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

Posted in Current Faves, Interviews, Music |

Popshifter: What the media could have connected the three of you with was Bill Bartell.

Roger Manning: (laughs)

Popshifter: I read an interview with you where you talked about the name of the [last] Moog Cookbook album. You said, “If you know Bill, it’s hard for people to hear his name without starting to laugh,” which is really true. At what point did you encounter him in this band genesis?

Roger Manning: As you can imagine, shortly after opening the relationship with Redd Kross, I mean, he’s a fifth Redd Kross member—

Popshifter: (laughing) Has he actually said that? Because it sounds like something he would say.

Roger Manning: Oh, I’m sure he has. But he’s never said it to me. It was only a matter of time. He makes himself present. He came to a lot of shows that we did with [Redd Kross]. Later, when I would go on to write with Jeff and Steve for Phaseshifter, he was part of that, albeit peripherally. I mean, I could go on and on. I just saw him at a mutual friend’s party after not seeing him for about a year. He’s alive and kicking.

Popshifter: Another connection that you have is doing some music for a Joel Hodgson TV project? How did that come about?

Roger Manning: You know, I actually ran into Joel and his brother [Jim] I think at a Farmer’s Market buying groceries.

Popshifter: Were you a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan at that point?

Roger Manning: Huge. MST3K is basically how I got through touring.

Popshifter: That’s so funny because that is how I got through college.

Roger Manning: I would tape everything if I didn’t have time to watch it and just take it on the road. It would take my mind off excruciating boredom.

They recognized me as being a member of Jellyfish because I think Jim approached me. Obviously I would’ve recognized Joel, but he was on the other side of the market. Jim introduced himself, brought [Joel] over and started talking about it.

I said, “Well, we’d love to try some music for this project.” There was no money involved because they were doing it all out of their pocket, trying to sell a pilot, basically. My partner in Moog Cookbook [Brian Kehew] loved the idea. It was basically a song they had sketched up and we kinda turned it into a synthesizer arrangement.

Popshifter: Was this the TV Wheel show?

Roger Manning: It was an incarnation that had similarities to, but was set up very differently than, the TV Wheel. You might have seen the thing that they finished, where we helped with the music, and go, “Oh, I can see how this evolved.” I never saw any finished product and I don’t even know to what stage it got completed.

Popshifter: We’ve just talked about some of them, but you’ve worked with a lot of people. On your website there is a long list of them. Is there anyone that you haven’t worked with that is kind of a dream for you?

Roger Manning: Absolutely. It’s really interesting: I have worked with so many cool people and several of them have been childhood heroes of mine. I just finished another Morrissey record and being asked to do that is just still surreal to me.

Two people come to mind, and they’re pretty damn obvious: Andy Partridge from XTC and Elvis Costello. The thing is, with those guys, though? They’re so. . . one-man-band. They can do so many things on their own and they have such great ideas. And I’ve always held them in such high esteem, I think that even with all my experience, I’d probably be a bumbling, nervous, teenage schoolgirl.

Popshifter: (laughs)

Roger Manning: I’d probably embarrass myself. You know what I mean? It wouldn’t be as cool or fun or fantastical as my brain could imagine.

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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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