Review Fix Exclusive: Brendan McMahon Talks ‘About Joe’ And More

Review Fix chats with Melbourne singer/songwriter Brendan McMahon, who discusses the creative process behind his new EP, “About Joe.”

About Brendan McMahon:

Renowned across his native Australia for his powerhouse voice, incisive and insightful songwriting and a freewheeling, eclectic vibe that draws from rock, pop, country, Celtic, folk and blues, Melbourne singer/songwriter Brendan McMahon has mastered the art of creating songs from a mix of exotic travel adventures and the simplest things (sometimes found in his own backyard!) since releasing his 2015 debut album Falling To Earth under the moniker Satellite Gods. Teaming again with a batch of Australia’s most brilliant musical “gods,” he continues his dynamic musical evolution with five of his edgiest, most emotionally hard-hitting tracks ever on his fresh five-track EP About Joe – follow-up to his well-received 2017 set Universalist.

Review Fix: What is the Australian music scene like? How has it shaped you?

Brendan McMahon: Probably like all music scenes, the Aussie scene has changed a lot over the years and each city in Australia is different. Fortunately, I live in Melbourne where the scene is still very buoyant for both cover and original artists. There are lots of small intimate pubs to play live acoustic gigs and several larger size venues for bigger gigs.

I started going to see bands in the ‘80s like INXS, Men At Work, Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel, The Angels plus heaps more in pubs that held around 100 people… those days the venues probably crammed 300 in…! I still see a lot of bands today… I now record with guys from The Angels, Men At Work and Jimmy Barnes which is cool considering I grew up listening to them.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

McMahon: I got my first guitar when I was 15 and along with a couple of mates we did our first live performance to a few friends on the porch of my parents’ house in the country town I grew up in. It was a very still summer night and about a half hour after we started, the local police turn up threatening to book us all for noise pollution… must’ve sounded pretty bad. That was the start… many years later, December 2013, I wrote the first song I written in many years… it was called Morris. After I wrote Morris I made a promise to myself that I’d capture every idea that came to me, it must’ve opened up a door for me because I’ve written close to 100 songs since that point.

Review Fix: What are your influences?

McMahon: My influences start at and English Glam Rock band called Slade through to a Canadian singer song writer called Harry Manx… way too many artists to name. My biggest interest these days are songwriters that can capture my interest with their stories.

Review Fix: What is your stand-out track on this EP? How was it written?

McMahon: I find it very hard to pick stand out tracks as they all have something significant in them whether by song structure, musicianship or the story. If I had to pick one track it would probably be “Doctor” due to the powerful nature of the inspiration for the song. I was at a luncheon a few years back where the guest speaker was a young Australian war veteran. His story started by him telling the audience that he was an unemployed surfer in his early 20’s and he decided to do something with his life. He joined the Aussie armed forces and ended up in the elite S.A.S., a special forces unit in the army. He served in Afghanistan and the vehicle he was traveling in went over a land mine… he lost both his legs in the explosion. I felt his story was very compelling and deserved to be told in a song.

Review Fix: What makes your brand of music special?

McMahon: I think there’s a uniqueness in that I’m not particularly genre-bound. I listen to all kinds of music and it finds it’s way into my writing… this can be a challenge for listeners and even press at times because my releases can bounce from folk to rock to pop to Celtic to blues even. My view is that it makes the releases more interesting… kind of like you never know what you’re going to get until the next track starts.

Review Fix: What is your biggest strength as a musician?

McMahon: I work hard on making the lyrics interesting… I consider myself a storyteller first and musician second… hope this makes sense…!

Review Fix: Why do you think people should enjoy it?

McMahon: I’ll explain this with a couple of examples.

I was at a venue a couple of weeks ago playing a new song (one from my next album). The track is called “I Am” and it’s basically a song about running away to a quieter life. After I’d finished my set a guy came up to me and told me he associated with the song as he had times in his life when he wanted to do exactly what I’d had written in the lyric… run away.

Another example is a song called “Mother” I played it to a mate of mine and as the song went on I could see tears welling in his eyes and then to the point of running freely down his face.

If I can tell a story well enough that there’s an emotional reaction from the listener it’s incredibly satisfying for me and it takes them on a journey.

Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?

McMahon: I think I might have just answered this in the last question… I want the listener to be captivated by the story.

Review Fix: What makes this album different from your previous work?

McMahon: The selection on this EP, for the most part, is lyrically much deeper than previous releases… we also had the budget to spend a bit more time exploring the best approach for each song along with more time on the production of each track. I also think that all musicians grow with each new release… I hope this is the same for me.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2018?

McMahon: I’m currently in the studio working on 24 new tracks so I’d hope to have something new out later in the year. I’m heading to the U.S. in August to hopefully find out a bit more about the music scene over there… I hope to do a small tour over there in early 2019 if all goes to plan. Other than that, I’ll be promoting the tracks on “About Joe” to the Aussie market.

Review Fix: What’s next?

McMahon: More touring, more albums, more writing.