After two successful album with his latest project Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, the piano-rock singer decided to take some time off to spend time with his wife Kelly and daughter Cecilia and figure out what he wanted to do next.
This break gave rise to his new song “Ohio,” which came out on Friday.
“In the midst of living the closest thing to a normal home life I could imagine for myself, I began to write,” he said. “Not for anything or anyone. There was no goal, no deadline, no story I was trying to tell. Just the hours in the day when Cecilia was off at school or everyone had gone to bed or whatever, that I felt like sitting in my little back house studio and making noises until they sounded like music.
“In the middle of it all this song appeared. I hadn’t intended to write it. It’s rare for me to dig so far into my memory, but in this case the call was not one that could go unanswered.”
In the song, Andrew recounts the story of his family’s move from Ohio to California when he and sister Katie were young children.
But what would normally be considered a rather pedestrian occurrence in the life of a family appears to have some dark undertones as McMahon sings: “We can’t look back / Some men you just can’t save / We had our reasons, for leaving / It’s better this way.”
Andrew has taken to social media to talk about the new song, but wasn’t keen to reveal the story behind the story of the song.
“If I’m being completely honest though, I don’t feel so desperately inclined to speak about ‘Ohio,'” he said.
He did offer one insight, noting: “I suppose it’s one thing to run away but it’s another be pulled down the road by what feels like the hand of fate. But there I go again, talking about a song.”
