Speaking The Language Of Pop: An Interview with Roger Joseph Manning, Jr.

Posted in Current Faves, Interviews, Music |

Roger Manning: So that the Drum Buddies of the world can have a voice. So Michael Stipe can say, “Wow, the latest Quintron [record] is blowing my mind.”

Popshifter: (laughs)

Quintron’s Drum Buddy

Roger Manning: And you can buy the Quintron record next to R.E.M. on iTunes. That is a great, great thing. That is progress in all the best senses of the word. That’s the part of this rebirth that I welcome. But figuring out the rest of it is what we’re going to collectively have to come to an agreement on.

And right now there are no ideas that everybody is agreeing on. A lot of people are throwing stuff out there but nothing is solving the riddle 100 percent or even 90 percent. (laughs) It’s all figuring out a piece of it. And maybe that’s what it will be. Ten years from now it’s ten different pieces from ten different ideas.

Popshifter: You said on your website that Albhy Galuten [who produced Jellyfish, as well as the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Barbra Streisand, and others] gave you some advice once. He said “just do what you’re passionate about with honesty and sincerity and the rest will take care of itself.” I find that pretty much everything that I put on Popshifter has that theme. A lot of the people we’ve had interviews with, like David Markey or Vicki Berndt—

Roger Manning: Two of my heroes.

Popshifter: —has had a version of that same statement. Would that be your advice for anyone wanting to work in music, either writing or performing?

Roger Manning: In many ways, that statement now, to me, at age 42 seems totally obvious.

Popshifter: Ten years ago, I would have never thought of that.

Roger Manning: Right. When Albhy said it to me, I thought it was one of the most brilliant and insightful things I’d ever encountered. Our culture, we are born into a culture that basically says, the world is a totally scary place filled with nothing but scarcity. And you have to do whatever it takes, even if it’s against your better judgment, even if it’s against all logic, and even if it’s against everything that your heart is telling you. You should do it anyway for survival. Because if you don’t have this thing called money, you’re not going to have freedom.

Freedom Mall, Charlotte NC

You’re not going to have the basic essentials to put a roof over your head and food on the table. And you’re not going to have what our culture calls “true” freedom, which is the ability to go down to the mall—

Popshifter: (giggles knowingly)

Roger Manning: —and purchase the illusion of these material objects that people are told are going to make them happy. So, excuse me while I get on my soapbox—

Popshifter: Oh, I’m on that soapbox every day.

Roger Manning: —but to answer a lot of the questions you’re asking, they go beyond music. They go to societal and cultural values, here in America, especially.

I learned very early on, unlike my parents’ generation and a lot of my peers, it was quite apparent to me that I had no interest in starting a family. And if I did, I was like, “Well, I’ll just deal with that in my 30s.” So in my college years, it was like, I can just get enough money together to cover my own ass, I can pretty much do what I want.

I’d had enough shitty jobs, as we all did early on; we took whatever we could to pay for gas in our car, any of the privileges our parents were giving us, we had to pay for. So I had my hardware store jobs and every one of those jobs—and I think this is the plan of any wise parent—shows the kid that they’d better figure out what they really want to do, because they don’t want to do this for the rest of their life.

Popshifter: (laughs)

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Click to read more from Roger Manning on. . .

Bill Bartell and MST3K
Playing well with others: new TV Eyes EP!
Jamming with Beck and Ross Angeles
The importance of humor
Where does Jellyfish fit in?
Movie soundtracks
Favorite kind of music
The music mafia model
“Just do what you’re passionate about. . . “
A reason to get out of bed in the morning
Speak my language

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