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Jack’s Mannequin, the side project of Andrew McMahon, headlined the “Tour for the Cure” at the Murat Egyptian Room, Indianapolis, Indiana, along with friends Copeland, Daphne Loves Derby and The Hush Sound. This group of conscious artists came together to benefit The Dear Jack Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by McMahon to fund cancer research. In June 2005, McMahon (singer/songwriter/pianist) was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. After chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant from his sister, Andrew is currently in remission.

Jack’s Mannequin’s show is full of LIFE and eclectic music. On tour in support of JM’s latest release, “Everything In Transit,” singer/songwriter/pianist, Andrew McMahon shared what literally is the soundtrack of his life before, during, and after his fight against Leukemia.

Kicking off his set with “Bruised,” his enthusiastic fans sang along with each and every word. Andrew’s following is a passionate lot; as they appreciate what he’s been through and his ability to translate his feelings and emotions into real songs that have meaning, depth, and a rare unexplainable quality. After several cuts from his new album; “Kill The Messenger”, “I’m Ready’, and “Miss Delaney”, Andrew introduced his next song as a B-Side… “feel free to go on the internet and download “Last Straw” illegally. After “Dark Blue,” a song that brings his personal story full-circle, Andrew took to the mic and talked about the Egyptian Room. “We walked into this place today and couldn’t help from thinking this could be a place for a senior prom. My goal tonight is to climb up into that chandelier and steal one of those pharaohs. Maybe, we’ll just launch someone from the audience to grab it…”

Jack's Mannequin Live Concert Photos

Andrew slowed down the set for a sentimental journey as he described a cross country road trip that he took when he was 7 years old and dedicated a really well done version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” to adolescent road trips. Afterward, he took a moment to quietly reflect on his purpose for “Tour for the Cure” and spoke of meeting an 11 year old boy named Tyler who is fighting Leukemia. “Rock on bro…keep on fighting.” An emotionally charged “Katie” followed, a song written and dedicated to his sister, who helped save his life with a bone marrow transplant.

Without question, Andrew’s vocals and keyboards have a uniqueness that is tough to put a finger on. His music’s upbeat and original. His style is an interesting hybrid which combines a wide vocal range, Tom Petty’s lyrical phrasing and a spattering of keyboard styles reminiscent of Billy Joel and Elton John.

Jack’s Mannequin has nailed it with “Everything In Transit” and their fan base will grow as the band is scheduled for a long tour with Panic! At the Disco later in the year.

Musicpix had the privilege to meet with Andrew backstage prior to his performance to talk about “The Tour for the Cure,” his music, how everything is connected.

Read on…

Musicpix: I want to first express my genuine respect for your life! Your music, your battle and victory against leukemia as well as The Tour for the Cure… and The Dear Jack Foundation which are products of your personal struggle. Talk about the tour and how the money will be used….

Andrew: The goal for me and for the tour was to raise at least $50,000 to kick off The Dear Jack Foundation. I started it off with a donation of $25,000 to open the doors of the foundation with a goal of $50,000 out of the tour. We’re crossing our fingers that it looks more like a $100,000. That in conjunction with The Light of The Night Walks, through The Leukemia Lymphoma Society, maybe we’ll do more like $200-300,000. The first idea for use of the money is for The Pediatric Research Foundation early on…which is a foundation that works on children’s cancers. That’s a really good place to start obviously- at the ground level, as well as the the Regents of the University of California to support the research of Dr. Gary Schiller-the doctor who basically saved my life and he’s in the top 5 of cancer research doctors in the world. He was involved in the treatment of my cancer and the stem-cell transplant that I was fortunate to have that saved my life. So we’re going to be helping fund the research on a drug that he’s working on for relapse victims of leukemia. Generally, people get through their first treatments and then pass through relapse. So it’s a powerful thing to be able to actually end up of changing the survival rate.

Musicpix: Could you talk about how music got you through your recovery…I read a quote where you stated it was a shot to the vein. What where you listening to through your treatment and recovery process?

Andrew: I listen to a lot of different stuff. For me, in a lot of ways, it was more the idea of music that got me through…knowing that I still have music to play and sing and hadn’t gotten a chance to promote my record yet. Before I got sick, just knowing that I would be able to promote my record was important. Knowing that I have fans to go back to and people who would make a difference out there that support me was a huge factor. Setting up shows, as I started getting well, helped push my recovery. I remember the first day out of the hospital, there was a lot of Bob Marley- happy sounding music for the most part. I was still working on my record-figuring out the track listing of my recordings, so occasionally I’d listen to my record which helped push me. A lot of TV, yoga, chanting, I sort of tried to balance out all the western medicine with a little eastern as well.

Musicpix: Obviously the greatest thing you’ve walked away with from this experience is your life! But is there anything else that has been an added benefit resulting from your illness?

Andrew: Just having perspective on the frailty of the experience of life period- has been a huge benefit. Knowing that it’s a very fragile thing and it’s not something to be taken for granted. I learned that each day is something that you should focus on rather than spending so much time thinking that the next thing you get to will be better. It’s important to realize that wherever you are at that moment is a good place to be. Trying to live like that is a better way to live period. It’s something that most people don’t do. For years, leading up to my illness, I’d never been an incredibly religious person but always I always concerted myself spiritual to some extent. One of my biggest inspirations in life was the Tao Te Ching and a lot of eastern philosophies and philosophers that inspired when I was young. And the resounding message is nothing other than the exact second that you’re in matters. So in a lot of ways, I spent so much time trying to follow that as a philosophy and it brought me great peace while I was sick.

Musicpix: So being a spiritual person, subscribing to a more Eastern philosophy in that there’s a powerful energy that commands the Universe, could you talk about how you use Universal energy as a songwriter and musician?

Andrew: Whatever anyone’s perceptions are about what governs the Universe, it’s up to them…But for me, I’ve always felt that everything is connected. In a lot of ways, in making this record as it’s played out through my sickness and recovery, it played out in such a strong way, that I’ll never really question. In a lot of ways, writing music and songs, I do much better acknowledging the connectedness. Acknowledging the bad and the good and everything in-between defies any logic. It’s all really one big thing. I think so often that people say, ‘this has been such a bad time in my life’…but I think a lot of the bad times, actually turn out to be the best. And oppositely, a lot of the best things are responsible for the worst things.

Musicpix: “Dark Blue” from Everything in Transit was written on a college campus stage…so you write when the creative juices flow. How does it come to you? In lyric, in melody, or all together?

Andrew: Several college campuses actually. We were in the middle of doing a lot of college tour dates with Something Corporate and I had pretty much finished my record and I was being pressured. They (the record label) wanted another song that could potentially be another single. So I was a little frustrated at the point. The first lyric was definitely aimed at the record label… ‘I have you breathing down my neck line’… over time it shaped itself. I consider it an overall view of the record. “Dark Blue” is a statement to me about how things have come full circle. When I started making the record, it was a strange and alienating time. I was trying to figure out in my head and how it ended up, I wound up where I have begun but with a lot more perspective. Physically, I said, I’m still here, I live in the same place, everything on the surface was exactly the same. But I’d learned an overwhelming amount. And also my girlfriend and I were just getting back together at that point and it was just this overall painting a picture.

Usually, it’s just an idea or a moment that inspirational that makes me want to write. And then, a handful of words will come first and then I work it out on the piano. It’s kind of a big dance.

Musicpix: As a woman and a writer, I parallel songwriting with giving birth. How do you parallel the process?

Andrew: It probably doesn’t hurt as bad…although honestly sometimes it probably does, but not physically. But yeah, when you finish a song that’s good, it’s an incredible feeling. With this record, I worked harder on these songs than I’d ever worked on the writing songs. Every inch of every part of these songs were meticulously crafted. So in that sense, yes, I consider them my babies. Overall, this album from start to finish, I spent almost two years creating and so when I stand back, hopefully for the rest of my life, it will always be something that I want to hear as a musician and it says who I am.

Musicpix: The spoken word in “I’m Ready,” is very reminiscent of The Eels, it has the same processing…the same feel. Are you familiar with the cut “Susan’s House?” Did you model “I’m Ready” after The Eels sound?

Andrew: No, I’m familiar with the band but I don’t have any of their records. It was weird. It was one of the very first songs that I recorded for the record but the spoken word thing was one of the last things I added. There was this hole in the middle of the song…there was an instrumental kind of break down. It happened really naturally when I recorded it. The other songs came along and I was like, ‘I don’t really know how I feel about this song.’ The whole song is about reaching your breaking point and trying to find a way around it. And in the middle of the recording process, I reached that breaking point and it shed light on that track and all of a sudden, that track became relevant to me. It became intense. I thought maybe I could throw something in there kind of wordy so I started writing. I kept a journal through this whole thing, so I started writing what I wanted the song to say. I kept writing and rewriting it…then I looked down at myself in this dirty t-shirt that I’d been in for the past two weeks. I was just in this really creative mode and hadn’t showered or taken care of myself at all. I thought, there’s something to this and that’s how it happened.

Musicpix: One of my personal favorites is “The Mixed Tapes.” For some reason, a lot of music lovers make ‘select’ tapes and we identify with your lyrics. Could you tell us some of the cuts that you assembled to cut right through to its recipient?

Andrew: Oh, wow it’s been so long ago…there are a couple of versions of it. The track that really inspired the whole thing was a Mark Knopfler/Dire Straights song, “Wild West End.” I was in New York for the weekend visiting my sister in The Hampton’s shortly after I had separated from my girlfriend at the time and that song came on and I started writing down all the words. It kind of went from there. A Jimi Hendrix songs…with lyrics of falling in love with a rainbow…I can’t remember all the words-I forgot what track it was. I sort of abandon it and then made a song about making the tape.

Musicpix: Producing a mixed tape is probably the closest thing to actually writing a song because you assemble lyric, sound, and rhythm to tell a story or prove a point.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s true. I actually started making the album though.

Musicpix: You just don’t see many front men that are keyboard players…why do you think that’s so?

Andrew: It’s a pain in the ass…it’s hard lugging that shit around all over the place. It’s definitely becoming more prevalent than it used to be…maybe over the last 15 or 20 years. But before that, it was pretty dominant actually. I think it just went out of style for a second. You know Ben Folds…and my band….people started coming around again and it becoming more predominant.

Musicpix: As a keyboard player, and lover of Elton John, Billy Joel, and Bruce Hornsby, which one of these three greats would you like to duet with?

Andrew: I grew up on Billy Joel. I wouldn’t say now, but I overloaded on it so much and that’s all I listened to for years. I don’t go back to it as often as I used to. But for the impact he had on me as an artist, I’d say Billy Joel.

Musicpix: Do you have a piano preference?

Andrew: It’s hard to say….If I was in a position where I was playing 5-6,000 seats a night, I’d probably play a Yamaha C7. But while we were touring, Baldwin actually came to us and I fell in love with them. But it’s impracticable to play a grand on stage in small clubs. I used to play uprights during my years with Something Corporate but they just never packed enough punch for me to hear them well enough and compromised the sound on stage. So we started playing this Yamaha which is like a vintage piano that has electric output which has hammers and strings. It’s more of a utility piano for me but I can turn it up loud and I can hear my vocals. As soon as we get into bigger venues, I’ll play a Baldwin for sure.

Musicpix: I caught your show at Charter One Pavilion this summer with OAR in Chicago and the crowd really reacted to your set. You have dynamite energy on stage, which for a piano player, is refreshing... and your songs are resonating well with your audience. A two part question: 1) How do you get up for a show? and 2) Talk about why you think you’re music is making such a strong connection?

Andrew: Sometimes it’s easier than others…it’s a pretty big buzz looking out a huge crowd which gives you most of what you need. As for as connecting…whether people like or don’t like what I do, I do it from a place of honesty that I consider purity of thought. It’s not something I do to be famous, or to make money. I don’t write these songs to try to do anything other than connect with myself and in turn, connect me to other people. I think because what I’m saying when I’m up there and I love to perform, people like to know that the person means what they’re saying. I always mean what I’m saying. That’s why I’ve always related to artists when I see live shows…it’s always that factor. Does the person singing the words actually give a shit? I haven’t sold gold or platinum record…I’ve been doing this for 7 years and playing to rooms to thousands of people. Whether the radio wants to play my songs or not, people want to hear something real. Whether they like it or not, I’m doing my best to be real.

Musicpix: What about new material? I’ve read that it’s got a sexy, dance vibe. Talk about why you’ve charted a new course.

Andrew: It’s a constant evolution. Sometimes I speak too soon. It’s a work in progress and it’s gone through many phases. But yeah, there are tracks that I’ve worked on that are more groove orientated…there’s all sorts of stuff going though my head. When I can get home and batten down the hatches…when people stop putting me out of the road, it will become a lot clearer. At this point, I think it’s going to be a Hollywood themed record…I had to move there to accommodate my work. And with the beginning of any good record, I embrace my surroundings. So hopefully, once I get home, I can get in that mode…that vibe.

Musicpix: On a personal note, I understand that you’re engaged to be married. Given the demands of the road, relationships are challenged. Does your finance travel with you?

Andrew: Sometimes…it just something I’ve always done and it’s a part of our relationship. We started dating before I began touring and shortly after that, it became crazy. I don’t know how to explain it other than she’s a champ. It’s a tough thing. A woman is a very emotional being and I’ve found over the course of time that not many of them survive relationships with people in bands. The ones that do, some of them are really special. If you have a bond with a person, of course you’ve got to work at it.

Musicpix: She’s lucky that you’re consciously evolved.

Andrew: I do my best. It’s hard out there. You do this all day, you’re sick, or you don’t want to do a show for whatever reason. But we get by…we take a lot of vacations. She’s coming out tomorrow for a few days. We try not to go longer than a couple of weeks without seeing each other.

Musicpix: So have you set a date?

Andrew: Sometime in December…that’s all I’ll say.

MusicPix: What is the first musical instrument you played and at what age?

Andrew: Piano at around 9.

MusicPix: What artist/performer influenced you the most?

Andrew: Tom Petty. For me over the course of many years, I’ve been most inspired by his career. He’s achieved great success but I don’t think he’s been revered in the same way the Springsteen’s and the Dillon’s…and many others. Where some people just get old and stop making music but he hasn’t. His songs are some of my favorite songs. His writing is special but geared to the masses. He’s original on such a large scale. His career has been admirable from the beginning and I relate to him.

MusicPix: If you weren’t in your current band, what band would you like to play in?

Andrew: I like to do my own thing. Jack’s Mannequin has been a project thing. I’ve done the record on my own and we built the band after the record was done. That’s my approach. With that personal factor in mind, trying to tell your personal story, it would make it hard to do that. Being insecure is what drives a lot of artist’s period and that’s certainly what drives me. I try to create alone and then bring people around me who I trust.

MusicPix: What are your 3 ‘desert island’ albums?

Andrew: Tom Petty’s “Wildflowers” for sure…maybe Ben Fold’s Five, the self-titled album and The Country Crows-“August and Everything.” “Pet Sounds” too from the Beach Boys. I need four.

MusicPix: Who do you think is the most over-rated in the music industry?

Andrew: Kanye West.

MusicPix: What’s your ‘perfect world?’

Andrew: A perfect balance of work and no work…being able to shut my brain off without forcing myself to concentrate. That’s what I struggle with the most because I love what I do. I’d like to have balance.

Discography

Holiday from Real/Kill the Messenger 7" vinyl -2005
Everything in Transit-2005
The Lights and Buzz-2005
Meet Me at My Window -2006 (released on Sound of Superman)
Andrew McMahon
Andrew McMahon-1999
Hidden in Plain View-Life in Dreaming-2005
Tommy Lee-Tommyland: The Ride-2005

Jack's Mannequin touring band

Andrew McMahon –Vocals, piano
Bobby Anderson –Guitar, backing vocals
Jon Sullivan –Bass
Jay McMillan – Drums

The Tour

09/21/06 Columbus, OH Ohio State University
09/22/06 Urbana, IL Foellinger Auditorium
09/24/06 Kingston, RI Edwards Auditorium
09/27/06 Hartford, CT Webster Theatre / Underground 09/28/06 Baltimore, MD
09/30/06 Tempe, AZ Tempe Beach Park
10/02/06 Greensboro, NC N Club
10/03/06 Myrtle Beach, SC House Of Blues
10/04/06 Jacksonville, FL Plush
10/10/06 Chico, CA California State University
10/11/06 Sparks, NV New Oasis
10/12/06 Sacramento, CA California State Univ.
10/14/06 Pomona, CA Cal Poly
10/27/06 Orlando, FL Univ. Of Central Florida
10/29/06 New Orleans, LA New Orleans City Park "Voodoo Music Experience"
10/31/06 Decorah, IA Regents Center

Appearing with Panic! At The Disco

11/07/06 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
11/08/06 Orlando, FL UCF Arena
11/09/06 Atlanta, GA HiFi Buys Amphitheatre
11/10/06 Charlotte, NC Cricket Arena
11/11/06 Fairfax, VA Patriot Center
11/13/06 New York, NY Theatre @ Madison Square Garden
11/14/06 New York, NY Theatre @ Madison Square Garden
11/16/06 Toronto, ON Ricoh Coliseum
11/17/06 Rochester, NY Gordon Field House @ RIT
11/18/06 Lowell, MA Paul E. Tsongas Arena
11/19/06 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
11/21/06 Auburn Hills, MI Palace Of Auburn Hills
11/22/06 Chicago, IL UIC Pavilion
11/24/06 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
11/25/06 Saint Charles, MO Family Arena
11/26/06 Council Bluffs, IA Mid-America Center
11/28/06 Denver, CO Magness Arena
11/29/06 West Valley City, UT E Center
12/01/06 Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum
12/02/06 Vancouver, BC PNE / Pacific Coliseum
12/03/06 Everett, WA Everett Events Center
12/05/06 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion At San Jose
12/06/06 Long Beach, CA Long Beach Arena
12/07/06 Glendale, AZ Glendale Arena
12/08/06 Las Vegas, NV Orleans Arena
12/09/06 San Diego, CA ipayOne Center @ The Sports Arena

JM Tour

01/13/07 Tokyo, JPN Duo Music Exchange
01/15/07 Osaka, JPN TBA
01/16/07 Nagoya, JPN TBA

By
Gwyn Tyme