Plagues of Hysteria with Andrew McMahon
episodePreviously titled “Episode 650: Plagues of Hysteria with Andrew McMahon” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026
Transcript
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What is the focus of this episode with Andrew McMahon?
And this is a special episode of Morbid Everybody. It's special. We have a guest. We do. Yay. Andrew McMahon on the show. You might know him from one of his several bands. We've got Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, or Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness.
That's me. Welcome. Yeah, I'm glad to be here.
You're all of those.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, of course. Thanks for being in the studio.
It's like such a cool place to be. I'm honored.
So are we. So getting into the questions, I did read that you are somewhat of a child prodigy when it came to the piano. What drew you to the piano so young?
How did Andrew McMahon start his music career?
I mean, it's going to get heavy really quick. We had like a loss in our family. My uncle passed away. And right around that same time, I had a friend's dad teach me how to play a Jerry Lee Lewis song on the piano. And I'd never, I mean, I had piano lessons a little bit as a kid, but... I took the chord that he taught me and all of a sudden just started writing songs. And that was kind of how I processed my grief from losing my uncle. And that was it for me. I was like, this is the thing. You know, like writing songs became my whole, like I would come home from school and I would just sit at the piano until I was told I had to go to sleep or do something for school or whatever. I love that. And it's been that way ever since.
That's when you know it's meant to be.
When it's something that like heals a part, you know? Yeah, exactly. I just started trying to learn. I got like a keyboard. It's hard.
Yeah, I mean, I think when you're nine, it's like a whole other... Everything is so much easier. Yeah, you have that whole sort of neuroplasticity or whatever. And I really liked it, right? So it wasn't like... I didn't start going to piano lessons until like maybe a year or two after that. And so for me, it was just like constant discovery. And like you said, it was a way to process my world, you know? So I just... I think I blew past the it's hard part until I got into like having to study classical music. And then it was like, this sucks. Yeah, this is hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wasn't a great student, but I sort of did what I had to to learn how to navigate the piano and read and do all that stuff.
But it was always just like a safe haven for me.
And it worked out. Yeah, I think. Yeah, we're all thankful for that.
It's been the only real job I've had to have my whole life, which is a really huge gift. I mean, I'm always wondering when the bottom will drop. But yeah, so far so good.
Yeah. Well, you've been making music since like 1998. Yeah. Well, I mean, since you were a kid, but officially.
Yeah. Yeah. So something corporate, which was like my sort of official second high school band, we throughout my like, you know, junior, senior of high school kind of continued to get bigger. And I sort of skipped college and focused on that. And miraculously, we got signed when I was 18. And that was sort of the beginning of Of all of it. So I, you know, Summit Corporate did really well and we toured a ton and put out records. And then, you know, I've kind of hopped from like about every 10 years or so, start a new project because I am restless, I guess you could say. And yeah, it's been a journey for sure. And I've had good fans who are willing to follow me through multiple name changes. Here we are. Here we are. Yeah. Yeah.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the focus of this episode with Andrew McMahon?
0:47–1:36
2
How did Andrew McMahon start his music career?
1:36–5:35
3
What influences Andrew McMahon's songwriting?
5:35–11:45
4
Why did Andrew McMahon write 'Me and the Moon'?
11:45–13:43
5
What are dancing plagues and their historical context?
13:43–21:37
6
How did hysteria manifest in nunneries historically?
21:37–1:10:46