When Andrew McMahon was in the fourth grade, his family moved to California to support his uncle during the final stages of terminal melanoma.
WATCH: the video for “Cecelia and The Satellite”
“He was the man behind the Jane Fonda workouts,” says the musician and songwriter 25 years later. “As one of first people to create programming for VHS and home video, he was a really successful, creative guy. This moment in time and the impression he made on me coincided with meeting a friend whose dad was in a garage band who taught me a few songs on the piano.”
“You just start making sounds with your vocal chords and mouth it into something that sounds like music. You want to chase down a sort of energy.”
– Andrew McMahon
McMahon admits that while he may not have realized it at the time, his first forays into songwriting were almost certainly some form of coping with what had happened to his uncle.
“I think what I found in those early days was that the piano and songwriting was my way into what I was feeling,” says McMahon. “Some unconscious things were lying beneath an emotion or reaction to the words. For as long as I can remember, this has been my primary source of processing. It’s a pretty huge blessing I can make a living out of something so closely tied to catharsis.”
Three months before the release of his debut album, “Everything in Transit,” under the moniker Jack’s Mannequin, he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. All future tour dates were cancelled. Throughout the summer, he underwent chemotherapy, radiation treatment and eventually a lifesaving stem-cell transplant from his sister.
“I turned 23 in the hospital,” he says. “I’ll be cancer-free for 12 years this summer.”
In 2006, McMahon began the Dear Jack Foundation to advocate for adolescents and young adults with cancer.
“Jack was a childhood leukemia survivor,” he says. “There were a lot of really strange moments that felt kind of prophetic and fated and so when it came time to start the foundation it felt right to name it after Jack and kind of write him into that part of the story.”
After several years of recording with Jack’s Mannequin, McMahon had found success as a touring musician and songwriter for television. But when the file-sharing revolution rocked the music industry, he grew disillusioned with a corporate career he’d pursued since he was 18. In 2012, McMahon disbanded Jack’s Mannequin to embark on a solo project called Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.
“That process became very much about taking time away from the commercial dance you do as a musician until I figured out how I wanted to step into that place again,” he says. “It was all about stimulating my creativity, holding myself to account and finding a way back into making music that felt genuine.”
McMahon’s biggest hit to date is “Cecilia and The Satellite” from his 2014 eponymous solo LP. The song was inspired by his daughter who shares her name with the patroness of musicians.
“I’ve always been a fairly autobiographical writer,” he says. “Even when I’m telling another person’s story, I always spend some time on the way the words cut best and feel most truthful to the experience. Generally, this process is pretty self-reflective. You usually don’t have to dig too deep to understand where I stand inside a song.”
McMahon usually starts a new project by sitting at the piano until he figures out a certain theme or chord progression that starts to feel like a song.
“Even as I’ve gone on in years, it generally comes down to having some sort of emotion or mood building off the piano,” he says. “You just start making sounds with your vocal chords and mouth it into something that sounds like music. You want to chase down a sort of energy. A lot of times the best stuff comes quickly. You might write the bulk of a really good song in a matter of hours or even minutes.”
Feb. 24 | 7:30 p.m.
Harrah’s Lake Tahoe | Stateline, Nev.
For more information or for tickets, visit andrewmcmahon.com or harrahstahoe.com
