Something Corporate |
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Mon. December 08.2003 12:00 AM EST |
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Something Corporate: Piano MenRadio-friendly dudes make mucho catchy emo. Andrew McMahon talks about flip-flop fashion, lugging their '88s around, and hittin' the mall with Good Charlotte. by Gil Kaufman |
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(Chapman Baehler. Geffen Records.) |
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Unless your name is Elton or Alicia and you're banging the ivories in a Donald Duck suit or sexy braids, it's nearly impossible to look cool and rock hard while playing piano. Even tougher is doing it in flip-flops as you croon sensitive emo
"An audience that tends to hate us because of the piano just tends to want to hate," said Andrew McMahon, the 21-year-old singer/piano man for Orange County emo rockers Something Corporate. "But I don't take it personally. I'd be surprised if there's a band who comes out of where we do that hasn't had pennies or something else chucked at them." Fresh off a stint opening for their pals Good Charlotte, and flying high on the emotionally charged single, "Space," from their second major label album, North, the boys in Something Corporate are dodging less debris these days. Formed just three years ago, the old friends have been on the road non-stop for the past 24 months, opening for everyone from 311 to Rancid. They’ve barnstormed the country with trusty upright Yamaha piano in tow, and converted fans to their unique sound, a blend of McMahon’s athletic keyboard pounding and yearning vocals that's built on chugging guitars, elaborate harmonies and heartbreaking lyrics about isolation and dislocation. "Space" is about longing for some alone time after being cooped up with the same faces day after day. Though their families now realize that the urgent music is a form of therapy, McMahon said guitarist Josh Partington got "smoked" by his parents for a few days after they heard an interview in which he said the single was inspired by a trip home. Such is the price they pay for wearing their angst on their sleeves in songs like "She Paints Me Blue" and "Break Myself." Surprisingly chipper for a guy who often sounds miserable, McMahon chatted with VH1 about the danger of taking flying leaps at the piano, fans singing along to every song, and being harassed by a pal dedicated to casting an orangutan as the lead in one of their videos. VH1: Name another band that really rocked with a piano. Andrew McMahon: Ben Folds Five. I'd been playing piano for a long time and sophomore year in high school I got their first album and it was like nothing I'd ever heard before. VH1: But did his shtick make it harder on you? McMahon: Early on we heard a lot more about Ben, like we were ripping them off. I thought that was funny, since piano is one of the most timeless instruments there is. Like, a band can't have one because another one used it? Those comparisons have died down a lot because we have a very different style. Besides, he's a more brilliant piano player than I'll ever be. VH1: How much harder is it to travel with a piano than a guitar? McMahon: It was much harder earlier. Once we were into a trailer and had a case made for it, things became much easier. Before that, with the five of us and our two crew guys, we could move it anywhere. It's what we're used to. We've never been in a band without the hassle of loading it onto the stage. VH1: Have you ever gotten a piano-related injury? McMahon: I've gotten injured jumping on it. The second or third show of the Warped tour [in 2002] I did a running jump onto the keys and fell off and sprained my ankle. I lean against it when I play and the other day I looked at my thighs and they were totally black and blue. VH1: All piano players have a signature move, what's yours? McMahon: I rip off everyone's signature moves. I'm known for jumping up and down on the keys. I try and treat a piano like anybody in a rock band would treat a guitar and take the pretentiousness out of it. They're such strong instruments that it's hard to destroy them, though I am slowly killing every one I play. I break one or two strings a night. We have to hire tuners in every city. VH1: Is it hard to look cool on stage playing a piano in flip-flops? McMahon: I don't know if it's the charm of our band, but people don't tend to like our band because we're cool. I moved to California as a freshman and I started hating shoes. I wear sandals every day, no matter what. We had someone who worked for our booking agent who had this personal vendetta against my sandals. He'd be like, "You can't be a rock star if you're wearing sandals!" So I was like, "Oh well, I guess I can't be a rock star." VH1: Be honest, does it bug you when fans sing along to every song? McMahon: I've been told that everyone sings every word, and I don't know if I'm going deaf, but I tend not to notice. At quiet moments they will get really quiet, so the fans seem respectful of that. But they sing loud and proud when we do. I would be a hypocrite if I said I was mad about it. When I went to shows I would sing every word. VH1: "Space" makes you sound like the kind of guys who don't like people. McMahon: Josh wrote that about wanting to be alone and being frustrated at feeling like that. When you get off the road and you've been breathing ten other people's air for ten months, you get home and sometimes push away the people closest to you because you've had enough of them for a while. VH1: How many goofy treatments did you get from directors for that video? McMahon: You have no idea. There's one reference to outer space in the song, which is not about space at all and we got so many treatments with people in space suits or guys floating around and one where we were on some space station. If I saw anything with a reference to space I just threw it away. VH1: What's the silliest treatment someone has ever sent you for a video? McMahon: It was from this guy who used to work with us during our first album. He was obsessed with this idea for the "If You C Jordan" video that involved the Jordan character being an orangutan. It was his job to solicit video treatments, but all he did was try to hide the treatments so he could further his idea of a video with a monkey in it. VH1: What did you learn about being big rock stars from Good Charlotte when you opened for them? McMahon: We've been friends with them since we were on Warped together before they got big. They haven't changed, but we went to the mall with them and as you can imagine it was crazy. VH1: I hope you didn't go into Hot Topic. McMahon: No, Hot Topic came to them. |
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