Andrew McMahon Returns to Something Corporate After Battling Leukemia

When Orange Country pop-punkers Something Corporate disbanded in 2004 it wasn't supposed to be permanent. "We never really made the point to break up," frontman Andrew McMahon tells Spinner. "We went on hiatus was because we were good friends and we wanted to protect our friendship."

But then McMahon, who took the time to record his first solo album under the moniker Jack's Mannequin, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 22. McMahon chronicled his struggle with the disease in 2009's 'Dear Jack,' a documentary that features self-recorded footage from his time in the hospital. "Originally the plan was I'd do a Jack's record and then I'd do a Something Corporate record. Clearly, my life changed pretty dramatically in the midst of making that first Jack's record and I went a different direction," he says. "But it hasn't changed my love for what I created in Something Corporate and what we created together as a band."

After years of debating the right time to get back together, the group -- who reunited to perform three songs at Bamboozle Left in Pomona, Calif. in October of 2006 -- are getting together to do the reunion thing right, performing this Sunday, March 28 at Bamboozle Left in Anaheim and again May 15 in Chicago for Bamboozle in the Windy City.

So what made this the right time? "For us, we were signed in 2000 and we put out our very first recordings, an independent record called 'Ready ... Break,'" McMahon says. "Finally we came up on this 10-year anniversary of when we started making music in the studio together and it seemed as good a time as any for me, finally being through the bulk of what was attached to being sick."

Now healthy, McMahon says he can look back on that time with perspective. "It's weird when you're in a band and you jump into another one. It's like you do a bit of distancing yourself and you sort of disassociate in some ways. It was a bit of another life for me as I see it now," he says. "But it's a good time for me at this moment, being able to circle back and see how good it all really was on that side of it after this whole ordeal."

And what does he see? "Coming back and doing some shows with the boys is pretty awesome," he says.

Given that and the fact the break was never intended to be permanent, is there a chance for more Something Corporate happenings in the future? Yes and no, McMahon explains. "As far as our career as a recording band and a band that's making an effort to put out new modern albums, I don't necessarily see that happening. I feel like as far as where I am in my career, the way that I'm recording right now I'm just really happy," he says. "But at the same time I wouldn't rule out the idea of us going out and playing new shows. We have a catalogue of tons of songs and if the opportunity presented itself for us to sneak out and do a show here and there I could see it happening. But I think that will probably be the extent of it."

Watch Something Corporate's 'If You C Jordan' Video (2002)