Image Courtesy of Crush MusicAndrew McMahon has been in the music business for a long time, dating back to his days in Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin. Even still, "Cecilia and the Satellite," his first single under his latest moniker, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, seemingly came out of nowhere. In reaching the top five at Alternative radio, "Cecilia" has introduced a lot of people to the music of Andrew McMahon, but he wrote it to introduce himself to one person in particular: his newborn daughter.
"I wanted the song to one, sort of introduce her to me," McMahon tells ABC Radio of "Cecilia." "And maybe, if nothing else, paint a picture of what life can look like for somebody and say, 'I'm gonna be here, I'm gonna do my best to watch over you every step of the way, but you're gonna go through these things. And yeah, it's not all gonna be perfect, but for as long as I can be I'm gonna be here looking out.' And I think that's really where the satellite concept was born out of."
In the track's chorus, McMahon sings, "Don't be afraid Cecilia I'm the satellite, and you're the sky," but being a "satellite" parent is much different than being a dreaded "helicopter" parent.
"I don't wanna be that close," McMahon laughs. "I think in a sense it was trying to say I'd like to keep it a little bit more...let her be her own person, let her do her own thing, and not [for me to] be this person that's always just hovering but maybe just off in the distance when you need me."
In introducing himself to Cecilia, McMahon sings that he's "been around the world in a punk rock band," which refers to his place in the 2000s pop-punk scene with his previous bands.
"That early 2000s pop-punk scene was a really relevant part of my upbringing in the music world," McMahon tells ABC Radio. "Really a lot of the first tours that Something Corporate were placed on were with bands like New Found Glory and Finch and doing opening dates playing with Blink [182] or Fenix TX and whatever the pop-punk band of the day was."
Though Cecilia is now just about a year-and-a-half old, McMahon says she has heard "Cecilia and the Satellite" many, many times.
"She's been hearing it since before she was born," McMahon laughs. "It's funny, there are songs...it's a really cool thing about being a parent, especially one who has played music my whole life, to see her already developing tastes in music and certain songs that she's into. And I am proud to say that she actually always responds very favorably to ['Cecilia and the Satellite']."
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