By Brian Tucker

It’s no surprise musicians draw on their lives for songs but Jack’s Mannequin front man Andrew McMahon’s life has given him as much to write about as it did personal challenges. Jack’s Mannequin went from a side project to full time when Something Corporate, the band he started in high school, went on hiatus.

Jack’s Mannequin has released two acclaimed albums with a new one due this fall (People and Things) and drew the attention of Twilight author Stephanie Meyer, who would make a video for his song “The Resolution” and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee played on his debut album Everything in Transit.

But McMahon is living a different life than in 2005 when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia while finishing Everything in Transit and cancelling concert dates.

“The moment I was diagnosed,” McMahon said, “My number one concern was I wanted Everything in Transit to come out. Not knowing where I would be a few months from then or whether I would even be alive was up in the air at that point. I was pretty confident on having the record out while I was still around to see its do its thing.”

His then label Maverick Records (since merged with Warner Brothers) rallied around the album and it went on to sell 300,000 copies without the benefit of McMahon touring behind it for almost a year after it’s release.

“Maverick is a great label. I’ve been able to retain full creative control over my records and being on any major recording company is a tricky dance at times. But it’s also what I signed up for. They’ve allowed me to continue to make music the way I want to make it. I would say I live a relatively charmed life for an artist on a major record label.”

McMahon recovered, was able to tour, and released the follow-up The Glass Passenger in 2008 whose single “The Resolution” was directed by Twilight author Stephanie Meyer who thanked Jack’s Mannequin in the books. Struggling to find a concept for “The Resolution” McMahon suggested Meyer whose books weren’t made into films yet. 

“I said, there’s this lady writing these vampire novels and she’s a big fan. Maybe we should ask her. My little shot in the dark was actually this woman who’s one of the biggest sensations in pop novels. Her involvement in that video really did monumental things for that song, drawing new people into the music.”

More with Andrew McMahon

Is your recent songwriting more personal again?

McMahon: The model of Jack’s Mannequin has leaned towards to the autobiographical in a sense. Writing at this point is trying to find some touchstone of truth or something I’m trying to hit at in my own personal life. The last record was quite a reflection of my time unwell and dealing with getting sick. I think this record is definitely the aftermath of all that and getting my feet back on the ground. It sort of revisits the themes of (first album) Everything in Transit and the themes of love and relationships and the struggle that goes along with those things.

Do you write at the piano?

McMahon: For me, its usually one single dance. Sometimes I’ll get a lyrical idea or a song or something that will move me to sit down at the piano and begin the process writing. Musically, it all happens at the same time. I’ll sit down, and whether I hear a melody and start playing that or find a basic chord progression and start building around, I’ll tend to write words and melodies and the music at the same time.

Recording, how much do you stay away from modern techniques? Record to tape versus digital?

McMahon: I think I do a combination of the two. It’s been a long time since we recorded straight to tape just because of the expense and most of it’s going to end up in ProTools as it is. We use ProTools to record but I like to think we use it in an old fashioned sense. We use ProTools primarily as an editing tool. On this record the majority of the basic tracks were recorded as a three piece and we did guitar vocal overdubs after.

You moved to California from Ohio in 1993?

McMahon: I grew up in the mid-west and East Coast and made my way to the California around high school. Growing up I moved every three or four years as a kid until I was fourteen or fifteen years old. For me, it had a positive impact. I got to see a lot of the country as a really young kid. I got to live and meet a lot of people.

I think it informed my experience and openness to other cultures around the country and eventually around the world. I would argue that probably that’s why I find so much joy in travelling the country still and touring as regularly as I do. I think I’m a natural born extrovert. I imagine at a young age I was forced regularly to make new friends and in new situations it forces you to open up quite a bit.

You cut your teeth with Something Corporate, finished growing up in the spotlight.

McMahon: I was fifteen, sixteen, a senior in high school by seventeen. That was when we really started pushing hard, to expand and playing night clubs. Doing gigs outside of our hometown and starting to record, we actually had recorded a record at that point shortly after I graduated high school. At a really young age that was what I was doing.

Do you feel you missed anything or are you thankful you did it early?

McMahon: The think I think about more than any of it is that I missed is college. To some extent I get the college experience. I get to play colleges in the fall and spring so I get to see it on the other side. Part of me wonders if there might be a moment where I want to go back and study music deeper, but no, I wouldn’t trade it. Since I was nine years old this is what I wanted to do. My high school experience was relatively normal, granted my junior and senior year I was missing a lot of school setting up gigs and travelling. You obviously make trade offs in life but this is not one I’m regretting, that’s for sure.

How is life now?

McMahon: In the past year or so I’ve started taking my health a little bit more seriously. You’d be surprised, you come out of something like that…I’d be lying if not to say that I picked up some old habits and got back to it pretty quickly. It certainly was a journey. At this point I eat really well and do yoga. I’d say I have a lot better balance in my personal health.

Stephanie Meyer came into your life.

McMahon: The Twilight books, in the back, she’ll have thanks you’s and she’ll reference a bunch of bands and I think I’m one of the first ones. She had mentioned Jack’s Mannequin before the movies had come out. The books were a sensation but they were a little bit more underground at that point. We were struggling to find a good concept for “The Resolution” video and I said there’s this lady that writes these vampire novels and she’s a big fan. A bunch of my friends like her books maybe we should ask her.

It was cool, she was great. I liked her treatment; I thought the video turned out great. It was an interesting experience. It was a cool experiment. It speaks to this idea that if you listen to the universe these great things can happen. I had no idea really who she was when I asked her to do it. It turns out that her involvement in that video really did monumental things for that song as far a drawing new people into the music and it ended up being a high point for the record.

And Tommy Lee?

McMahon: Obviously, there’s what people know of him on the surface which is very much real to life but I think there’s this other side of Tommy you wouldn’t necessarily know or expect which is just a dude with one of the biggest hearts and some of the most passion for music I’ve ever seen out of a human being. I worked on his record and he worked on mine. We still keep in touch and we’re really good friends. He’s a fantastic guy.

He’s a hard hitting, groovy dude. There’s no question, the stuff he did on my record he really let out this energy and power that when I was a kid six, seven years old watching the Motley Crue videos for the first time on MTV. I loved them. I thought that was amazing. To actually have him sit down get behind the kit and play with us was pretty awesome. But his sense of rhythm, the kind of rock and groove stuff he does is pretty special. He played on Everything in Transit.