Ten years ago, songwriter Andrew McMahon kicked off a solo career after a stint fronting Jack’s Mannequin, while 10 years before that he released his final record with the piano-centric emo-pop outfit Something Corporate. Coming off the success of last year’s solo outing Tilt at the Wind No More, McMahon recently got his original band back together for a US tour that kicked off last month, preceded by the band’s first new single in two decades. In the brief lull before the Out of Office tour continues next month, they’re sharing another upbeat new track today called “Happy” which directly addresses the post-pandemic optimism of escaping quarantine a few years back.
“I wrote ‘Happy’ toward the end of the pandemic,” McMahon shares. “There was this sense that we were all coming out of this strange moment collectively, and I wanted to write something that reflected that. There was this aching for normalcy, a humble kind of happiness where you could just be, without confronting a four-alarm fire every other day. Years later I think that sentiment still makes a lot of sense.
McMahon also hints at the song’s dual meaning, as he later references his excitement at the thought of getting the band back together—again, returning to a sense of what feels normal to him. “For me, the magic of this song is in the visuals and vignettes of everyday life in my weird little beach town and the return to a production style that includes super distorted guitars,” he continues. “There’s something in the message of ‘Happy’ and in its lyrical and aesthetic ties to Southern California that always made it feel like a Something Corporate song. I’m glad I held it back from the last Wilderness record and that it ended up at home in the studio with Brian, Will, Josh, and Clutch.”
Check out the new single below, and find the band’s tour dates here.
