
TC: Who were the friends that reached out to you about making the film?
AM: One of my friends from the band Mae reached out to help form it into a documentary and a few other people. I explained to them that I had shot my life through the last few years and they asked if they could watch it. They had done similar stuff before and had experience. They basically did the first edit and had a few friends step in and finish it out and put the first story together.
TC: What do you hope the audience will get out of this film?
AM: I think originally as we were doing it we wanted people to see that there is a lot of hope to be found in a really scary situation. The real story is of the love of my family and friends helping me in a really dark situation. I wanted people to see a really raw experience from a first hand perspective. I think that there are a lot of other people who have gone through the same thing and it will be good for them to see it.
TC: Does it scare you to have so many people witnessing such personal events in your life?
AM: I go back and forth you know? It’s been a story that, whether or not I like it, has followed me closely. I can’t seem to get away from it even as a recover. I’m hoping that this film is kind of a way for me to close the tracks on this whole thing. It’s a way of closure. People will see something deeply personal, but they are always digging for it. If you really want to know, this is what it really looks like.
TC: In that sense do you feel that this documentary will give your fans a better understanding or context for your songwriting?
AM: Maybe yes and maybe no. It might shed more light on where I come from. It’s about my battle with cancer but also it’s about my family and the people who shaped me. It’s about their will and who they are have made me who I am. I think it won’t shed light on my creativity so much as it will shed light on my drive.
TC: I understand that you are doing a small solo tour currently to promote the documentary. What is it like performing alone as opposed to with the band?
AM: It’s pretty strange. I’ve only done these things a couple of times and it’s pretty terrifying to be by yourself. I knew that I wanted to do something intimate and personal, though, mostly because it was just a challenge. I’m up there alone playing songs I haven’t played in years to crowds of 200 or 300 people. I like that almost a decade into my career I’m having a brand new experience. It’s about as personal as it can get. It’s a cool moment to sort of have a connection that you don’t have when you are playing for crowds of thousands of people.
TC: So the proceeds of this documentary are going towards your charity, The Dear Jack Foundation. Can you tell me a little about what kind of work you do?
AM: The foundation essentially helps fund initiatives and various different partnerships. It’s not a full functioning non-for profit; I don’t have a staff. We raise money and donate to bigger charities. Such as the Lukemia and Lymphoma society and UCLA which saved my life. We collect money and find great places to put it so we can help find a cure for blood cancers.
TC: Is there any possibility of a Something Corporate reunion?
AM: I mean it’s hysterical how these rumors are started. No one ever said that Something Corporate is going to get back together. Me and the guys have discussed getting together for some reunion shows. Nothing is on the books, but it’s something we would all be up for. We still hold the band close to our hearts and we would never want to just let it go. People can expect reunion shows at some point, I just can’t say when.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Emotional Punk Interview - September 23rd, 2009
By Matt Zimmerman
Source
Thanks for taking some time to chat. What are you doing on this fine Wednesday morning?
AM: Just chilling at my home in Los Angeles.
EP: For all this talk of fall coming, it still feels like a typical day in So Cal, ha.
Well, I guess we can start off by talking about the new documentary Dear Jack, to be released in this November. Can you describe the film and why it’s finally coming to light now?
AM: The film itself is essentially a by-product of footage I took from December 2004 through 2005 when I got sick [with leukemia]. I was given a video camera to shoot the eventual recording of my record and it was my first time on my own, away from Something Corporate. The video camera became like my secondary art project. I would document my day-to-day, shoot some short movies and whatnot. So I think the reason the process [of releasing it] has taken so long is that it’s taken a few years for me to objectively be able to look at that period in my life. It’s hard when you’re still so close to it to and trying to create a piece of art from that. When I came back this summer from The Fray tour, I had crossed the four year mark since my transplant and all of a sudden, it seemed like that chapter in my life was closing. That is why we chose to come out with the film now; any later and it would be too late. Frankly, it feels like this is a chapter in my life that is closing so [the film] serves as a nice period after the sentence, ha.
What feelings come up when you re-watch the footage? Does it feel like you are reliving those difficult times?
AM: The thing I am most proud about the movie is it is a very truthful portrayal of what it was like to be in that moment. For what it’s worth, I think the reason the film is compelling is that I’m sure people know others who have encountered something like this themselves and the film gives a perspective of how that is. For me, it’s difficult to watch. It’s definitely got a powerful effect on me. Seeing it now, it doesn’t put me back in that space; it’s more like “wow, that happened.” I’m far enough now that I can see the value in it.
EP: I guess, in a way, you can look at the event like you would a family member who has past. Not in the way that it happened to someone else but I guess what I’m trying to say is, you can look at the positives versus the hard times.
AM: For me, it may surprise people to hear but that was an incredibly positive time in my life. There’s not doubt it was hard but I learned a lot of powerful lessons about how important the people around you really are and those were lessons I was glad to learn. Granted, it didn’t feel good but there was a strange amount of peace in moment.
Your story is such an inspirational one but do you ever worry that “the story” could overshadow the music i.e. it defines your career more so than the music?
AM: It’s one of those things that I’ve struggled with a lot. I’ve had to reconcile that it is a part of my life and I would’ve had to go on hiatus for probably a decade until nobody remembered who I was, ha. Cancer is so universal and so many people deal with it, it becomes a huge part in my life and in my story. The goal has always been to focus on the music and the reality is, there is a part of that which happened for a reason. Maybe that reason is that we are out here and able to do such great work and make a difference. There was a time when I resented it but I realized I can’t help what people latch onto except maybe get this film out so people can see what it was really about versus an idealized version of it in their head. If nothing else, from now on I can say “there is a movie about it, you’re welcome to check it out but that is not where I am right now.” In large part, that is why we are doing this.
You have worked with multiple fundraising charities including Light the Night, and of course your own foundation Dear Jack, to raise money and awareness for leukemia. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about those organizations and where people can get more information on them.
AM: We’re going again for another year hoping to raise $100,000 for the Light The Night walks. There is a Jack’s Mannequin team that walks nationwide. You can find out about that at dearjackfoundation.com or Leukemia/Lymphoma Society website. You can donate to that through November. We’ve already raised over $50,000. In October/November, Macbeth will launch a Jack’s Mannequin shoe. All the proceeds we collect will go to the foundation. If anybody wants to find out more, we will be launching a new dearjackfoundation.com website in the near future.
I also wanted to talk about the video for “The Resolution”, off your latest album The Glass Passenger, which was directed by Stephanie Meyer of the Twilight series fame. How did you come about getting her to direct the video?
AM: It started out as a friend of mine whose wife was really into the books. She told me that [Stephanie] mentioned me in the ‘thank-you’s of her novels. I was flattered but didn’t know what to think of it. So we were banging our heads against a wall because none of the treatments for the video really spoke to us. One day we were ripping with my marketing directed about getting an author or actor; someone who brought a different perspective. The conversation I had with my wife’s friend came into my mind and I thought what about Stephanie Myer who was now huge due to the film. We called her and she said yes; it was pretty simple. She really stepped up and wrote a great treatment that we loved.
EP: I actually got this question from my girlfriend who is a big fan of the novels.
AM: That’s cool. I think it really opened us up to a lot of those fans who read the books. It was a good thing for us. Its funny when you go into that pop realm, you can really end up getting a lot of new fans.
EP: Have you kept in contact with her?
AM: I have actually. We hooked up at a concert in Michigan for The Fray tour. She’s really cool. It’s fun to see her out of the business aspect which we were in for the video.
You have a solo tour which you will begin at the end of this month. What made you decide to do this tour and what can fans expect from it?
AM: There were a number of components. One is that when I took stock in how long I’ve consistently been on the road. Other than the six months I took off when I was sick, I’ve been on the road ever month, to some extent, for seven or eight years. I was getting a little burned out but I knew I had to be out supporting the documentary. The idea came about of doing something really grassroots and playing some small venues. When you play those size venues, you pretty much guaranteed to get the people who have been around for a long time. That seems to be an appropriate and nurturing environment to put something out as personal as a documentary. For the music component, it made sense. It’s not really my environment; there’s a chance some songs will be really powerful and then some may fall flat, ha. It’s a new thing but it helps me do something exciting and new. I’ll make a point to incorporate a few Something Corporate songs into the set. You’re going get a chance to hear songs you know and love approached differently. There is something cool about the intimacy. I can’t say what to expect but when you get into a room with people who really want to be there, good things happen.
EP: Other than the Trouabour show right before Glass Passenger was released, the last small venue I saw you in was the last Something Corporate show at Chain Reaction.
AM: Oh shit, ha. The old Chain Reaction days...
Got to love ‘em! So what are your plans after the tour?
AM: That tour will finish out the year. After that, I will probably spend some time writing and recording which I’m really excited about. I definitely feel inspired in this moment. Like I said, with the closing of this chapter in my life, a lot of my focus will shift to new music. We may go out in the new year to do the make-up dates we canceled to go out with The Fray.
EP: Is there a timeline for the new record yet?
AM: It’s really up in the air right now. I started working on a couple songs which have taken shape and make me excited for it but the reality is that from this point until I feel the record is done, it could take a year or two years. I just don’t know. I have a good feeling that this thing is going to just happen but until we get further down the road, I would hate to attach any expectations to it.
EP: I know that happened with the last album. There was an expected release schedule and when it wasn’t met, fans freaked out when they weren’t met.
AM: Ha, yeah, exactly! It was great to have so many people excited about a record but I learned a lot of lessons from that. I learned to wait until the moment it happens to really say anything. I think that is the way we approached the documentary too.
EP: I think Glass Passenger turned out all for the better though. Obviously I don’t know what it was in its initial stages but the album turned out so well in the long run.
AM: I’m happy with the record. It was going to be a difficult album no matter what. I think some of that confusion actually added to the art of the record itself.
I was asked by a fan to make sure and ask about the always-rumored Something Corporate reunion. What, if any, plans are there in the future for that?
AM: At this point, it’s closer to the ground that it has been but to call it plans would not be totally fair. Again, this speaks to the not wanting to attach too much expectation to anything. I’ll be honest, we’ve talked about it and it’ll happen at the right time. Give me until the end of February to finish out the dates for this record and we’ll readdress it at that point.
I’ll finish up with a few quick Q & A’s. First, what is some of your favorite music right now, past or present?
AM: The album I’ve been listening to for about the past month or two is the new Regina Spektor record [Far]. I have a thing for her tunes. She has soulfulness to her music; there is something very evolved about her. Also, band we took out recently Low Vs. Diamond which I really got hooked on. I have to admit I have had this guilty pleasure for that Owl City record. It’s quirky and youthful, almost too playful, but I’m a sucker for melodies and this guy delivers some sweet melodies. I got hung up on John Mayer’s Continuum record recently.
EP: That is a really great record. I just a chance to listen to the new Paramore record Brand New Eyes and they definitely have that youthful energy you talked about. It’s a solid pop record but they really branched out I feel on this one. I wasn’t a fan of the last one as much as this.
AM: What sells me on a song is usually a good melody and a hopefully a lyric, no matter what angle it comes from, that sounds like it came from the heart. Those are pretty much the two factors. Everything else is up in the air. Haley is a total badass! I’m always rooting for her and the Paramore guys.
Other than music, any good books you’ve read lately or movies you’ve seen?
AM: I just finished an amazing book titled The History Of Love [by Nicole Krauss]. It’s a really great book. It sounds like it would be a romance novel but it’s definitely not. Movies I’ve watched... nothing I’ve seen lately knocked me on my ass. I saw The Hangover. I thought that was hysterical. I also saw a documentary on John Smith which was ridiculous. I saw it on an airplane of all places. Have you seen Lars And The Real Girl?
EP: No but I’ve been meaning to.
AM: It’s almost slow in a sense, like Lost In Translation where there is a lack of things happening but it makes you feel like you’re in the movie. I think you’ll really like it. I don’t get a lot of time to watch movies. I don’t have as much time for movies as I used to. When I’m home, I’m either writing or just taking a minute to breath. I usually just catch things on Netflix.
Yeah, same here. I’ll definitely check out Lars though; you sold me on it! Well, I’ve wrapped up my questions. Is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers?
AM: Let them know we’re going to put an EP out in the next few months. There are a bunch of songs throughout the making of the film which are featured. I went through and collected them and will be putting out a 4-song EP next month.
Source
Thanks for taking some time to chat. What are you doing on this fine Wednesday morning?
AM: Just chilling at my home in Los Angeles.
EP: For all this talk of fall coming, it still feels like a typical day in So Cal, ha.
Well, I guess we can start off by talking about the new documentary Dear Jack, to be released in this November. Can you describe the film and why it’s finally coming to light now?
AM: The film itself is essentially a by-product of footage I took from December 2004 through 2005 when I got sick [with leukemia]. I was given a video camera to shoot the eventual recording of my record and it was my first time on my own, away from Something Corporate. The video camera became like my secondary art project. I would document my day-to-day, shoot some short movies and whatnot. So I think the reason the process [of releasing it] has taken so long is that it’s taken a few years for me to objectively be able to look at that period in my life. It’s hard when you’re still so close to it to and trying to create a piece of art from that. When I came back this summer from The Fray tour, I had crossed the four year mark since my transplant and all of a sudden, it seemed like that chapter in my life was closing. That is why we chose to come out with the film now; any later and it would be too late. Frankly, it feels like this is a chapter in my life that is closing so [the film] serves as a nice period after the sentence, ha.
What feelings come up when you re-watch the footage? Does it feel like you are reliving those difficult times?
AM: The thing I am most proud about the movie is it is a very truthful portrayal of what it was like to be in that moment. For what it’s worth, I think the reason the film is compelling is that I’m sure people know others who have encountered something like this themselves and the film gives a perspective of how that is. For me, it’s difficult to watch. It’s definitely got a powerful effect on me. Seeing it now, it doesn’t put me back in that space; it’s more like “wow, that happened.” I’m far enough now that I can see the value in it.
EP: I guess, in a way, you can look at the event like you would a family member who has past. Not in the way that it happened to someone else but I guess what I’m trying to say is, you can look at the positives versus the hard times.
AM: For me, it may surprise people to hear but that was an incredibly positive time in my life. There’s not doubt it was hard but I learned a lot of powerful lessons about how important the people around you really are and those were lessons I was glad to learn. Granted, it didn’t feel good but there was a strange amount of peace in moment.
Your story is such an inspirational one but do you ever worry that “the story” could overshadow the music i.e. it defines your career more so than the music?
AM: It’s one of those things that I’ve struggled with a lot. I’ve had to reconcile that it is a part of my life and I would’ve had to go on hiatus for probably a decade until nobody remembered who I was, ha. Cancer is so universal and so many people deal with it, it becomes a huge part in my life and in my story. The goal has always been to focus on the music and the reality is, there is a part of that which happened for a reason. Maybe that reason is that we are out here and able to do such great work and make a difference. There was a time when I resented it but I realized I can’t help what people latch onto except maybe get this film out so people can see what it was really about versus an idealized version of it in their head. If nothing else, from now on I can say “there is a movie about it, you’re welcome to check it out but that is not where I am right now.” In large part, that is why we are doing this.
You have worked with multiple fundraising charities including Light the Night, and of course your own foundation Dear Jack, to raise money and awareness for leukemia. I wanted to give you a chance to talk about those organizations and where people can get more information on them.
AM: We’re going again for another year hoping to raise $100,000 for the Light The Night walks. There is a Jack’s Mannequin team that walks nationwide. You can find out about that at dearjackfoundation.com or Leukemia/Lymphoma Society website. You can donate to that through November. We’ve already raised over $50,000. In October/November, Macbeth will launch a Jack’s Mannequin shoe. All the proceeds we collect will go to the foundation. If anybody wants to find out more, we will be launching a new dearjackfoundation.com website in the near future.
I also wanted to talk about the video for “The Resolution”, off your latest album The Glass Passenger, which was directed by Stephanie Meyer of the Twilight series fame. How did you come about getting her to direct the video?
AM: It started out as a friend of mine whose wife was really into the books. She told me that [Stephanie] mentioned me in the ‘thank-you’s of her novels. I was flattered but didn’t know what to think of it. So we were banging our heads against a wall because none of the treatments for the video really spoke to us. One day we were ripping with my marketing directed about getting an author or actor; someone who brought a different perspective. The conversation I had with my wife’s friend came into my mind and I thought what about Stephanie Myer who was now huge due to the film. We called her and she said yes; it was pretty simple. She really stepped up and wrote a great treatment that we loved.
EP: I actually got this question from my girlfriend who is a big fan of the novels.
AM: That’s cool. I think it really opened us up to a lot of those fans who read the books. It was a good thing for us. Its funny when you go into that pop realm, you can really end up getting a lot of new fans.
EP: Have you kept in contact with her?
AM: I have actually. We hooked up at a concert in Michigan for The Fray tour. She’s really cool. It’s fun to see her out of the business aspect which we were in for the video.
You have a solo tour which you will begin at the end of this month. What made you decide to do this tour and what can fans expect from it?
AM: There were a number of components. One is that when I took stock in how long I’ve consistently been on the road. Other than the six months I took off when I was sick, I’ve been on the road ever month, to some extent, for seven or eight years. I was getting a little burned out but I knew I had to be out supporting the documentary. The idea came about of doing something really grassroots and playing some small venues. When you play those size venues, you pretty much guaranteed to get the people who have been around for a long time. That seems to be an appropriate and nurturing environment to put something out as personal as a documentary. For the music component, it made sense. It’s not really my environment; there’s a chance some songs will be really powerful and then some may fall flat, ha. It’s a new thing but it helps me do something exciting and new. I’ll make a point to incorporate a few Something Corporate songs into the set. You’re going get a chance to hear songs you know and love approached differently. There is something cool about the intimacy. I can’t say what to expect but when you get into a room with people who really want to be there, good things happen.
EP: Other than the Trouabour show right before Glass Passenger was released, the last small venue I saw you in was the last Something Corporate show at Chain Reaction.
AM: Oh shit, ha. The old Chain Reaction days...
Got to love ‘em! So what are your plans after the tour?
AM: That tour will finish out the year. After that, I will probably spend some time writing and recording which I’m really excited about. I definitely feel inspired in this moment. Like I said, with the closing of this chapter in my life, a lot of my focus will shift to new music. We may go out in the new year to do the make-up dates we canceled to go out with The Fray.
EP: Is there a timeline for the new record yet?
AM: It’s really up in the air right now. I started working on a couple songs which have taken shape and make me excited for it but the reality is that from this point until I feel the record is done, it could take a year or two years. I just don’t know. I have a good feeling that this thing is going to just happen but until we get further down the road, I would hate to attach any expectations to it.
EP: I know that happened with the last album. There was an expected release schedule and when it wasn’t met, fans freaked out when they weren’t met.
AM: Ha, yeah, exactly! It was great to have so many people excited about a record but I learned a lot of lessons from that. I learned to wait until the moment it happens to really say anything. I think that is the way we approached the documentary too.
EP: I think Glass Passenger turned out all for the better though. Obviously I don’t know what it was in its initial stages but the album turned out so well in the long run.
AM: I’m happy with the record. It was going to be a difficult album no matter what. I think some of that confusion actually added to the art of the record itself.
I was asked by a fan to make sure and ask about the always-rumored Something Corporate reunion. What, if any, plans are there in the future for that?
AM: At this point, it’s closer to the ground that it has been but to call it plans would not be totally fair. Again, this speaks to the not wanting to attach too much expectation to anything. I’ll be honest, we’ve talked about it and it’ll happen at the right time. Give me until the end of February to finish out the dates for this record and we’ll readdress it at that point.
I’ll finish up with a few quick Q & A’s. First, what is some of your favorite music right now, past or present?
AM: The album I’ve been listening to for about the past month or two is the new Regina Spektor record [Far]. I have a thing for her tunes. She has soulfulness to her music; there is something very evolved about her. Also, band we took out recently Low Vs. Diamond which I really got hooked on. I have to admit I have had this guilty pleasure for that Owl City record. It’s quirky and youthful, almost too playful, but I’m a sucker for melodies and this guy delivers some sweet melodies. I got hung up on John Mayer’s Continuum record recently.
EP: That is a really great record. I just a chance to listen to the new Paramore record Brand New Eyes and they definitely have that youthful energy you talked about. It’s a solid pop record but they really branched out I feel on this one. I wasn’t a fan of the last one as much as this.
AM: What sells me on a song is usually a good melody and a hopefully a lyric, no matter what angle it comes from, that sounds like it came from the heart. Those are pretty much the two factors. Everything else is up in the air. Haley is a total badass! I’m always rooting for her and the Paramore guys.
Other than music, any good books you’ve read lately or movies you’ve seen?
AM: I just finished an amazing book titled The History Of Love [by Nicole Krauss]. It’s a really great book. It sounds like it would be a romance novel but it’s definitely not. Movies I’ve watched... nothing I’ve seen lately knocked me on my ass. I saw The Hangover. I thought that was hysterical. I also saw a documentary on John Smith which was ridiculous. I saw it on an airplane of all places. Have you seen Lars And The Real Girl?
EP: No but I’ve been meaning to.
AM: It’s almost slow in a sense, like Lost In Translation where there is a lack of things happening but it makes you feel like you’re in the movie. I think you’ll really like it. I don’t get a lot of time to watch movies. I don’t have as much time for movies as I used to. When I’m home, I’m either writing or just taking a minute to breath. I usually just catch things on Netflix.
Yeah, same here. I’ll definitely check out Lars though; you sold me on it! Well, I’ve wrapped up my questions. Is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers?
AM: Let them know we’re going to put an EP out in the next few months. There are a bunch of songs throughout the making of the film which are featured. I went through and collected them and will be putting out a 4-song EP next month.
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