And Now For Something Completely Different
It’s just past 8.30 in the evening on a scorching evening in London, and nearly 2000 – mainly young – fans are packed in the sweaty, muddled mass of the Astoria Theatre, having spent the last hour and a half throwing themselves around to the catchy if derivative emo-pop-punk of first Californians Lucky 7 and then Chicago band Allister, are itching impatiently for the headline act.
To a rapturous reception, an inconspicuous, shaggy-haired blonde kid walks into view and sits, alone, at a piano placed at the centre of the stage, and starts to play. Few could captivate an audience of teenage pop-punk followers with a nine-minute piano ballad, let alone dare open a sold-out show with one, but this is no ordinary punk-rocker, or indeed a punk-rocker at all; this is Andrew McMahon and Something Corporate.
McMahon, bona-fide rock pin-up and the band’s vocalist, pianist and driving creative influence, is more than simply appreciative of the British crowd’s enthusiasm:
"The coolest thing about the crowds here is that they’re really open to music", he says. "I mean when kids go to shows – and by kids I mean anyone who goes to shows really, I’m a kid myself – in America you’re bad until proven good, out here people just want to have a good time when they go to see a show."
Listening to the frontman describe himself as a "kid" just underlines how difficult it is to believe that, as part of an established act within the US music scene, Andrew McMahon is still only just 21, even if odes to Britain’s (comparatively) lax licensing laws in mid-performance on previous tours have rather given the game up. Reminded of this, he is quick – amidst laughter – to acknowledge the unique contribution a combination of punk kids and alcohol brings to the gig scene in the UK:
"Oh yeah, that’s also a different experience, I mean I’ll be 21 in the summer and in America that’s important, but out here it’s kind of an amusing thing that, you know, I think that also plays into it because everyone shows up pissed and has a good time"
“We wanted to make a record that we connected with, and that our fans would be able to connect with too.”
- Andrew McMahon
Despite admitting to influences as far-fetched as Elton John and Billy Joel, Something Corporate released their debut album Leaving Through The Window on cult label Drive-Thru (home to pop-punk stalwarts New Found Glory amongst others: "We’re this band that doesn’t really fit in", admits McMahon) and draw the majority of their fan-base from what would be consired a typical Drive-Thru audience. Whilst many would baulk at the association, McMahon is quick to acknowledge their support:
"Somehow it seems like the people who listen to that music identify with what we do, which I think is the most flattering compliment of all time", he replies. "There’s nothing cooler than being in a band [when] you don’t maybe necessarily sound like the crowd you run with but people still find something within you that speaks to them"
Not that, as Leaving Through The Window’s first single ‘Punk Rock Princess’ demonstrated, Something Corporate owe nothing to the genre they surround themselves with and that most of the band’s fans follow devotedly. However, having spent much of their formative years in the rich pop-punk territory of Orange County, California (home of the Offspring and No Doubt, amongst many others), McMahon is acutely aware of the differences between his own band and their contemporaries:
"Not to say that we don’t like punk music", he explains. "But I think being so surrounded by it – every band out of high school in Orange County when we started our band was trying to be Blink-182 – there were so many people doing it that we didn’t want to, if anything we learned from being in Orange County that we wanted to do something we found more interesting, that was a little more rock-orientated than it was punk orientated."
Leaving Through The Window ably demonstrated this; a luscious mix of radio-friendly melodic piano-rock and marketable pop-punk sensibility. With the band’s new album North due out this week, McMahon is openly optimistic about the new material:
"We had the chance on this record to really focus on building out the aspects of the band that we really fell in love with through the past year and a half of touring; some of the rock stuff is heavier than any of the other rock stuff we’ve ever done before, and then some of the mellow is more intense, and quieter, and sweeter than it’s ever been" he says, before adding with characteristic modesty that "you never really know how it’s going to go until it’s out, but I’m as proud of it as I’ve been of anything."
"It’s based on what we’ve loved about playing live and what we’ve loved about doing shows, so to me I think it’s going to be a really awesome record for our fans who come to see our shows; we really wanted to make a record that we connected with, and that our fans would really be able to connect with too."
With the crowd at tonight’s Astoria show enthralled, it would seem he has little need to worry.
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