Andrew McMahon praat over kanker

In een recent interview heeft Andrew McMahon een boekje open gedaan over kanker. Zo vertelt hij wat de rol van deze ziekte is in zijn muziek en carrière, aangezien hij in het verleden is gediagnosticeerd met de ziekte. McMahon is er nog elke dag mee bezig en hoewel zijn lichaam is genezen, duurde de genezing in zijn hoofd langer. Hieronder kun je een fragment lezen van bovengenoemd interview.

Has your sickness affected the music you’ve written since that time?

In the years that followed, when I actually was out of the woods and in a position to write, in some ways it became a little torturous. It was hard to articulate such a confusing set of emotions—knowing that you’re well and that you’re not dying anymore. But also, the insecurities that follow a recovery like that are so profound, and your confidence is really shaken. And having a crisis of confidence when you’re trying to write music or when you’re trying to create art, period, is a really, really difficult thing to weigh. You have to be sort of fearless when you create, you know? It’s almost essential to the process. And I was a pretty afraid person for a number of years following my illness, so it was tricky for a while.

Does life ever return to normal after cancer?

No, it doesn’t. I think you have a new normal. I mean, does my life feel like it’s achieved a sense of balance? Yeah, and it’s taken a lot of years to find that, and a lot of help. But somewhere after five or six years I was like, ‘Ok, you’ve gotta figure out a way to be better,’ you know? Because my body got better a lot faster than my mind did. And the past couple years especially, it’s started to feel like alife. I’ve had so many experiences post-cancer now that I have memories of life after cancer. But it does take a while, and I wish somebody had told me that. They prepare you for a lot of the things that happen when you’re sick, but they don’t tell you about the aftermath. When I’m talking to young patients, I always try to say—just know, it gets tricky when you get better, too.