The move from musician to desk jockey is typical — not so much the move from cubicle to center stage.

Motion City Soundrack will play songs from their album, ‘My Dinosaur Life,’ at their concert tonight at the 40 Watt.

For Matthew Taylor, bass player and backing vocalist for pop-punkers Motion City Soundtrack, the nine-to-five life went directly through the shredder without even a two weeks notice.

Jumping on board with the band in 2002, Taylor was soon on the forefront of the music scene like he could never have imagined, leaving his job at Philip Morris to become a rock star.

“Playing [on Conan O’Brien’s show] was pretty crazy,” Taylor said. “Shaking Tom Arnold’s hand after we finished playing, that was something I never thought I would do. Then fist bumping Howie Mandel, that was just a huge deal to me.”

Motion City Soundtrack will be hitting the stage tonight at the 40 Watt following the January release of their fourth album, “My Dinosaur Life.”

“I think all of us just kind of had in our brains that we wanted to rock a little harder with this one,” Taylor said. “We didn’t plan anything. We didn’t say, ‘We should have a softer song here.’ We just wrote a lot of songs, then chose our favorite from the batch.”

Produced by semi-pop-punk god Mark Hoppus of Blink-182, the album took a serious approach at song writing — with a plethora of jokes and laughing in between.

“It’s a very loose environment,” Taylor said. “It’s a good balance of work, laughs and play. Just bouncing ideas off each other. For me, the most important thing is being comfortable. He makes you feel comfortable — and at the same time, makes fun of you enough so you don’t get too cocky.”

The band also worked with Hoppus for their second studio album, “Commit This to Memory.” Their first single, “Everything is Alright,” featured both Hoppus and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and was used in the trailer for the film “Accepted.”

With touring, the whole experience can blend into a blur of cities and exciting moments.

Traveling the globe can yield many lifelong memories. For Taylor, nothing tops their 2005 Warped Tour performance in Chicago.

“We were the last band to play on the entire tour that day, so it was like pushing 10 p.m.,” Taylor said. “We’re playing this giant amphitheater were they put two stages on the one stage, and we’re like ‘aw man, the cards are stacked against us, nobody is going to come.’”

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

“We go up to the stage and the place is just packed, thousands upon thousands of people,” Taylor said. “That still to this day might be the most people singing along to any of our live shows, ever.”

When Taylor and the rest of MCS have a day off, he can be found hitting up a local coffee shop or even stopping by Chipotle for a massive burrito. However, there’s no guarantee he’ll actually get to eat.

“I had a kid in Chipotle today stop me in line while I was trying to order my burrito and ask for a photo,” Taylor said. “And the funny this is, there were literally seven Chipotle workers in an assembly line making this huge order and he stops one of them and hands her the camera. He made the whole assembly line stop and take a photo. I thought it was really funny.”

What will be the first thing Taylor does in Athens?

“I’m really excited to get there and shop for some records!” Taylor said. “I will make time in Athens, for sure. I love Athens.”

As far as advice for local bands still trying to make it onto the scene in a completely online world of music, Taylor has some advice that will hopefully lift some spirits.

“The game has changed so much for music, with every single band having a Myspace, Facebook or Purevolume page — there’s a lot of competition,” Taylor said. “Get your songs into the hands of anyone who will listen. Go to shows and hand them out. We have a lot of people hand us demos. Sometimes you’ve got to go into a little bit of debt. That was key for us — we were all just willing to put everything else on hold and try the music thing.”