Alternative Addiction Article - July 6th, 2009

Andrew McMahon Sees 'Glass' Half Full
By Chad Durkee
Source

After a somewhat slow start for Jack’s Mannequin’s 2008 release The Glass Passenger, singer/songwriter Andrew McMahon is hoping that the album will catch a second wind thanks to the band’s current tour with the Fray and release of their new single “Swim.”

“We had an interesting start to the record, we came out swinging, but I don’t think we had all the ducks in a row for the first single,” McMahon told Alternative Addiction. “But we just recently had a sort of resurgence towards “Swim” and the record, and I am really excited to see it sort of get a second life.”

McMahon is especially excited about “Swim” being promoted as a new single since its one of the more personal songs on the record.

“It’s one of the more universal themes of the album, just sort of pushing through the tough stuff and just trying to get to the other side,” McMahon explained. “That was really where it came from, and just sort of summed up the themes of the record to me.”

He says the song actually came quite naturally to him, especially the title, which he says felt like a perfect fit.

“I was feeling a little down, and I came across the word ‘swim,’ and it sort of struck a cord with me in my current state,” McMahon says of the writing process for Swim. “I sat down at the piano and wrote those first lines, and just immediately fell in love with the song. It was really one of the quicker writing sessions on the whole record.”

McMahon says he plans to start writing new material while on the road for his current tour with singer Richard Swift and melodic rockers Meese, but he says he is “always itching to be in the studio” writing new material. A trip to the studio could come as early as this spring, although that is entirely dependent on when McMahon feels inspired.

“I usually don’t sit down at a piano unless there is something I am really trying to say,” explained McMahon. “I don’t to feel like ‘Oh, I’ve [already] got a record [out], I have to write another one.’ That is just not how I work. I tend to write songs [only] when they come to me. If that means it takes a couple years because I am not going to force the issue then so be it.”

Jack’s Mannequin’s tour with The Fray wraps up August 7th in Spokane, WA.