AZTeen Magazine Interview - March 2009

By James Grant
Source

Andrew McMahon has been around the block. A survivor of Luekemia and lead singer of the two major bands, Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate, McMahon knows what it’s like to struggle. In 2004, while taking an extended break from touring with Something Corporate after releasing their second major record, McMahon started Jack’s Mannequin as a side project, putting out their first record, Everything in Transit in 2005. Within the following years, Jack’s Mannequin blossomed due mainly to the support of McMahon’s fan base. In September of this 2008, Jack’s Mannequin released its second album, The Glass Passenger, which has climbed to number eight on Billboard’s top two-hundred. Teen writer James Grant grabbed an opportunity to interview McMahon over the phone, and ask him many question pertaining to not only his life, but also his music.


James Grant: Well to start off, can you just say who you are and what you do for a living?

Andrew McMahon: Yeah, I’m Andrew McMahon and I play piano and sing for Jack’s Mannequin.

JG: So Andrew, what is it that you love about music, and playing it as a part of a band?
AM: What I love most about music is its ability to be a universal communicator. You know, for me there’s a personal element to music, and there’s a public element to music. The personal element is kind of using the song to get to the bottom of whatever it is you’re trying to get to the bottom of. You know, and then you take that into sort of a more public realm and actually get to use that connection to make a further connection is what I’ve always loved about music.

JG: I remember reading in your blogs once that, “if all else fails, dye your hair black”. (AM laughs) It was a while ago, but recently you’ve been growing out your hair in the whole lumber jack kind of fashion. Does that mean anything as far as how your life’s been going?
AM: (laughing) It was a lyric, and the lyric sort of came from that period of time when my hair was dyed black. There was sort of a reference to that in “Sleazy Wednesday”, a B-side we did for the record. But yeah, I have this thing when I tend to be freaking out or trying to figure out what my next step is where I usually start by either cutting or growing out my hair (laughs). There are some times that it can be an indicator to some extent but at this moment that the situation of my hair is more just from lack of time to pay attention to it. But I’m definitely planning on a hair cut when I return home in the next couple of days.

JG: (laughs) Well that’s good to know. So when you write a song, do you have to be in a sad mood to write a sad song or a happy mood to write a happy song. Is there any specific mood you have to be in or does it just come to you?
AM: It’s more of a gut thing, you know, you have this thing sort of arise as I do, like when I’m having something just clicks that makes me feel like I just have to write a song. I don’t know how to explain it, other than that. Sometimes it can be a lyric or a melody, or something or a set feeling, like maybe you’re having a bad day, or you’re having a really good day, you’re just some sort of thought window somewhere? The way I kind of do it is, like I said, if I find a set of words that conjures up some sort of feeling, you know, I find myself sitting at the piano just to try and sort of connect that feeling to a set of words and a set of melodies. It’s really sort of an intuition, I’m not sure where it comes from; it’s almost instinctual or something.

JG: Do you usually write the lyrics first and then the music to fit them, or vice-a-versa?
AM: Generally speaking, all at the same time. A lot of the time I’ll sit down and write some lyrics or source out some lyrics after I’ve written a song, you know what I mean? Like if I’m looking for a little bit more juice or want it to be a stronger lyric, a lot of the times I’ll sit and refine a lyric once it’s written. But generally speaking, it’s kind of a combination of sitting at the piano and working out the melodies and the words and the chord structure kind of almost simultaneously.

JG: What’s the greatest thought that’s ever crossed your mind?
AM: The greatest thought that’s ever crossed my mind? (Laughs) Oh my god I don’t know about this-

JG: (laughs) Ever.
AM: (laughing) Yeah, ever. I don’t know, I think in the context of the time that I was sick, I think things in a lot of ways became a lot more clear to me and I think I had a lot of quote unquote ‘great thoughts’ in that period of time in my life just because I think you start realizing maybe more what life is about when you’re facing your potential end. So I don’t know, I think for me, some of the greatest realizations that I made, or the greatest thoughts I had were that all people and things seem to be connected to one another. And to lead a good life, you have to sort of take care of not only yourself but all the people and things around you, you know, to have a truly great world working for you. But I don’t know if I’ve had that many great thoughts (laughing) So, I’m not sure!

JG: So I take it that’s kind of why you got “the river is everywhere” from Siddhartha tattooed on your wrist?
AM: Yeah, absolutely. You know, for me, I know it kind of breaks down to, sort of in some respects, a load of kind of existential bullshit, you know, that whatever at least could be interpreted and such. But for me, I think there’s a real truth to the ideas of karma and you know, the fact that what you put into the world comes back to you. And that can be a good and a bad thing, depending on what you’re putting out, you know, and in that sense, I keep it on my wrist to remind me that we are all sort of connected.

JG: Interesting- this is kind of a whole different realm, but have you noticed any immediate effects on the band from being played on the radio more often? I mean, I was on my way to school the other day, and your song, “The Resolution”, came on and it was kind of surprising because I’m not really used to hearing Jack’s Mannequin on the radio.
AM: Have I noticed any…what?

JG: Like is anything different, you know, because from Everything in Transit, there weren’t a lot of songs featured on the radio since it was more of an underground record…
AM: Yeah, you know, it kind of differs from market to market. On Everything in Transit, “The Mixed Tape” probably got played half as much, but the stations that played it played the shit out of it, you know what I mean? So in that sense, you know, there were markets that got a lot of love off of “The Mixed Tape”. On this one, obviously, my radio department at the label has done a much better job getting the song out there. But to be honest, I don’t really feel like anything is any different. (laughs) You know, we’re actually out, playing these shows for radio stations right now. Even in the shows themselves, there’s really not that much that’s changed. I mean, obviously in your own headline show, it’s going to be YOUR show so that is different. You know, at the same time it’s not like we’ve had a hit or anything major at this point, so there isn’t what I consider that ‘mass exposure’ that might make things change, possibly, you know what I mean?

JG: Yeah, I got you. What’s the story behind the asterisk, or the star, that’s kind of the logo of Jack’s Mannequin?
AM: Well, you know, it was from when I was doing the first record. I was definitely drawing and sketching a whole lot, and I sort of adopted that asterisk as, in that same sense that the asterisk’s on my tattoo, and I think the tattoo and everything even came before the name, Jack’s Mannequin, and the place where my head was in at that point was very much that, this idea that everything passes through some central location. I love the asterisk in that sense, that it’s like the lines are reaching out everywhere, but they all pass through, you know, one nucleus. And that’s kind of where it all came from.

JG: Cool! This is kind of a two-part question, but what advice would you give to teenagers in general, and then the teenagers who are looking to go into music as a career?
AM: I mean, for teenagers in general, I don’t even know that I’m the best guy to cover that territory (laughs). I mean, for people in general, you do your thing, and you do it to the best of your ability, and try to be yourself, that’s probably the hardest thing that teenagers deal with. For the teenagers in bands, I’m probably a little more well-versed in that: I would just say, you know, diversify your influences, and ALWAYS be practicing and ALWAYS be playing live. You know, don’t get so caught up in this idea of recording, you know, your hit record while you’re in a local band, because there’s always time for that. The most important thing you can do as a young band is learn how to be good at playing together, and constantly getting better live. You know, because I still think that the greatest indicator of whether, especially whether a band is good or not isn’t their records, it’s their performances. You know, nowadays with digital the way that it is and people feeling so anxious to get their music up online, I think a lot of times bands start focusing on like, “how can I get my demo done??!?”, before they even play the show to indicate whether anyone would want to buy their demo. So I think that’s something that a lot of bands have lost sight of and I think that’s the most important thing.

JG: Yeah… So how do you tour with a baby grand piano? I mean, is there a different piano in every different location? How do you lug that thing around?
AM: Generally speaking, if we’re on a proper tour, we travel with it in a trailer or a truck with our band, and you take the legs off and you take the pedals off every day, and you just put the body of the piano into a road case, and the rest of the tour essentially another road case. And you know, every morning the stage hands and my crew roll it over and put the legs and pedals back on, get it tuned up, and that’s how it goes.

JG: Sound like a pretty rough production!
AM: Yeah, it’s not an easy production. And before that I was on an upright back in the Something Corporate days, and we would just lug it around and we’d each grab a corner and we’d lift the thing up ourselves, (laughing) you know what I mean? It is what it is, you make the concessions for your sound accordingly, I guess, and the piano is a big part of what we do.