On tour now promoting his second album, The Glass Passenger, I recently had the chance to speak with Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin. Previously the lead singer of Something Corporate, McMahon started Jack’s Mannequin as a solo project in 2004. Describing his music as “piano-driven rock and roll” and “melodic pop,” McMahon said that there are as many similarities as there are differences between Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin. He began writing the songs for Something Corporate, but decided to turn them into solo works instead. Working on his own project allowed McMahon more creative control and the ability to write more personal songs.

In terms of the music that McMahon listens to, he tries not to limit himself to any one particular genre. He said, “Music is about communication, and I don’t want to cut myself off from anything.” Right now he’s enjoying The Con by Tegan and Sara and MGMT, as well as classics like Neil Young and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. McMahon also professed his enjoyment of The Killers, saying “I appreciate good pop music.”

As to feedback about his own music, McMahon says that he avoids checking the internet for comments and reviews. Instead, he prefers to look at the sales story and the reactions that he gets from fans and audience members. He’s using this tour is an opportunity to play smaller venues in order to experiment with the music and figure out how to play it live. So far, McMahon says that four or five of the shows on this tour have blown his mind.

When asked about his all-time favorite tour experience, McMahon recalled a night in Toronto when he was on tour with The Audition and Head Automatica. They discovered a bar called Stones Place whose owner, Jerry Stone, has been collecting Rolling Stones memorabilia for 38 years. Stone closed the bar to the public for the night so that everyone from the tour could hang out there. McMahon said that there was “a lot of partying going on” and that is was a “beautiful night.”

And for my three standard questions: McMahon said that the first album that he bought for himself was “Either Pearl Jam’s Ten or Blind Melon’s Tones of Home.” If he could invent something or take credit for inventing something, he would invent “A new mode of music distribution that would combine digital and physical forms. Whenever you bought something digital, you would get something physical, too. Or iTunes.” If he could have one superhero power, McMahon would choose “flying, definitely. The power of flight.”

Make sure to check out Jack’s Mannequin at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights on Monday, November 10, 2008, on tour with fun and Treaty of Paris. Here is a clip of Jack’s Mannequin hit song "The Resolution"