At the Innings Festival in Tempe, Arizona, sits Andrew McMahon at his sticker-covered piano with a watered-down old-fashioned and tiny Buddha statue dressed in a Corona koozie cape as his good luck charm.
Despite Buddha’s front-row seat stare and him playing almost all 88 keys, McMahon rarely takes his eyes off the audience. He’s teetering between two microphones and caught between sitting and standing, clearly moved from hearing his words fill the space. Even though his “sports acumen is as low as it could be,” the excited, unlikely grouping of baseball fans and rock connoisseurs smile and raise hands in his direction, a telltale sign that his music truly contains something for everyone.
With the release of his fourth album, Tilt At The Wind No More, McMahon has entered a new musical era, experimenting with a different style. With the help of producers Tommy English and Jeremy Hatcher, he was able to turn these experimental ideas into something more concrete.
Rarely does McMahon strip down his songs, as his typical style is heavy on stunning production. However, TATWNM is more lyric-focused than ever before. In blending acoustic and electronic flare into the songs, the album has found a special spotlight in the alt-pop genre. Even the ballads shake things up a bit, diving into some psychedelic sounds.
Said ballads, “Built To Last” and “Nobody Tells You When You’re Young,” are the most delicate, “spacey” songs on the project, which stray from McMahon’s usual approach to production. In the latter, Andrew McMahon stretches outside his usual autobiographical lyrics to capture the growing pains in learning, or rather, experiencing unteachable lessons. He writes about a protagonist that builds a new life for himself after running away, ultimately finding peace. Although McMahon was inspired by the idea to write about things he wishes people would’ve told him growing up, he explores these lessons through a character that’s outside of himself.
Beyond just a shift in musical style, this album also marks some pretty big milestones in his personal life. On the album, the indie artist has balanced remembrance with growth as a way to commemorate his 40th year, 15 years of marriage, raising a daughter and writing a memoir.
“I’m not really one to care much about birthdays, but it felt like wow, I’m still making music and I’m 40. It also marks sort of me having spent more than half of my life playing and making music professionally,” he said. “A lot of the songs became, at times, a reflection and nostalgia, I think from a place of not really judging it, but making peace with the past.”
Andrew McMahon echoes this sentiment on “VHS,” which he refers to as the “thesis” of TATWNM. On the track, he sings, “Where you came from doesn’t have to be where you live.” Through his lyrics, McMahon gives the impression that hitting these massive milestones feels a lot like “dusting off old home movies.” He’s able to relish in the good memories and be grateful for what the bad ones have taught him.
In his long journey with creating and sharing art, Andrew McMahon has changed his approach throughout the years. In particular, he stressed wanting to have his work as part of the Wilderness project have a distinctive sound, setting it apart from two decades worth of music. But to do that, he had to rewire his creative process.
“With the Wilderness project, I’ve been a lot more collaborative than I was in the past. On the writing side, I sort of came to this place while working with other super talented producers and writers in the room while I’m writing just became a new form of stimulus, a new way to get the same feeling,” he said. “Getting in the room with those people feels fresh. When you do something for a long time, you can feel that.”
In the spirit of refreshing old habits, Andrew McMahon also commented on his process of releasing music, particularly his desire to share his work sooner rather than later.
“If I’m at the studio one day and I feel like I have a great song, I think I might be heading in the direction of just sharing it,” he said. “People don’t have the attention span to listen to whole records unless something really catches fire. I say let’s take the chains off and make it fun.”
According to Andrew McMahon, a big part of “making it fun” is being able to perform live. The California native has a string of festivals lined up for the summer, including Bonnaroo and Adjacent Music Festival. But before diving into those bigger shows, he had his album release show at Chain Reaction, a smaller venue he used to play at before he made it big. In revisiting an old place, the growth that McMahon emphasizes within the album becomes even more apparent.
“I think this wave of nostalgia is sort of all-encompassing at the moment and having gotten to this place in my career prompted us to say let’s bring it back to the roots for a second and do a hometown show and cross our fingers that it works,” he said about Chain Reaction.
Not only is Andrew McMahon reaching people through his music, but also philanthropy. McMahon founded the Dear Jack Foundation in 2006 after getting diagnosed with Leukemia a year prior. Following his remission, it became evident that the aftermath of a disease can be just as debilitating as the treatment itself.
“I think survivorship is a really underappreciated trauma that a lot of people focus on. Because you’re well again, doctors say you’ve done it and you’re out the door,” he said. “But you kind of enter this minefield of mental health concerns that we’re trying to help.”
The Dear Jack Foundation provides programs specifically for youth and adolescents diagnosed with cancer to offer assurance to patients, survivors and their families. McMahon makes sure to highlight the importance of recovery support knowing how difficult it was to recover himself. He plans to continue this work, hoping to initiate change and provide a community for young adults in search of empowerment during a difficult time.
Healing is an integral part of Andrew McMahon’s life and career, as his music encourages fans not to be tethered to their past struggles, but to reflect on them with grace. Tilt At The Wind No More is a brilliant display of why we should be excited for what’s ahead.
Listen to the full album by Andrew McMahon here.
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