Las Vegas Weekly

Passenger gets personal: Q&A with Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin

Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin

Andrew McMahon, who performs under the name Jack’s Mannequin, has released two albums, 2005’s Everything in Transit and 2008’s The Glass Passenger, and considers them to be two different eras in his life.

The concept isn’t facetious or the sign of a musician who takes himself a bit too seriously. For McMahon, Transit marks a life before leukemia, and Passenger chronicles the journey into full recovery. The latter is filled with songs of hope tinged with dark moments that hint at his terrifying illness, which he says sometimes rendered his hands and eyes completely useless. The material is a far cry from McMahon’s beginnings as frontman of the late-’90s piano-rock outfit Something Corporate.

The 27-year-old, now in remission for almost five years, recently started the last tour of this Passenger era. He’ll stop in Las Vegas for a House of Blues performance February 12. Once the tour wraps in early March, McMahon will be buckling down to create Jack’s Mannequin’s third album — but not before one Something Corporate reunion show March 28 at Bamboozle Left.

The Weekly caught up with the singer/songwriter during the downtime before his current tour to talk about his musical inspirations, thoughts on marrying fans and the possibility of a full SoCo reunion tour.

Is it ever difficult to perform material from Passenger because the subject matter is so personal?

Yes and no. I don’t have a thing where, when I’m playing those songs, it drives me back to this bad spot or anything like that. In a way, it was a therapeutic record for me. It was more about getting those songs out than it was about sharing them. In some sense that album is more of a project for me than anything else. I’m glad it did well and people liked it, but I don’t play everything off of Passenger, that’s for sure.

How will your music be evolving after Passenger?

I was in such a heavy mode when I wrote Passenger — I sort of had to be —. Finally having it done, and having the documentary (Dear Jack) out, and kind of clearing the deck of a lot of the weight of the stuff that was in my life at the time, I feel like its created a freedom in this (new) music. I think you’ll see more up-tempo on this next record. I think it’ll probably be a little more concise. As far as the sound goes, it’s still kind of developing.

Could Something Corporate’s Bamboozle Left set lead to a full-on reunion tour?

I think we made a point just to do one show, to not overwhelm ourselves. Josh (Partington), the guitar player and the co-writer in Something Corporate, he’s like number one in his class in law school. That might be an exaggeration, but he’s doing really well. He’s getting his law and MBA, I think, at the same time. He’s always been the smart dude in the band. We have to make room for that, obviously, (and) my Jack’s schedule. We all do other things. So, we’ll see how this goes and go from there.

Are you excited to play from the Something Corporate catalog?

It’s funny. Imagine anything you were doing when you were 16 years old; you look back at some of it and are probably horrified. I don’t think there’s any difference with (Something Corporate), and that’s taking nothing away from what Something Corporate accomplished. I think there are certain songs. I can’t wait to play those again. Then, there are other songs where I’m curious to see how I’ll feel about playing that. Try to revisit a tune like “If U C Jordan” at 27 years old, as opposed to 17 years old. I wrote that song 10 years ago and it came from the perspective of a 17-year-old boy who almost got in a fistfight. Getting back to songs like that, if nothing else, is going to be different.

What are you excited to play?

‘The Astronaut.” A lot of the stuff on North. “She Paints Me Blue.” I think some of the stuff that was a little less tongue-in-cheek may be the stuff that I still gravitate toward. There are tons of little gems. It’ll be good to play Josh’s songs again, (like) “Hurricane” and “Fall.”

Do you play new, unreleased music during your Jack’s Mannequin set?

You know, I’ve never ever really been one of those types of dudes. I’ve gone to enough shows where a band gets a little indulgent and starts playing a bunch of new music that the audience isn’t aware of. There’s a little bit of an energy break. I like to see everyone super engaged. So, it’s not something I do a lot of.

That’s very much a fan-perspective. What bands are you a fan of?

There’s a ton of new stuff I’m checking out. There’s this band from out in the Malibu area called Dawes, a little bit of a California folk group revival but really just powerful words and some great kind of classical rock influences. There’s this indie rock band called Say Hi that I’ve been really into lately. On the stuff that’s a little more popular, Phoenix has been a huge inspiration to me lately. Metric’s new record I’ve been digging a lot. ... There’s a band called Hockey that’s got a couple of good tunes I’ve been digging on. There’s a lot of great music out right now.

I’ve had a few people instruct me to ask you if they’ll marry them.

In the eyes of the law, that might not work so well. Nor in the eyes of my wife, I’m sure. I appreciate the offer, though!

Does it surprise you when people look at you as almost a sex symbol or fawn over you?

You end up learning to be pretty realistic about the fact that just because you do something like what I do — that you’re a musician, you’re in a band and you’re on stage — people will pay that kind of attention to you. (I think it comes) from a place of almost being programmed to idealize people that provide art or entertainment for us.