What[s 'going on my fellow rock n' rollers.Don't forget to hit the bell notification icon to be
notified every time i put out a new video on my channel. This is a band that’s been requested by a
lot of people and we're talking about the group Jellyfish. They were a short lived band based
out of California that only lasted for about half a decade and put out two studio albums,
but they would be hugely influential and develop a cult following. . The nucleus of the of the band
was made up of drummer/singer Andy Sturmer and singer/keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr.,
The pair would cycle through a revolving lineup of instrumentalists
and today we're talking about the story of Jellyfish a band that ended too soon.
The band’s story dates back to the 70’s when Andy Sturmer and Roger Joseph Manning Jr met in high
school in San Francisco and bonded over their love of all things jazz, post-punk, and British pop.
Sturmer played in his high school’s jazz band and showed promise as a gifted musician
who could sing and play drums at the same time. Manning would tell Classic Rock magazine “I’ve
never seen anyone of his age with that expertise and command of his instrument.
Andy was one of the first kids in our town who took it seriously and had a goal. He was my hero.”
Following highschool Manning moved to Los Angelesand was admitted to University of
South California to study musical composition and became enamored with the local music scene..
LA was alive to the sounds of post-punk, the Byrds-obsessed Paisley Underground movement and,
most prominent of all, glam-metal, which was exploding from the Sunset Strip. But Manning would
be captivated by an LA band that stood apart: the flamboyantly attired pop-rockers Redd Kross.
Soon enough Sturmer and Manning would join the act Beatnik Beatch, which was signed to
Atlantic Records. They would soon leave the group after collaborating with one another
and they developed their own musical style and in 1989 they formed the group Jellyfish.
Combining the musical stylings of The Beatles, Cheap Trick, ELO, and Queen Jellyfish would
become pop rock pioneers and develop what many would consider their own unique sound.
Even after the pair left Beatnik Beatch they were still technically signed to Atlantic Records
but they weren’t a priority for the label. The band’s career began at a time when
rock music was undergoing a massive shift from pop-influenced and hair metal to the dark gloomy
sound of alternative rock at the turn of the new decade. Jellyfish, didn’t really fit what record
labels were trying to push in the early 90’s. The aesthetic of the band was completely off the
wall - think steampunk meets psychedelic hippie. In a 1993 L.A. Times article, Sturmer
said that the group “"never tried to suck up to any genre of music. We just did what came
naturally to us and didn't worry about it." After they were signed to Atlantic, records
they recorded over the course of a year, becoming the subject of a bidding war with 8 labels
The band would eventually settle with Charisma records who gave the band total creative control
and their first record Bellybutton was released on July 27, 1990 when hair metal was still highly
popular. The band was always aware of the fact that they were entirely contrary to what was
going on in popular music at the time. The top performing single, Baby’s Coming Back, would hit
the Billboard Top 100 charts but album sales were kind of slow only topping out at 100,000 units.
The band’s singles also got the video treatment which got some lay on MTV, but Jellyfishbut was
far from being considered a household name, but they did find high profile fans. The band
would tour with southern rock group the black crowes who took jellyfish out on tour in 1991.
Member Jason Faulkner briefly joined the group with the bait of a major label deal and would stay
with them through the recording of Bellybutton. Faulkner and Sturmer immediately clashed.
In a 2014 Louder Sound online article, Faulkner said “I immediately had trouble with Andy - he’s
just a difficult guy.” Andy had a real strong idea of what he wanted to do, and I found that my voice
wasn’t as loud,” \ “They weren’t open to doing any of my songs, and I didn’t want to be a sideman.
With personality conflicts gong on, Faulkner still has fond memories of
the first album telling louder sound It was a really exciting time making that record,
but also bittersweet,” says Falkner. “The songs were the sweet bit. We were all very young. I was
just twenty and Roger and Andy weren’t that much older, but the music is very sophisticated. It was
hard because Andy and I weren’t talking" he'd say. Also joining the band on the album was redd kross
bassist Steve McDonald and Steve wouldn’t our with the band, instead being replaced
with Manning’s younger brother Chris on bass. The band enlisted producer Albhy Galuten who
was best known for working with the bee gees. He would work on the band’s follow up album as well.
As Jellyfish hit the road, the band turned their attention to developing a real stage presence.
They spent 12 weeks rehearsing for a 50-minute live show, which included a white picket fence,
a bubble machine and an 8ft high statue of actor and Christian activist Gavin MacLeod.
In 1991, they were one of 5 openers for INXS at Wembley Stadium and that’s
when the band started developing a cult following.
Another aspect of their stage show was that the whole band would stand together in a line
at the front of the stage with Sturmer playing a stripped down drum kit while singing and standing.
The band’s wardrobe also caught people’s eyes as their onstage clothes were pretty colourful
and seemed ripped from charlie and the chocolate factory and paid homage
to the psycahdelic feel of the 60's and 70's. Guitarist Jason Falkner would tell Loudersound
how the band despised the whole grunge look at the time saying aWe uniformly loathed the whole
lumberjack rock star thing that was starting to happen – T-shirt and jeans and your crack
showing when you leaned down. We didn’t want to be an everyman band at all. We wanted to be from
outer space. With a wink and a nod" he'd say. While the tour to support Bellybutton would win
over fans, the constant close quarters only made existing tensions worse with the group
and by the end of the tour Chris Manning and Jason Faulkner had. left the band. Chris would
go on to become a producer while Jason left after being diagnosed with an ulcer in his early 20’s,
something he attributes to the stress of being in a band with Andy.
Now with Chris and Jason now gone, the band was just down to the main
songwriting duo of Andy and Roger. In 1992, the pair had a few brushes
with some major celebrities. The songwriting duo wrote 5 songs for Ringo Star’s 1992 solo album,
with one of them being used called “I don’t believe you” and appeared in
his music video for “Weight of the World.” They also had a failed songwriting session
with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and the track would eventually appear
on Mannings' 2005 solo album called Solid State Warrior without a credit to Wilson.
As the duo turned their attention to their second album Spilt milk
they enlsisted some session musicians to replace their departed members. The sessions to create
the album was a pretty tumultuous as some of the recording happened during the LA riots
and the band adhered to a gruelling 6 days a week schedule. The album also proved to be an expensive
endeavour for the band who would end up creating a pretty varied record with massed choirs,
strings, brass, flutes, and wind chimes among many other instruments. In fact the album’s title Spilt
Milk was a reference to being over budget and behind schedule on the record. And Spilt Milk
would prove to be a commercial failure only peaking at number 165 on the billboard charts.
Sales numbers aside, the band did find more fans in high places as. Queen guitarist Brian
May who was out promoting his solo record at the time Reserection spoke highly of Jellyfish in an
interview saying “We have the tape [of Spilt Milk] on the bus,” “We like it. I can hear
some influences, but they’re going into new places. It’s a very interesting group indeed.
I’m glad our influence can be seen out there.” Things began to sour on the tour for Spilt Milk,
when the musical differences between Sturmer and Manning intensified. Sturmer also resented the
role of frontman and being in the spotlight. Manning would tell Louder Sound “Andy and I
had essentially been together for six or eight years,”. We were getting complacent and bored
with each other. Our differences as people were starting to magnify, and musically the
exact same thing was happening. When we started putting music together for our third record,
it was clear we were on very different paths.” Manning knew the end was near when he dropped by
Sturmer’s house to talk about the band’s third record. At the time Manning was heavily into
Wings, T-Rex and Sparks groups that are generally high energy fun melodic pop with attitude
so he was surprised when Sturmer presented him with a song that was reminiscent of Leonard Cohen.
The band officially broke up in April of 1994 over a phone call.
Throughout Jellyfish's career they really didn’t make any money. Not helping things was Sturmer’s
iron fisted rule over the band. Manning would tell Magnet Magazine “Now I can look back on it
and see that without wisdom, maturity and maybe some counseling and therapy,
we could’ve never worked through our problems,” says Manning. “Had
there been more money coming in, it would’ve justified some of the pain.”
So what happened after Jellyfish you're maybe wondering. Well Manning went on to start a new
band called Imperial Drag with touring jellyfish guitarist Eric Dover. Their sound veered towards
pop rock and was less heavily inspired by Queen than Jellyfish was.Meanwhile touring member
Eric Dover would go on to front Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash’s side project Snakepit in 1995.
Meanwhile, Manning and former Jellyfish guitarist Jason Faulkner put out two albums together
including 2000's Logan's Sanctuary (2000) and 2006's TV Eyes but they both failed to
be successful commercially. Both manning and faulkner rwould also
play with alternative rock artist Beck while Faulkner would put out a series of solo albums.
Andy for his part has become pretty secretive about his post-jellyfish work
and declines to be interviewed. Sturmer ended up writing music for a number of
animated shows for children including Batman and Transformers aas well as for the Disney network .
Even after all these years the relationship between Andy and Roger still appears to be tense
making a reunion unlikely. The pair had an offer to reunite for Coachella in the early 2000’s, but
Sturmer declined Manning’s offer via his lawyer. Even as recently as 2008 Manning shot down the
idea of a reunion telling magnet magazine “Except for Andy, we all speak to one another. Some of us
make music together (. But nobody is interested in working with Andy in a personal or creative
capacity. It would serve no purpose, but I don’t say that with any animosity or sadness" he'd say.
That does it for today's video guys. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like
button and subscribe and we'll see you tomorrow on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.