Andrew McMahon grew up faster than most. He began playing piano at the age of eight, started performing with So-Cal emo trio Something Corporate at 16 and faced a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia at 22. Now, with the creation of Jack's Mannequin's third album, People and Things, he's allowing everyone else to catch up to him.
"The focus [of my music] has always been to find the themes that are relevant in my life." McMahon said. Each previous album noted a progression in theme based on McMahon's life experiences up to that point. But in the past - as a married man and cancer survivor before hitting a quarter century in age - he felt somewhat alone, and his lyrics reflected that. "I think a lot of the themes were born out of that period of time, this kind of moment where I was one of the only people who was in that boat," he said.
But it's different this time around. McMahon's peers are becoming adults, and the challenges that arise as such are a regular topic of conversation. "All my friends are getting married; people are having kids ... It's kind of where the name People and Things came from," he said. "I tried to focus on that stage of life."
For Jack's Mannequin's debut, 2005's Everything in Transit and its 2008 follow-up Glass Passenger, McMahon was hesitant to venture into and write songs about the difficulties of adult relationships, noting that it's not a particularly easy topic to explore within the rock music arena. "There are an adult set of challenges," McMahon said, "but there are a whole lot of other positives that go along with it. I tried to focus on that stage of life."
"You start having these conversations that are really real conversations about life and relationships and communication, not just between your partner, but your friends," McMahon said. "I think I found on this record that there was something really potent and really relatable about these subjects and themes."
Accordingly, the song that will become the single, "My Racing Thoughts," is about an argument. With lyrics like, "She asks the questions / I take the floor / She takes her shots / Taught her a lesson / About a forced confession," McMahon is exploring emotions he originally thought might inhibit his creative process. "I've never really written tons of music about arguing, but it was super powerful and it set me off, going, 'I can talk about this stuff, because there's some real meat to these subjects,'" he said.
Perhaps because of this newfound communication with his friends about relationships, McMahon opened up his songwriting process to others. "For the first time on any record I started working with other artists and writing songs with my friends and other people along the way," he said.
He also welcomed outside sources of inspiration more than ever before. "I'd go hunting for inspiration if I couldn't find it. In that respect it was really sort of a fight but a great experiment and exploration."
For the new album, the recording process was a much more collaborative effort. As McMahon put it, the album took on a natural band feel. "[We] went to band practice and learned these songs I had been working on for several months. We'd record as many as we had to live as a three piece, as a band."
Recording each song this way was a new approach for McMahon, as previously he would build the band around an already-recorded piano and vocal track. People and Things was different. "This record was 'let's commit to this [way of recording] as a philosophy,'" McMahon said.
McMahon not only found inspiration from his friends, but also through his collaboration with great producers and musicians. "I got to play with Pete Thomas from Elvis Costello and the Attractions and Steve Ferrone from [Tom Petty and] the Heartbreakers and Sebastian Steinberg from Soul Coughing - a lot of really talented people opening my eyes to things I'd never really seen before," McMahon said.
While it might not be explicit in his lyrics, McMahon undoubtedly receives inspiration from those who have struggled with cancer or similar life-threatening illnesses. He speaks almost daily with others who can relate. "It's a pretty emotional thing to see people who are struggling with this," he said. "But it's the reality for so many people's lives that I definitely consider myself lucky that I'm in a position to have these kinds of deeper conversations with people on a pretty regular basis."
The Dear Jack Foundation, a charity founded by McMahon to raise money for cancer research, is transitioning into a legitimate non-profit organization. For McMahon, this is a much-needed step forward.
"In the last year [we've started] to establish our own identity, our goal being to help change the horrible survival statistics for young adults who fight cancer. In thirty years, people from [ages] 15 to 39 haven't seen their survival rates improve, and I think it's become a priority of the foundation to sort of wave the flag and say, 'this is a problem and we need to fix it,'" he said.
Though McMahon had always been interested in charity work, he admits that, had he not become ill himself, he would not have recognized the need for immediate funding for such organizations.. Since its inception in 2006, the foundation has raised close to a half million dollars. Says McMahon, "If we hit our goal this year, which is another $125,000 for the walks at the end of the summer, we'll have raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society over $500,000 from the last six years."
Fans interested in donating money to the foundation can do so simply by purchasing a ticket to one of the band's shows. "Out here on the road, almost every night 60 cents of our tickets goes back to the foundation; we've been out here selling t-shirts and DVDs of the documentary [Dear Jack, which chronicles McMahon's battle with leukemia] and raising money that way," he said.
From mid-June through the end of July, Jack's Mannequin headlined a tour with special guests Steel Train and Lady Danville. In August they set tour again co-headlining with Guster and played Festival Pier on August 11th.
And it seems that McMahon was just as happy when he visited Philadelphia as fans were to have him perform. "Truthfully, Philly, to me - if there has ever been a second home for Jack's Mannequin, as far as a fan base is concerned - Philly is number one," he said. And while McMahon is excited to have new material to play for fans, much of his fan base is likely glad to just still have him around.
