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

Posted in Current Faves, Interviews, Music |

Popshifter: Do you play video games at all? Have you heard about this KORG DS-10, which is a KORG program coming out for the Nintendo DS?

Roger Manning: I have not. The video game bug bit the kids right after me. Both of my younger brothers, and Ross, Beck, and those guys, that’s their whole world, too. I was into Centipede, for like two weeks. I think it was the one game I could actually improve on.

Popshifter: (laughing) That was the only one I could ever succeed at, either!

Roger Manning: Everything else just drove me insane. I was like, “What is the point?” I wanted to figure out like, how to write songs and how to ask girls out on dates without fainting.

Popshifter: (laughs)

Roger Manning: Playing video games was not helping either of those.

Popshifter: (laughing) No, it probably would have made it worse! You’ve talked about Ross and how pretty much everyone involved with Beck and his band were really funny. You’ve said several times that you think humor is important, particularly in the face of more negative or adversarial situations. Is that something you explore better with your solo projects or do you feel like you are able to bring that to your collaborations with other people?

Roger Manning: As far as humor goes, I just think it’s a crucial element to being a balanced human being, and therefore, to being a balanced creator or artist. To answer your question, more specifically, I don’t feel for the most part that a lot of people I end up collaborating with understand the value of a healthy relationship with humor and not taking themselves too seriously during the creative process.

Nor do I feel the public has been educated to appreciate that. In other words, I think a lot of people think, “Oh I can’t take this band seriously.” The public has been trained in having one-dimensional creative figures.

For example, Radiohead is a respected band around the world. If they injected even two percent more humor into what they do, their fans would be devastated. Because they’d be like (adopts dorky offended tone), “What? What? Now are they a joke band? If they don’t take themselves seriously, how am I going to take them seriously?”

Popshifter: That’s a really good observation.

The Cure

Roger Manning: I’ve seen it proven time and time again. It takes a person who is kind of in touch with themselves and understands that laughing is as important as crying, and that’s as important as celebrating and being joyful. Everybody is going to latch onto groups at different times.

If you’re going through a very difficult teenage or adolescent phase, and you’re moping around and you’re depressed and suicidal, and you can’t figure out the world and you’re overwhelmed, naturally you’re going to be drawn to that in your art. So you’re going to be drawn to groups that are mopey and introspective and mourning the world, as you are. Because you identify with that. I understand all that.

Fortunately for me, and the people whose company I enjoy the most, it was always about experiencing all that stuff. And yeah, the sucky parts suck, but embracing them is part of the process. I think that the artist can ultimately suffer in what they have to offer if they’re not aware of that.

The Cure is a really great example. They were a band who, if you didn’t examine them in depth, you would think they were just another Goth band. Robert Smith always laced what they did with a kind of tongue-in-cheek thing. Siouxsie and the Banshees did too, but The Cure. . . you kind of have to be really not paying attention as a Goth fan to see that The Cure never took themselves 100 percent seriously. Especially as they got more popular: they kind of laughed at the whole damn thing. I really related to that. I thought that band was brilliant—I still do—and that they were one of the most brilliant bands in rock history. I saw that they had a very healthy balance, with well-thought-out doses of humor injected into their art.

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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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