Andrew McMahon

The good news: Something Corporate frontman Andrew McMahon has a new side project of hooky, piano-heavy rock called Jack’s Mannequin. The group’s debut album, Everything in Transit, hit stores August 23rd and the first video, “The Mixed Tape,” hit MTV a few weeks earlier. The better news: Something Corporate isn’t going anywhere. McMahon recently finished laying down the first original Something Corporate track in two years (a song titled “There, There Katie”). The bad news: After running some simple blood tests thanks to a bout of laryngitis a few months ago, McMahon was diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia—a serious but treatable form of cancer. Despite this, he has somehow managed to remain genuinely upbeat and ready to talk openly about his experiences.



What are you looking at right now?

I’m looking at the outside of a hospital building. It’s looking more and more like home these days. We’re in the process of harvesting my sister’s stem cells right now. Later this month, I’m going to go in for a bone marrow transplant and my sister was a perfect match, so I’m on my lunch break from that at this particular moment.



You seem particularly upbeat given the situation.

Yeah, I think that’s really the only way to deal with this and fortunately, just about everything that could have gone right in this situation so far has gone right.



Where were you when you first got the news?

We had just finished mastering the Jack’s Mannequin record when my doctor called me. There was probably a week of shock before everything really began to sink in. Actually, it’s only been a couple of months now, and it’s still sinking in so hopefully by the time it completely sinks in, it’ll be gone [laughs].





When do you expect to be back in full force with Jack’s Mannequin?

With this bone marrow transplant, they like to keep tabs on you for a while just to make sure that everything worked, so I don’t anticipate any tours in the next year. But as soon as everyone says it’s cool, and I’m feeling good enough, I’ll be playing a show—that’s for sure.



Tell me about the positive side of this experience.

You see a lot of strength and a lot of hope in people when you’re sleeping in a cancer ward. And you learn a lot about how insignificant the things you dwell on in your daily life really are. Those things shrink immediately and you find out how much the people in your life really mean.



Jack’s Mannequin and Something Corporate have a fairly similar sound. Why bother with the side project?

Something Corporate was burnt. We had been in closed quarters with each other for years, and we were exhausted. Basically, I didn’t want to lose this batch of songs and their significance just because we were taking some time off. I didn’t think of this as a side project as much as it was a recording exercise, but then we got this great interest from Maverick Records who wanted to put it out.



Anything you’d like to let the fans who will read this know?



In every chance I’ve been given to say something to the fans it has always just been thank you for the support over the past few months. I’ve got boxes of letters and gifts from people who heard about what is going on. The way everyone has given back to me through this whole process has just been incredible. So again, thank you all. 

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