Andrew McMahon Interview 05.23.05
Philadelphia, PA - Theater of Living Arts

GARY: Here’s Andrew. I guess we’ll get into it.

ANDREW: Dive in!

GARY: What began the whole Jack’s Mannequin project?

ANDREW: I wouldn’t say it was any particular ONE thing. It started with a song called Locked Doors, oddly enough, that I recorded in- I want to say December of last… like two December’s ago. Probably right before we left for that Yellowcard, or headlining tour? It was something like that. I think it was before our headlining tour and then we did Yellowcard after the headliner? I think that sounds about right. Which really ended up being- it was definitely the farthest disconnection of all the stuff and it didn’t even end up making the record. The physical sound was just like really dancey and like, fucking frantic. It sounded nothing like Something Corporate. I was like, “Ok well, if I ever put this out, it’ll not be with the band probably”, cause it was pretty weird. But nevertheless, that wasn’t the main idea. And then Josh kinda started digging in deeper with Firescape, and we started just not being so sure about how we were gonna do the next record, and we were all just burned out and tired. And eventually we were in Australia with the Offspring, and all of a sudden I finally- I had gone through this period from North, all the way through the working of the North record where all of a sudden I was just like very uh, I dunno, a little despondent or something like that? And finally I worked through a lot of it and when we got to Australia I was in much better shape, I felt much better like the band was getting-[LOUD MONITOR NOISE IN BACKGROUND] Ohhh God…Oh noooo…Oh shit…Oh, sorry- But all of a sudden, still acting in that, once I was a little bit healthier in my head, all of a sudden it was like I still realized that it was time to just take the time. You know what I mean? So I did. Took the time off. You know, told the band in Australia, I was like “I’m ready to chill for a minute.” And they were like “So are we…?” you know? Like let’s just- we just came home. You know, I wasn’t really planning on doing the record at that point but I went home and just started writing songs- writing TONS of songs. I hadn’t written at home in so long. It just felt so good to do it and there were a lot of things that came out of knowing that it wasn’t going to be a band album, and knowing that I had made some personal decisions. Like all of a sudden I had definitely opened up a lot of areas where I was ready to write…kind of, you know, dig a little bit deeper, knowing that there wasn’t gonna be anybody to say “oh let’s not do this” or “let’s not do this”. So I just kinda went for it. [INTERVIEW INTERRUPTED BY GUITARS TUNING] So I kinda just started writing. I didn’t really- I didn’t know how things would turn out just doing it on my own so I wasn’t committing to anything. I’d just go in- like it started kinda sporadically like every two weeks or every month- play like, a handful of songs that I had written, and then we would record whatever the best one was pretty much. I did that- well, until like now really [laughing]. I mean, that’s kinda how it works. It’s like, just go in stream of consciousness, we’d record a song in a day. Like really fast we’d program all the drums, Jim would play all the guitars and bass, I do all the keyboards and production and vocals and we’d usually leave with a done little song and be like “this is cool”, you know? And then eventually we started amassing more tunes and realizing it was pretty good and we were excited about it and liked it. So at that point I started playing stuff for my management and saying I think I wanna try and put this out, and it kinda just developed from there.

NICOLE: What inspired you to start doing a sketchbook and putting a story line in with your new album?

ANDREW: Extensive amounts of time that I didn’t have before. It was weird. I kinda started writing this journal when I got back and I just realized there was so much weird stuff going on- so much was changing. I was like “I should get this stuff down”. And I was used to running around all day long for Something Corporate, and finally we were on a break. Even though we’d go do shows here and there, it was very relaxed. I was spending a lot of time at home just writing songs and then I’d just go downstairs- I just sat around my house for a couple months, you know? Just hanging out. And all of a sudden I was like- you know, I don’t even remember what was the- ‘cause I’d never drew EVER, you know what I mean? All of a sudden I was just really bored and hanging around and had nothing to do, and I would just hang out in my house and get like, you know, drunk or smoke pot or something like that [laughing] and I would just sit there and be like “I have nothing to do” and I’d just start drawing. You know what I mean? Which was really fun. I mean, even most of the drawings that you see is just stuff that like, I copied out of magazines and stuff like that. Just trying to test my eye and see if I could pull it off. Just more experimenting with stuff like that. And I stopped doing it for a while, and then just now that we’ve been on the road and been in the van with long drives and not much to do, I’ve kinda gotten back into it again too. And then I got the Polaroid. Like, we did the first photo shoots for Jack’s and the photographer used this Polaroid the whole time and I was like, “looks kinda easy to use”. [all laugh] Which it isn’t! But so I got one of those, and it’s just kinda been a little artsy kind of renaissance period for me, you know what I mean? Just trying to dive into as many mediums of art as possible. Just fun little hobbies and stuff.

GARY: Compared to Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin’s a little more intimate, a little bit more personal.

ANDREW: Definitely.

GARY: Does that make you feel a little bit more vulnerable?

ANDREW: Well, yeah. I don’t have a band to hide behind. I can’t be like “Josh wrote that”. So in that sense, yeah, but I would also argue that at least, that being said, any criticisms I get or anything that comes of it, the truth of the matter is I really back it. I did it first, kinda for me to get through whatever this period of time was that I was going through, and I’m really proud of it. And I’m happy to take any criticisms or compliments or whatever and know that it’s my own. But yeah, reading some stuff where people dig in a little bit deeper, and there were definitely points where I was like, “oh God, did I say that? Oh why did I do this?” But..I know why I did it, which was, it was art therapy. [laughs]

NICOLE: What’s the intent of Jack’s Mannequin? Is it to show your experiences in life?

ANDREW: Hmm..the intent….I’m don’t know if I’ve even figured that out yet. I mean, really it was just to do something while I had time- while I had time off, you know? I mean, more or less, it was like I knew that Something Corporate deciding to take the break was probably my one chance to actually approach a record like this. And I figured while I was young and had a lot of these ideas in my head and while I really felt prolific. You get to a point where you’ve been in a band since you were 16 years old- and really, my first band with most of these guys was when I was like 14 or 15. And as a naturally adventuresome kind of person, I like to experience things on all different levels and do things at different levels- not to say that the band was at all trapping in that way, but I had never gotten a chance to make a record in this configuration. I mean for me more than anything, that was why I did it. I think I definitely got that experience, and I’ll be able to bring that into the band environment now, having been able to produce a record on my own, you know, obviously with Jim, but to have that experience now I’ve learned a ton, and it’s appeased that side of me that really wanted to try something new and try and do something different. And I forgot what the question was in the first place [all laugh] I’m just kinda going off-

GARY: It works! [laughing]

ANDREW: I think we got it, I think we got it.

GARY: This was actually on the street team, people were asking this. I don’t even know if it’s a process for you, but how do you decide if it’s a Something Corporate song or a Jack’s Mannequin song?

ANDREW: There isn’t a process. I mean it was like, I was recording a Jack’s Mannequin record, so the songs were for Jack’s Mannequin. And, truth be told, there was stuff that came out of that period that we didn’t use on Jack’s Mannequin that’s really good, you know, I’ll use it for Something Corporate.

GARY: Cool.

ANDREW: I was just like, whatever I was working on at the time kind of got attributed to whatever project was being worked on too. If that makes sense. I never really like- I wasn’t like, “this sounds like Something Corporate”. You know what I mean? [laugh] The truth is, I just write songs. I think what makes Something Corporate sound like Something Corporate is the five of us arranging the songs together. Or the four of us as the case may be now. I think that’s what makes a band sound like that, not necessarily the writing.

GARY: I guess to touch off that-

ANDREW: Ladies and Gentlemen, Matt from The Starting Line.

MATT: Uh, hello. Can we steal hot water from you?

ANDREW: Uh, yeah yeah yeah. Go for it, man.

MATT: Ok, thank you.

ANDREW: No worries, man.

GARY: To touch off that question, how would you describe the sound of Jack’s Mannequin, not even compared to Something Corporate, but how would you describe it standing alone?

ANDREW: Kinda like, fuzzy? [all laughing] I don’t like…fuzzy. It’s pretty like- I mean, compared to recent Something Corporate I’d say it’s like…I dunno, it’s weird. It’s a very hopeful sound to me. I think that Jack’s is really hopeful. In ways it goes into darker territories and, you know, I think more adult territories. I’ve always kind of just written from wherever my head’s at and so a lot of people will hold my feet to the fire over like, “well, you know, he really means it to sound like this”, and I was like well yeah, I was fucking 16 years old and I was young, I was a kid and so was very carefree and was very this, that and the other thing and I’m not anymore, and I’m not gonna try and be that anymore for anybody. The reason people like the stuff that we do has been because it’s always been honest to who we were. And Jack’s I think is definitely the product of stepping into that next phase of life where things are a little bit scarier, and looser and a little bit more out there. But I think sound wise I would argue it’s a little dancier, you know, it’s definitely poppy. But I’ve kinda noticed this thing where the way the pianos and guitars interact on this stuff, I think is probably the most balanced I’ve ever got on the guitars and the pianos. We kinda discovered this cool thing where if we get a little more bass distortion and then get a couple of the guitars more towards the low end that- the piano’s a very mid to top end instrument, so I think overall there’s kinda this low end kind of growl to Jack’s Mannequin and the piano’s and the vocals kind of fit on top of that. I would say that it’s kind of the sound of the band.

NICOLE: What’s your writing process like? Do you do the music first or the lyrics first?

ANDREW: You know, I don’t even have a process. It’s funny, people always ask me that question but it’s like sometimes I’ll get an idea or melody in my head and I sing it into my answering machine [all laugh], and that’s actually become a pretty typical part of my writing process, my cell phone voicemail. [all laugh] It’s become a very strong part of my writing process. Because I write- I’ve been writing so much stuff that a lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll write something and if I think it’s cool I’ll just sing it into my voicemail and if it sticks with me- more like every time I go through my voice messages I’ll be like “oh fuck. There’s the song.” And go back to it, you know? [all laugh] But no, it just depends on where my head is at the time. Usually I’ll feel this urge to play or something like that, and I’ll go sit down and I’ll play. I mean, I tend to write lyrics and melodies and pianos generally all at the same time. And then I’ll go hop in my shower and try and write melodies in there while I’m- I try to start a song, and the luxury of being home is I can start a song and then as soon as I’ve written it as hard as I can write it, I’ll leave. And I’ll get ideas while I’m driving or whatever and I’ll sing those ideas when I come back to the piano. That’s kinda how I work on songs at home. It’s just like a very back and forth- I try to stay near the piano but I also try and go do stuff and as I hear things or listen to other records or whatever, I start incorporating different ideas into what I’ve already written.

GARY: That’s cool. We’ve been hearing that the release date has been pushed back. Is that true?

ANDREW: August 9^th.

GARY: August 9^th? Ok.

ANDREW: Yeah I got um…I got inspired and I wrote the last song of the record, and of course since we’re out here it wasn’t as easy to get the finishing processes, the mixing done ‘cause I wasn’t home. So it’s been a little bit lengthy. It may have just pushed back things a little bit, but it was my fault. You know, at least there’s another song.

GARY: Yeah, awesome.

NICOLE: Who does your touring band consist of and how did you pick them?

ANDREW: Well basically- obviously you know Bobby. It was weird, I was hesitant to include Bob in the whole thing just because I didn’t want Something Corporate fans to think that he was a point of dissection from the band, for me. Really what happened was I recorded most of the record and then Bob called me ‘cause I played the stuff for him and he was just like “Dude, I really love the material and I’ll sleep on the couch, but I’d love to help record some of the guitars for it” [all laugh]. I was like, “I’m not so sure”. But then he called me again, he was like “dude, I’ll sleep on your fucking couch, you don’t have to pay me or whatever” and I was like “alright, get out here.” Yeah, cause he is so- yeah, he’s incredible. It’s funny because he’s so tasteful that most people don’t know how really incredible he is, but I don’t think in my entire life I’ve ever seen a guitarist who’s as good as Bob. I mean, hands down. So I brought him out and we clicked- you know, we’ve always been friends but it’s like creatively doing a record together like that we really clicked. And originally I was gonna have this band of English dudes that I’d known from hanging out in Santa Monica and seen them play around town. They back up like, Pete Yorn and some other people. But then all of a sudden it just got to this point where the record was done and I was like, “how am I gonna teach anyone to play these guitar parts?” ‘cause they were- once again, they were very tasteful but it’s like, homeboy’s gotta stretch like THAT, you know what I mean? It’s like, I don’t know how to play the guitar. It started me just saying, “would you be interested?” and he was like” yeah, absolutely!” And it just seemed natural at that point that Jay, who drums with Bob first in River City High and then in Bob’s band Bike Lock- it seemed to make sense that he would come out and do it. So Jay was interested. And then their buddy from Richmond, Dr. John who plays bass would like, relentlessly call Bob and Jay and was just like, “you gotta let me come try out, you gotta let me come try out”. And at first I was like, “I don’t need another fucker from Richmond to worry about out here”. [all laughing] But he was so persistent and he was like, “I’ll buy my plane ticket, you don’t have to worry about me.” And he came out, at which point I’d also talked to a publishing friend of mine who knew Jacques from Phantom Planet…knew he had just left. And he’d just been a professional photographer so he’d just been doing photography namely. And finally I called him and we just kinda went back and forth. I shared the music with him and he was liking it. We all just showed up one day in a rehearsal space and played together. You know, the guys are all music students so they had all their charts and, you know, geeked out, and we played the tunes and it just clicked right off the bat. So that was the band. There’s Jacques right now.

JACQUES: How’s it going everyone?

ANDREW: So it was kinda this cool thing. Everybody just sorta seemed to serve all the functions on the record that we needed and we all clicked and we all had a good time together. It’s like a [unintelligible]- It’s definitely like a very rock and roll scenario when we’re on the road.

GARY: What has been the fan reaction at shows and what is your reaction to that? Has it been what you expected?

ANDREW: Great! It’s been awesome. It’s actually like, better than I expected. I was nervous ‘cause I didn’t want kids to be like, “play konstantine!”, you know what I mean? And granted, I’ve gotten that a couple times but it hasn’t been like gnarly. It goes show to show obviously. But, you know, seemingly people are getting what we’re doing. I mean, I could be wrong. You have your ear closer to the ground than I do, but it seems like people are wrapping their head around the project and getting what it is and letting it breathe and be it’s own thing, which I was nervous about initially. But it seems like people are excited about Jack’s Mannequin which I was nervous initially that it would be more like “let’s go see that guy in Something Corporate play some songs and we can stand closer to the stage”, you know what I mean? So, it’s been good.

GARY: Cool. Now a big one. Do you plan on touring after the CD release, or is this a one time, one record thing?

ANDREW: You know, I’ve made a point about not making plans anymore. It’s like I’ll do whatever- I’m just gonna follow whatever’s happening. To be honest, I just can’t plan on touring here or there or doing anything. It’s like, I’ve got these projects, I’ve got these bands, and I’m just gonna go where people want me to go. Truth be told, if people fall in love with Jack’s Mannequin and the record does well, I’ll tour. You know what I mean? But I definitely want to give it a shot and I definitely want to develop it enough to see if we can get it to that level where people are excited. I mean, what would be cooler than having two bands that do well on the road that I can tour with and keep myself creatively charged and doing different things? It would be awesome.

GARY: That’s awesome. Alright, well I just want to congratulate you on the site. It rocks.

ANDREW: Oh! Isn’t it great? I told you man! I told you it’d be worth the wait! Yeah, it’s still developing. We have this interactive section coming up where it’s kinda like Jack’s Mannequin living room where you’ll be able to go see like what CD’s we’re listening to and what movies are in the- you know, it’s really cool. Just really pop culture kind of shit.

GARY: That’s very cool. Is there anything else you want to say to the street team fans, anyone?

ANDREW: Thank you! Keep spreading the word and let’s fucking blow this thing up! I’d love to see a thousand people at a Jack’s Mannequin concert in the next six months.

GARY: Alright, awesome. Thanks for your time!

Interview done by Gary Debele and Nicole Barber. Transcribed by Angela Lucier.

We'd like to thank Kelly and Holly at Maverick for setting this up! Of course, thanks for Andrew aswell. Rest that voice buddy!