FRESH AIR
If you are of a certain age and lived on the weird television shows that Nickelodeon aired in the ’90s, the to The Adventures of Pete & Pete gets you smiling strange. Mark Mulcahy was told to “write a theme song for the show, but don’t say anything about the show.” Turns out the former Miracle Legion singer already had “Hey Sandy” in his back pocket, and thus the show’s Polaris house band was born. Mulcahy has had a creatively fruitful solo music career since, but in 2008, his wife died, leaving him with twin 3-year-old daughters. To meet the demands of single parenthood, he stopped recording and touring. A tribute album titled Ciao My Shining Star was released in 2009 to help raise money for him; it featured , , , Juliana Hatfield and many others singing Mulcahy’s songs. Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You is his first full-length album in eight years. It’s full of smart wordplay and Mulcahy’s unmistakable voice, but also driven by loss. Mulcahy recently brought his guitar and longtime collaborator Ken Maiuri to Fresh Air to share his story and music. He closes the show with “Auld Lang Syne,” as he ruminates on why we remember old times and describes himself a “moving forward type.” MORE