Jack's Mannequin
Andrew McMahon, the creator behind Jack’s Mannequin, infuses his music with a bright hope and melodic bounce that seems to somehow communicate a joy that he is sure to have after surviving a fight with cancer. The band’s sophomore full-length album, The Glass Passenger, keeps spreading its influence on the radio and other mediums (like TV and the internet). His soulful voice and skill at weaving piano-driven melodies place him in good stead alongside artists like New Amsterdams, The Rocket Summer, or even The Fray (who he’s touring with soon). It was a pleasure to sit down with him for a few minutes for this interview.
If you had the power to guarantee that an entire audience would leave one of your shows with one of the following (and only one), which would you choose:
a) pleasure
b) self-esteem
c) hope
Why?
I’d have to go with pleasure on that one.
Any reason why?
I think everything you said is undeniably positive, but just me growing up going to shows, if you just left with that feeling of – if you just felt good and psyched when you leave and you feel like it transformed your head space… Obviously, so do some other things, but overall, the broader of the three things is the pleasure.
What are some of the worst things about Something Corporate? And what are some of the best things about it?
I don’t know. I haven’t really done much pondering on that subject for about four or five years! (laughs) I would hate to even say necessarily something I find bad about my old band or something in an article. I think the best thing about Something Corporate would probably be the chemistry that we had. It was sort of a band that was built on the backs of four very close friends. I think, in that sense, it really rang true when we would play, because there was that sort of chemistry of pure friends kind of getting together to play music. Worst thing? Our scenario sort of allowed us to get pigeonholed in a big way and stuck in a scene. For me, that was always the worst thing about Something Corporate was getting sort of mislabeled regularly as a punk band, like we’re trying to sing for the piano, which was really never the intention. That was always the worst thing for me.
When did you discover that intelligence wasn’t entirely forbidden in popular music?
I think I always knew that sort of inherently, because I grew up with some of my parents’ records and pop music was always intelligent. The pop music that I generally listened to was always pretty intelligent. I think it’s something that I’ve always carried with me. The thought that new music and popular music isn’t just a simple format that is ‘dumbed down.’ And pretty intelligent lyrically … I think Counting Crows is a band that really communicated that to me on their first record when I was in sixth grade.
What do you think of Jesus Christ?
What do I think of Jesus Christ? I mean, he was incredibly misunderstood. I’m not a particularly religious person. I grew up a Catholic, so I had a lot of Jesus in my life at a young age. I think anytime you grow up as a Catholic and go the other direction, you maybe struggle with that a little bit. But, the older I get, the more I realize that he actually had a lot of brilliant and amazing things to say and maybe he’s been brutally misconstrued…
Jack's Mannequin - Finish this feature by Doug Van Pelt in the new HM Magazine. Available now, Issue 137 can be found at select stores or for a reduced subscription rate.
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