Jack’s Mannequin
Andrew McMahon opens up about latest album, life after Leukemia

Interview By Jim Simmons, Arizona State University

“If I’ve learned anything, it’s that having a story is a good thing,” said Andrew McMahon, leader of Jack’s Mannequin. Coming from the former front man of Something Corporate, who after starting his current project had to take a year off to fight off Leukemia, it’s certainly a fitting statement. Thankfully McMahon managed to win the battle and went on to further develop a solid music career, which continues to thrive with each new effort. Since his bout with the disease, the group’s released The Glass Passenger (Sire) and continues to produce quality songs that connect with his listeners. Here’s more about the life and music of McMahon from a face to face chat while on the road with The Fray.

How long have you been on the road with The Fray and what’s that experience been like?

McMahon: This is the beginning of our forth week. We did a leg about three to three and a half weeks, we had a week off, we just got off yesterday and we came out here. It’s been amazing, playing big shows, and other than today and Vegas, it’s mainly been an outside, summertime, kind of good vibe.

How has the tour impacted the performance of your latest single “Swim,” as well as record sales? Have you seen anything peak because of a new fan base? 

McMahon: Yeah, we definitely have seen huge jumps in our album sales, and you generally see that when you go on tour, but it’s been particularly nice on this tour. A lot of those indicators you end up feeling the effects in the months that follow. The response has been really warm from their crowd, mainly it seems like I think we play a compatible type of music. They’ve been willing to kind of open up to our music, and it brings a lot of fans out. I think It also helps bring people around that don’t know what we’re up to. 

The Fray is kind of building to be on the cusp of something larger, maybe even an arena band down the line...Would you prefer to maintain a club level status or would you like to headline the bigger venues? 

McMahon: Well, it’s kind of like not wanting to get promoted at your job or something. Don’t get me wrong I love to play clubs I think it’s great, but to be able to draw 10,000 people and play...Arenas aren’t really my favorite kind of gigs, but definitely the amphitheaters stuff is amazing. Yeah, of course the bigger the band, the happier I am, because the longer I keep my job, and it means we’re connected to more people. As a musician and artist on any level, my goal has always been to reach the most people possible, and have them listening to the music and be able to share what I make with people. So in that sense, the goal is to get it out to as many people as possible. 

You just parted ways with Something Corporate, debuted with Jack’s Mannequin and had a tour scheduled, then got diagnosed with Leukemia. Did you think that was it for music or did you go into the whole experience with the perspective of beating it?

McMahon: You know I think there are a lot of things that were unsure at that moment. I mean, frankly my shift drifted totally away from music and became about getting well. I mean, obviously the goal being that I get well and I’m able to come back to it. When you’re thrown a curveball like that the last thing you’re thinking is, “well, how is this going to affect my album sales?” I think your thought is “how do I stay alive here and how do I handle this in a way that’s going to get me closest to being well. I think that was really the deal. It really became about my family and my friends and about finding peace of mind, batting down the hatches and just getting in there and kicking ass and that was really the program for about a year at least. 

What Impact did the experience have on your songwriting and the way you perform or even the way you live your life now?

McMahon: It f***s everything up, there’s no question about it. I think when you come back from that, generally speaking...at least my feeling from talking to other people who have been through a similar situation, you almost begin to overanalyze everything, which frankly is one of the shittiest things you can do when it comes to art. So in the aftermath, it really became about finding those moments where I was able to shut that mechanism off for a minute and really give into whatever it was that I was trying to write. That’s why the album became so tough. I was going into the studio... somebody called it ‘chemobrain,’ it was like a term that has been applied. It was like this thing where you are just, you have to comb over every decision just fastidiously, like you have to get to the bottom of things and you almost don’t let things just be. It became really hard to write. It became a real bear in a lot of ways. So I was affected by it in some ways, but more so in just the sense that it took so much more time to make because I had to wait for those moments where the inspiration sort of superseded what my brain was trying to do. But the record really helped me, I think, really undo some of that and steer me back to my goal. 

Do you ever get tired of being known as “that singer from Something Corporate who had leukemia and now sings for Jack's Mannequin?”

McMahon: That’s a whole lot of information, my God if that many people know that much about me than “amen!” There was a point there where it did bother me. You know, as you start to try to unwind that portion of your identity a little bit, you know it becomes hard having everybody sort of come back at you. But everybody loves a story, you know, and that’s just a fact. That is a simple fact of the matter, everybody loves a good story. To that extent, if my story is something that people latch onto and find hope in or find interesting enough to pay attention to the music, it’s still my story. I’ve always been very forthcoming about the fact that I write, for the most part, autobiographically, or from some honest, sincere place. Even with the last record, the first aspect was it was a break-up album. I mean that was the thing that everybody focused on... and I was the guy from Something Corporate.

That was the big story for a minute and then I got sick, and that was the big story. So if I’ve learned anything, it’s that having a story is a good thing. If I can apply that to the future, I think the point is to make each record and really try and find a point of view within each record. Some of those points of view are things I search out on my own. Other things will be like what happened to me when I got sick that I just couldn't avoid, it just came from me. To run from it or to be pissed about it when people are just going to do what they do and think what they think. As long as I’m making the music I’m proud of, and I’m getting it out there, I’m not going to get mad at it. 

How are the songs that you now write with Jack’s Mannequin different from the songs of Something Corporate?

McMahon: I think it freed me up a little bit more to dig a little deeper personally. You kind of open a floodgate when you realize you can create for yourself…You know obviously my goal is to always reach people and have the songs connect, but when you know you’re not going to walk a song into a committee to get opinions on...That’s the way a lot of bands work, and not that there’s anything wrong with that, I think that’s why I found that I really didn’t thrive in that after a few years of doing that. It occurred to me that in order to be the most creative version of me I have to the confidence to say what’s on my mind and not be afraid to say it and get it our there and not be afraid that there’s going to be someone in my world that’s actually going to throw a block on it. I mean the Something Corporate guys are great to work with, but I think just artistically speaking it was a different kind of model. The songwriting is close to the same in a certain sense other than it just evolves over time, but the approach to production obviously changes when you don’t have that kind of decision by committee thing going on. 

So, what's next for Jack’s Mannequin?

McMahon: I’m always recording. I’m in the process of meeting with different producers, and cutting tracks here and there. I’m trying to find the sound for the next thing find the direction and I feel like I get a little closer every day and each new song gets a little bit closer. I’m starting to hear songs and have songs that I’m thinking about a apportioning towards the next record. I imagine that process will take a little over a year from now to unfold I would guess. The fall will be really busy. We do a lot of work with Leukemia Lymphoma Society because of what I went through, I’m trying to raise money for them. So I’ll be helping out with their “Light the Night” walks. We send a team out to support that and I’ll be going out probably in October to do sort of a partially acoustic tour in small rooms- like two or three-hundred person rooms- just to really bring it back down to the roots. I think I might even take my own car out or just rent a car and go do it myself. 

Along the way we’ll do three screenings of the documentary that got put together in the aftermath of all the sick stuff the stuff that I shot on my handheld camera when I was in the hospital. It’s the story of the beginning of Jack’s Mannequin and sort of what happened in the process of getting sick and what not. That will probably come out in the fall, I’m guessing, and we’ll do screenings of that while on the acoustic tour. Then we’ll do big headlining rooms in the winter and make up the handful of dates we had to cancel to come out with The Fray. So we’ll go back and make up those dates in the new year. Hopefully, once that’s through, we’re sitting on a hit with “Swim” and things are moving along and I can start working towards a new record. 

Is there anything else you want to bring up that I haven’t already asked?