Andrew McMahon Shares Touring Secrets

jacksmannequin Jan 25, 2012

Jack's Mannequin have just kicked off a US tour and Buzznet got a chance to chat with frontman Andrew McMahon the day after opening night.

Find out what Mr. McMahon always takes on tour, what he would NEVER take on tour and which city he is looking forward to playing most during this run!

What is your favorite driving music?

Kind of depends on the time. I feel like I have been preaching this like the gospel for a long time, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is pretty good when you get out on the road.

What are five things you always take on tour?

I have the laptop with me, that’s kind of a given. On this tour a winter jacket and scarf have been pretty essential. And I bring a couple moleskin journals usually, and I guess regardless of the weather I like to cruise around in my flip-flops. My rainbow sandals are usually at hand as well.

What are five things you would never bring on tour?

Hmmm, my parents? No offense Mom and Dad.

This is a hard one! Touring is too much of my life, I have to keep most of the things I usually keep with me.

How do you take care of your piano when you are touring?

Well I am lucky enough to have one of our crew guys do most of the caretaking for the piano. It tends to require little repairs each day here and there based on how brutal I get with it the previous night. We have refurbished it quite a bit. On the piano itself we replaced the wooden legs with steel legs that we had fabricated. Actually, a lot of the pieces of the piano that were once wood are now steel, just to handle the burden of my weight on top of it all the time. It does take a pretty good beating and we are lucky enough to have an excellent technician out here to help us with that.

How do you decide the set list for the tour?

I try and work it differently from night to night truthfully, especially now that we have got a few records. A good amount of the songs stay in the set just because they’re favorites that people want to hear from city to city, but I try to throw in at least three or four wild cards to change it up. And also to change the order from night to night so that it still feels spontaneous when we get out there. I have done tours where you stick pretty closely to one set list. I tend of find after a few days you just find yourself saying the same thing, and doing the same thing and, making the same motions -- so it’s always nice to break that up a bit.

Is there any city you are looking forward to most?

Truthfully every city has its own charms; there is no doubt about it. But we are finishing out this tour with two nights at the 9:30 club in DC, which historically those nights have been a lot of fun for us, so to finish the tour there is going to be fun for sure. So I am looking forward to DC on this one.