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

Posted in Current Faves, Interviews, Music |

Popshifter: I didn’t know that you were a big Sparks fan.

Sparks 1974 © Chris Walter

Roger Manning: They are—and I can’t believe I didn’t mention them sooner—the quintessential balance between great rock and roll, and songwriting, and entertainment. . . and having a healthy dose of wit and humor. It never sabotages the music to me and in fact, it’s a crucial component.

Popshifter: You’re really known for your keyboard and piano work. What do you think of the different styles of people like Ben Folds or someone like Quintron?

Roger Manning: I’m just happy to see keyboards and that techie side. I love that character as much as I do the Rick Nielsen, Brian May, Jimi Hendrix guitar-hero kind of guy. If Ben Folds is a modern Elton John for people, that’s great. I’m not familiar with Quintron, though.

Popshifter: Oh, you should check him out. He reminds me a little bit of Beck in that he has a lot of soul influences. The Drum Buddy is his invention, and it’s a light-activated instrument that he plays with his keyboards. He did this great album with the Oblivians from Memphis. He’s very outside of the mainstream and does things his own way. My husband always wonders if you would collaborate with him because he thinks it would be really cool.

Roger Manning: There are so many things that. . . I would still love to be out touring. Basically you just have to clone me. I have to prioritize. It’s kinda sad, but that’s just the way it is.

Popshifter: (laughing) I understand. There are so many things I want to do but there just aren’t enough hours in the day. In terms of film soundtracks or things like the Logan’s Sanctuary project, which isn’t for a real film, what are your favorite film soundtracks?

Roger Manning: Oh, I would have to give that some thought! (laughs) There are quite a few good ones, especially in the 70s where there were guys scoring entire films with just their arsenal of keyboards. I like that era. Those guys are my (laughs) comrades.

There are guys that are masters that I respect. One of the best ones ever is the Planet of the Apes soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. And that has no synthesizers.

Now, although there is not a lot of original music, the Wendy Carlos soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange. That’s one of the greatest examples of music and picture coming together. And the fact that all through the score, it’s all realized through very primitive synthesizers. The end result, with the very potentially offensive and aggressive imagery coming from the screen, adds up in the way that Kubrick knew how to do so well.

Popshifter: Are there particular directors that you’d like to score films for? It doesn’t have to be somebody current.

Roger Manning: The whole thing with film scoring, especially in college, I really thought I was going to be heading in that direction.

Popshifter: You went to USC, which is known for its film school.

Roger Manning: Yeah, the film school was exploding and in fact, the guys I went to parties with were all film school people. All of my roommates were. In fact, one of my longest roommates, David Goyer, wrote Batman Begins.

Popshifter: Wow, I didn’t know that!

Roger Manning: He was the guy I would go to comic book conventions with. I scored two of his student films. It was very easy to get into that headspace. And every time I’ve had to opportunity to get into it, I’ve realized that, although I respect it a lot and I look up to the people who do it and do it well, I still derive so much more pleasure from crafting pop records. That’s what I think that, the more and more I do, I get better at. I just keep wanting to practice, like, “let’s do another record.”

I just finished writing a bunch of songs with Linus of Hollywood who has been my bass player live and is a solo artist in his own right. He and I just did a bunch of songs that we want to sell to Japanese publishers for Japanese teen stars.

This was Linus’s idea. The thing about the Japanese scene, is it’s a lot more Beatle-y, so you can do stuff that comes more naturally to me then trying to sound like Britney Spears. Of course, that is an element, but you can put more sing-along type hooks and they like it more. It’s not so hip hop.

Linus brought that idea to me and I jumped at it. It’s like, okay here’s something I’ve never done and it sounds really fun and I think if I just try hard enough I can actually be okay at it. That’s something else where most of my fans won’t know about unless I tell them.

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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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