Nobody else can quite compare building houses to writing songs like the ever-so-inspiring frontman Andrew McMahon. Jack’s Mannequin releases their third album October 4th entitled People and Things and kicks off their headlining fall tour this week with The Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Check out more about the band’s journey, and take a look inside the artist’s head with us.

Photo: Courtesy of James Minchin

ELLEgirl (EG): Explain where the name Jack’s Mannequin comes from.

Andrew McMahon (AM): Jack’s was actually sort of a subject for one of the first songs I wrote for this project in 2004—the song ‘Dear Jack’. I contemplated calling the band The Mannequins, but at the time I was the only band member. I kind of jockeyed his name into the concert and made it his mannequin. It was so many years ago; I really believe that the name of a band is almost irrelevant because [the band] becomes defined by the sound it creates.

EG: You have so much energy on stage. What’s your favorite thing about performing?

AM: For me, performance is really the kind of way I express myself the most. You write these songs and you say these words and you have this overall thing you’re trying to communicate with people. But when I get on stage, it’s sort of a chance to surge and let it out. I love the idea that if I can give a certain amount of energy to the audience, then it translates back to me and I get more energy. I look at a live performance as an exchange of energies. I like to give as much as I can and see that come back.

EG: You fronted Something Corporate before Jack’s, but even before that, where did your first interest in music really come from?

AM: I’m the youngest of five kids; my sister and I, we are only about a year and a half apart, but my other brothers and sister are seven and eight years years apart. There was always music in the house. With three teenagers and me being five or six years old, they were all in that phase of bringing home music and turning their little brothers and sisters on to it. My mother and father were both music lovers. Simon and Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand, or some form of music would be bouncing around and there was always a piano at my house. My brothers and sisters were athletic, and I really wasn’t. I was into poems and writing stories and listening to songs and tinkering on the piano. In a sea of a lot of kids who are doing a lot of things, I found something in a sea of my own.

EG: At what point in your life did you really and truly know that this (making music) is what you wanted to do?

AM: Since [age] nine or ten, I was dreaming of record deals and concerts and recording studios from the first second I wrote a song. Even then, I would be dying to get home from school to sit down at the piano and play music. It was all I could really think about, and all I have really thought about ever since.

EG: Who are your biggest musical influences that have just stuck with you throughout your whole journey thus far?

AM: Billy Joel for sure was one of my firsts; even on this new record after so many years of having moved on. Also Tom Petty, Brian Wilson, Ben Folds, The Counting Crows.

EG: Right now, if we turned your iPod on, what would we hear coming through the speakers? AM: The My Morning Jacket record that came out maybe six months ago. I just found that record. We went to Vegas for my friend’s bachelor party. I drove out there and told them they have to check out this record. I’ve been playing it on repeat; it’s tricky to find something you love from start to finish.

EG: If you weren’t a musician, what would you be? The sky’s the limit.

AM: Probably, if I’m being honest, I’d be writing books or short stories or poems, maybe a journalist. If I’m dreaming, it’s probably a photographer, film-maker, or something with architecture. I like to build things and create. There’s not a world out there that doesn’t involve building. I look at a song like that of building a house. There are all these moving things and rooms that create this beautiful thing. In the last few years I’ve become enamored with houses and architecture.

EG: Let’s talk about People and Things, your new album. Being married now has influenced a lot of this album. How did you and your wife meet?

AM: I was probably about 14 years old. She was a close friend of my sister’s throughout our time growing up in southern California. We reconnected at a party and kept in touch ever since and eventually started dating.

EG: Did you already have the songs written before going into the studio?

AM: There were two phases; initially I thought I was making the album by bringing songs into those sessions and doing some of the writing, but eventually that record just kind of didn’t feel complete. I then took a lot of those songs into band practices and rehearsals leading into the next set of studio sessions. ‘Restless Dream’ I wrote during a studio session. I was pretty well prepared going into this. I did a lot of the legwork.

EG: What vibes/themes can we look forward to finding in this album?

AM: I think to me, the theme is sort of as mopey as it sounds. It’s about fighting for love, really. To me, I really wanted to write about not just necessarily a romance but really about relationships in general and the values they hold and how we react to these relationships.

EG: Were there any new artists that have influenced this album and your sound since your last albums?

AM: There were certainly records that popped up that I really fell in love with. Time will tell how that plays in and how much influence I pulled. I dug back. Paul Simon blew me away and Vampire Weekend was putting out their last record, which I really loved. After the Phoenix’s record broke here in the states, I dug back into the catalog. I listened to Songs From the Attic by Billy Joel and gravitated towards Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons. The sound of this record is kind of a direct contrast to the indie rock scene. There is a certain sound of rock today,  and to some extent, I found myself avoiding that sound like the plague and tried to do something altogether different. I went more towards the more classical sound. Even though I was influenced by the genre, I processed that influence in an opposite direction.

EG: Are we going to hear something completely different than the last album?

AM: I certainly think it sounds different. There was a dramatically different approach to its creation. I think there was an intention on this record to play less, simplify, and strip things back to make it really about the song and be reserved and restrained when it came to the production. Our real goal was to let the song stand on its own and to not fall prey to any of these ideas of “well, maybe if we added this, this, or this.” If the song is good, we will be able to approach it simply and people will get it.

EG: What’s behind this album name?

AM: I love the simplicity of the two words together. It is such a simple title, but inside of those two words is pretty much everything. There is a much different meaning if you decide to latch it on. The starkness of title is in reference to the starkness of the lyrics. I wrote words that weren’t overly poetic but were a little bit more of take-them-for-face-value and this-is-what-it-is. And in that sense there is some sort of acceptance.

EG: You are headlining a tour starting October 6. Any pre-tour rituals? On-tour rituals?

AM: I practice; we’ll be in a good week-long, eight-to-ten-hour-day rehearsals leading up to it. We are ambitiously kicking this tour off with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. When there is time between tours and what not, I do my best to kind of slip into normal mode of living because you sort of have to rely on those times to cultivate themes and ideas that become the next album or next song, and it’s hard to do that when you are really wrapped up. I try to get home and see my family and hang out with my girl and dog and write music when I wake up.

EG: What kind of dog do you have?

AM: We have a lot of shih tzus in the band family. Between two of my bandmates there are one to three shih tzus.

EG: You battled with leukemia and gratefully won that battle. Can you tell us about the Dear Jack Foundation?

AM: We are constantly evolving; every year we do the night walks to raise money for research. When you are a smaller foundation, it’s hard to generate dollars for research. It costs millions to effectively research any protocol, so we try to do that work. Individually we raise money and source other organizations that put cancer patients in camp. They get to rest and feel normal. For us, it started as a leukemia and blood cancer charity. In the past year or two, a lot of studies showed that young adults [aged] 15 to 39 have not seen improvement, so we really tried to re-tool our message and brand. We knew we needed to take care of this age bracket, and there are different hospitals that are geared to change those bad statistics. We are hoping we can raise even more money and call attention to it because it’s a sad thing when those people are the ones with the least improvements.

EG: Who is your biggest inspiration?

AM: My sister Kate is pretty high on that list, but I really have a list a mile long. Kate managed to save my life with her stem cells, so she is an inspiring person to say the least.

EG: If you were to be quoted in a book entitled Words of Wisdom by Andrew McMahon, what would be your favorite quote?

AM: I’m going to use someone else’s quote. I was reading a magazine that asked Michael Douglas, and his quote was something like, “Never look in the rear view mirror,” and I sort of found myself pretty impressed with that.

EG: You have a tattoo of Van Gogh’s Starry Night? Why that particular painting?

AM: To me, Van Gogh is the classic tale of a great artist who lived a tortured existence. The real reason is that it’s beautiful, and I love beautiful things. I certainly found myself just connecting over the years to this man, his ideas, and his level of abandonment for his craft. He pursued art until the end even when he was told he wasn’t good at it. Meanwhile, he was inventing a new style of art and painting that has permeated culture for hundreds of years now or close to at least. I think in that sense, that’s something I’ve always felt inspired by. Despite not living a very long life, the amount he created in the face of people who didn’t believe in him is a testament to his massive genius. I also just love the night sky. If you listen to Something Corporate, you will hear that—the idea of that sky. I find myself in the clouds quite of bit.

EG: Will Something Corporate have any more reunion shows?

AM: We took advantage of that ten-year anniversary because we all still feel deeply connected, and it was a really nice frame for coming back together. We really aren’t pursuing this in the modern sense. We have these fans, so we were like, “let’s go out and go do it.” There was a hole in Josh’s school schedule, and he was able to do the summer. I really don’t want to say it’s the end, but it is the most recent chapter.  Do I see myself eventually doing a tour where the songs make their way back? Maybe, absolutely. I love that music, too. But I don’t consider myself a nostalgic artist. I make new things, and as an artist you want to play new things for people. I certainly would love to do a tour where there is a marriage between the Jack’s catalog and the Something Corporate catalog.

EG: Last and final question: If you could have one super power what would it be?

AM: Flight. No questions. Absolutely.