Photo by James Minchin

Dear Jack…

By Jeannette Madden
Music Editor

The Venue welcomes Jack’s Mannequin Saturday, June 25. Having already released two albums, Jack’s Mannequin is set to release its third, “People And Things”, later this year. Jack’s Mannequin is more than just a band. They also provide support for young adults living with cancer. To that end, they have formed the “Dear Jack” Foundation [www.jacksmannequin.com/dear-jack] and spend much of their time supporting the cause.

Jack’s Mannequin started as a side project for founder Andrew McMahon. The Reader spoke with McMahon about the band, the new album “People And Things” and the “Dear Jack” Foundation.

High Plains Reader: Can you fill me in on the history of Jack’s Mannequin?

Andrew McMahon: 2005 is sort of when I finished the first Jack’s Mannequin record and assembled the band to go out on the road. We’ve been making music and touring ever since.

HPR: Can you tell me about each of your band members?

AM: Sure. We’ve got Bobby [Anderson] our guitar player. I met Bob and Jay [McMilian] our guitar player and our drummer when we were both playing in different bands. I was in Something Corporate and they were in a band called River City High. We did a tour together opening up for another band and I guess I brought Bob in to replace another guitar player who left Something Corporate back in the day. Over the course of the year that followed, right around 2004, I started doing the Jack’s project and Bobby joined me for that and we brought Jay in from River City High, his old band. They joined me on the road at that point with another one of their buddies from Richmond named Jon [Sullivan] up until just last summer.

HPR: You recently had a new addition to your band?

AM: Yeah, we pulled in a new bass player over the summer, Mike Wagner, who’s been playing with us ever since and he’s great.

HPR: Have you finished your new album “People and Things”?

AM: Yeah, we put it to bed over the weekend, actually. It’s all tied up in a nice little package and we’re just kind of sitting back and everybody at the record company’s getting their chance to kind of think their teeth into in and we’re hoping to hear a release date sometime in the next couple of weeks.

HPR: Great. Congratulations on that. Now, how is “People and Things” different from your first album?

AM: I think that’s almost more of a question that’s suited to someone that isn’t me because I get so tied up in these things that to some extent they all feel pretty similar when they’re done. But I would say that this record, as far as just the overall sound, I would say I found myself erring a little closer to some of my earlier influences, you know, bands I grew up listening to. Guys like Paul Simon, The Counting Crows, Billy Joel, Elton John, and some other more classic influences. We really tried to focus and make it a really great band record that relied a little bit less on studio magic and a little more on brute force and nailing these performances from start to finish. I think we grew a lot on this one.

HPR: What are your live shows like?

AM: I think that for us, it’s a four piece, which when you listen to these records there’s definitely a lot of layers on these records. I think the cool thing about going to see the band live is we do justice to the recordings but you get to see it in what is in my opinion a little bit more of an earnest kind of a rock and roll application. If you get out to the show I think you’ll find that it’s a pretty energetic concert and a pretty positive experience. We like everybody having a smile on their face the whole night. Hopefully you’ll leave in a good mood; hat’s kind of the idea.

HPR: What’s your writing process? Do you write all of the songs?

AM: I do. I write all the music and on this record three or four of the tunes I co-wrote with a couple of different friends from various different bands that I have toured with. But yeah, for the most part I do all of the writing and will bring a song into the studio in a pretty finished capacity and we’ll just kind of arrange it there on the spot. It usually takes a couple of days and then we’ll move onto the next one.

HPR: Do you have a favorite song of your own?

AM: You know, different songs for different reasons. I think obviously songs that people tend to gravitate toward the most often times become your favorites because you want to see people liking what you do. I think to that end songs like “Dark Blue” off of the first record and “Spinning” off of the most recent record certainly have become favorites for me. There’s a song called “Bruised” off the “Everything In Transit” first album that I think is something that I was always really proud of. But it sort of changes from record to record and even in a live sense from show to show. You can just connect on different songs with different crowds for whatever reason.

HPR: Can you explain the “Dear Jack” Foundation?

AM: It’s a foundation that I started; I suffered from leukemia in 2005 and as I recovered we noticed a lot of fans were creating their own sort of homespun organizations to help fund different charities that we had cited as influential in coming up with cures and good research. We found that from this very awesome grass roots thing that the fans were doing maybe it was a good idea if we were able to house that in one place and steer them in a direction where together we could make a little big more of an impact than splintered off into various different groups. Ever since we’ve been raising money through various different fund raisers and working with organizations like Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, for instance. I’ll go out and do a combination of charity shows or tours once a year that help us make a little bit of money as well, along with doing the documentary [Dear Jack Documentary]. Our goal is basically young adult cancer.

When: Saturday, June 25 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: The Venue
Cost: $21.50 in advance – for more information and to purchase tickets click here: http://
bit.ly/jDNClF

Links: http://www.jacksmannequin.com/
http://www.facebook.com/jacksmannequin

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