It’s been 5 years since Andrew McMahon toured Australia. In February 2023 he will return for a solo tour playing songs from his career including favourites from Jacks Mannequin and Something Corporate. We caught up with Andrew ahead of the tour as he shares his excitement to return to the land down under.
SCENEzine
How’s 2023 going for you so far?
Andrew McMahon
Amazing! It’s been a crazy start to the year for sure but all good. I got a few vacations in at the very top of the year, went up to the mountains with my family. Then on Sunday I just got back from a surf trip to Nicaragua which was pretty life changing. I’ve been gearing up for the madness of a record release and getting back to the craziness of being back on the road.
SCENEzine
We are loving your new song “lying on the hood of your car”. Is there a story of how the song came about?
Andrew McMahon
It was here before the pandemic actually. There’s this batch of tunes that I started with the intention of putting a record out in 2020 but obviously that didn’t happen. I had this verse and the chorus of that song lying around. I was going to work on that song with Awolnation ahead of a tour we had planned. When I came back to working with Tommy at the beginning of last year I had this snippet of a song and wasn’t sure where the story was going.
At the point it was just the verse about the cop car. I couldn’t really figure out what that meant yet and as I was digging deeper into the record I thought lets try this song. For me really it’s the exploration of what it was to be young. To be a kid having your first licence, rolling around with your homies and getting into trouble on a Saturday night. Then ending the night by the beach or in a parking lot with the ocean nearby. It was a bit of nostalgia really.
SCENEzine
What’s the feeling like before you release a new album? Do you know which songs people will gravitate towards or do you get surprised?
Andrew McMahon
I’m probably right maybe 75% of the time. There are songs you finish and know it’s a good one and going to work. Then there are songs that will surprise me for sure. Songs that’ll I’ll dig that I didn’t expect, or every now and again there’ll be something I totally thought was going to kill and nobody really paid attention (laughs).
With “lying on the hood of your car” for instance or “stars” when I first heard them back in the speaker the people in the room would light up and you couldn’t help but move. Certainly I felt that for those songs. But the feeling is obviously nervousness. I’m always anxious seeing something that you cared about a lot and spent a lot of time doing is going to end up on a chopping block. You never know if it’s going to be well received and that’s a vulnerable spot for sure, kinda scary.
SCENEzine
What was it like getting to tour the USA last year with Dashboard Confessional?
Andrew McMahon
Oh great! I love Chris. He’s about the nicest, kindest human being in all of rock and roll for sure. We did dates in Australia before way back in 2012 for Soundwave and did the sidewaves shows together. That was with Jacks Mannequin. I’ve been a fan of his and friends for a long time. You kind of never know with co-headlining bills how they are going to go. Like if you close one night are people going to leave, there’s all these questions. Do the fanbases really get along, is there a cross pollination where people listen to both of our bands.
When we booked it it was prior to the nostalgia wave that hit. Before they booked the When We Were Young Festival in Vegas. We had planned the tour for a while then all of a sudden every band from when I was a kid was going back on the road building these packages. I guess we did this at the right time. Coming out of covid people were craving a dose of nostalgia and a dose of history that pre-dated all of the madness of the last few years.
SCENEzine
From memory the last time you were in Australia was 2018. And I believe you got to bring your family that time?
Andrew McMahon
Yeah Allen Stone, my good friend and tour accomplice on occasion, was getting married. He got married in Melbourne, his wife is Australian. So I thought we are going to go to Allen’s wedding so we might as well book some shows. So it was the first time I got to bring Kelly or Cecilia to Australia. We had such a beautiful time, we did the shows, we got to do the wedding which was great. Then we snuck off and had a little week-long vacation, which was cool.
SCENEzine
Do you have any memories of your first visit to Australia in 2004 with Something Corporate supporting The Offspring?
Andrew McMahon
I have a lot of memories of that time. That was a very pivotal moment for Something Corporate. It was in a hotel room in Australia that we decided to go on hiatus actually. The tour was so much fun, The Offspring guys were really kind to us. It was this tricky moment, we took that tour because how can you not take a tour in Australia with The Offspring. Up until the moment that we took that tour we were super burned out and we had said we were not taking any more tours. We needed to take a breath before we went back into the studio, that was the plan. I think taking the tour was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I don’t blame The Offspring by the way or Australia. I think we did a responsible thing for the band before we all started hating each other. We had gone from being teenagers in high school in a band to grown men with careers. We have never really stopped to take a deep breath. It was that tour that gave me personally the space to think. I always joke that I do some of my best thinking in Australia. I’m eager to get back out there even though it’s only for a few days, to put my thinking cap on before this crazy year gets rolling.
SCENEzine
One of the songs that catapulted Something Corporate was “punk rock princess”. Did that song come about quite easily in the writing process?
Andrew McMahon
That was a ballad when it started. What’s funny is that I had released that song on a series of demos we were handing out to fans at shows. It was this really sad song about me being this dude in a garage band. It was about my ex at the time who was super into punk music. I had never really followed it, which is hysterical how Something Corporate ended up getting signed and a lot of people considered us a punk band.I had taken her to see New Found Glory open up for Face to Face At the House of Blues in LA. I remember coming home from that, we were kind of in an up and down relationship and equating the difference in our musical taste as the analog for why we never really figured out how to fully get along. Hysterically I got signed by the label that represented her favourite band.
That song did come easily. When we got in the studio with Jim Wirt who produced the Something Corporate records and the first couple of Jacks Mannequin records he was like what if we just did this double time. I remember just scratching my head and he hinted at that beat that Brian plays at the beginning. I remember hearing the drum beat and saying ok I get it, we are taking this in a whole other direction.
SCENEzine
Looking beyond Australia later in the year you are playing with Something Corporate at When We Were Young festival in Las Vegas. You must be stoked for that?
Andrew McMahon
The timing of it couldn’t be better. We hadn’t played as the signed, second record lineup since around 2015. As a part of my annual charity show. At that point it was just scary because I played a set with Jacks Mannequin, Something Corporate and the wilderness. I played with every band. I was so flustered and anxious about the whole thing. Then we got together for my 40th birthday last year, we thought let’s just do this and not tell anybody we are doing it. Let’s make it a surprise, put zero pressure on ourselves and just have fun with it. I had been on the road all summer with Dashboard so this was the last show I played. Just a solo show in my hometown. The band practiced together but then I was able to bring everyone on stage and ran the tunes together at soundcheck. It was really special.
I was glad that we did it that way first. Nobody bought a ticket to see that. It was an easter egg in an otherwise sold out show. For the five of us it was all of the good memories and none of the bad, if that makes sense. So much space and time had taken place since when we were together versus where we are now. Then the When We Were Young thing came up and we were like let’s do this. It’ll be so fun to play on a massive stage. I’m really looking forward to it. I used to shy away from digging too far back, now that I’m hitting 40 I feel all the nostalgia and excitement about revisiting those memories.
SCENEzine
Was Las Vegas somewhere you’d go much when you were younger to party?
Andrew McMahon
Oh yeah! I lived four hours from Las Vegas. We used to tell our parents we were sleeping at each other’s house and we would go drive to Las Vegas when we were in high school. We just did it for fun. Get a six pack of beer and a cheap hotel room and party with your homies. Then go back the next morning. There are references to Vegas on the first Jacks Mannequin record. It’s a place that has been a touchstone for me and my friends since we were kids. It’s going to be a good place to reunite for sure.
SCENEzine
Lasty I was curious since you’ve closed some musical chapters before. What’s your thoughts on Panic At The Disco ending?
Andrew McMahon
I have a fondness for Brendon and the guys. Jacks Mannequin supported Panic at the disco on their first huge USA tour after their first record blew up. Then they brought the Wilderness back out with Weezer around 5 years ago. I’ve had the unique view of the band in very, very different stages of their career. But I get it. In Brendon’s case he’s been doing it for close to twenty years.
There’s no question that he’s had all the success you can dream of, certainly made plenty of money. I respect him for saying he’s going to become a dad and see where that leads him. I know how hard it is to walk away from projects that you love that have been meaningful. I doubt that it was an easy decision but I certainly hope for all of them that whatever is on the other side is exciting.
(interview by Christian Ross)
