The boys in the band

Mark Salling kind of regrets turning his hair into a mohawk. Photo / Supplied

Mark Salling kind of regrets turning his hair into a mohawk to land the role of Noah "Puck" Puckerman in Ryan Murphy's hit musical television series Glee.

While he wouldn't swap the job for anything, he's getting a bit tired of sporting the macho man 'do for a second season.

"The haircut was my idea in the beginning for the audition, just to sort of set myself apart," says Salling in his Texan drawl. "They liked it, and I've been stuck with it until this point. I'm pretty over the haircut but it was totally worth it and I doubt I'll have it forever. But it was my idea and now I'm stuck with it."

Salling has a United Nations assembly of journalists on a conference call, and he's just about to go to the White House for the annual Easter Egg Roll with the other cast members. His day job involves singing stage numbers and learning dance routines. Life's pretty crazy. But like his character, Salling is fairly cool-headed about the whole thing.

When Glee premiered in New Zealand late last year, Puck was the ringleader of the football bullies on a mission to make their team-mate Finn (Corey Monteith) regret his decision to join the musical theatre club of William McKinley High School. Then he got Finn's supposedly chaste girlfriend Quinn Fabray pregnant.

"There are certain times I channel some of the douchebags I went to high school with. I want to soften him up a little bit and make him a bit more accessible. He's one of a kind," Salling says of playing the bad boy.

Puck shed some of his hard exterior a little as the first series progressed. But off-screen he is also into pumping iron and playing basketball. He was a wrestler and rugby player in high school. In his personal publicity shots he looks just as tough as Puck - shaved head, big guns, staunch expression. And like Puck, says he does well with the ladies, though he didn't need a television role for that to happen, "thank you very much".

Salling's been writing music and singing all his life, and hasn't let his busy work schedule stop him. He plays the guitar, piano, bass and drums while writing, producing and singing all his own songs. He continues to promote his debut studio album Smoke Signals, which was released under the pseudonym Jericho in 2007. The album is described as sitting somewhere between Radiohead and Coldplay, and Salling says if he had to do a duet, it would definitely be with Tom Yorke or Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Of course he would be honoured to sing one of his own songs on Glee, but is doubtful that would happen. So far we have seen him sing duets with Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Rachel and in January one solo, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. That was most exciting for his mother, a massive Diamond fan. Salling used to buy her a new Neil Diamond cassette every year.

Unlike other cast members, Salling says he was never really into musicals before he landed the role, though he liked the Sound of Music and Wicked.

"I am being exposed to lots of new music myself and I think that's kind of what the show does for its audience," he says.

He's also learning to dance, which is not something that he finds comes naturally: "In the beginning we had a lot more time to rehearse these numbers before we shot them and when you get further into production there's less and less time to rehearse. It can be pretty taxing.

"Dancing is probably the most difficult part for me. Some of our cast members are extremely good dancers. Ironically Kevin McHale [who plays Artie Abrams] is an extremely good dancer but he's in a wheelchair on the show."

Oh, and the interviews are also difficult he says, a little too timidly for a guy with such big guns and a mohawk.