04.27.07
Interview with: Alan Heaton of Burning Sky Records
By Stacy Sardelli
Editor in Chief

Powerpop / Rock / Psychedelic

Official description: "35 different bands from the US, UK, Japan, Australia and Spain are each contributing tracks to a 2-CD Jellyfish Tribute Release covering the two official Jellyfish albums ('Bellybutton' and 'Spilt Milk') in their entirety and in their original track sequence. In addition, each disc will contain 6 or 7 unreleased Jellyfish songs as Bonus Tracks. 'Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish' will be released this Summer on Burning Sky Records."

Interview

Babble & Beat - How did the Jellyfish Tribute album come about?

Alan – First of all, thanks for interviewing me, Stacy – it’s a pleasure to speak with you. The idea for a Jellyfish Tribute Album first came to me last Summer as a result of helping a friend work on another Tribute Album for the obscure-but-very-good 1990’s band Triple Fast Action. As I started recruiting bands to participate in that Tribute, I realized that I really enjoyed the process of matching up bands with appropriate songs to cover, and that got me thinking about other possible Tribute Albums.

Like so many people, I had always been a huge fan of the band Jellyfish. They only released two albums and broke up following the 1993 release of their magnum opus 'Spilt Milk,' but what other band that only released two albums would merit a 4-CD box set like the one that Not Lame Records put out in 2002? That box set now is going for like $300 on ebay, by the way.

Anyway, I had wondered for some time why nobody ever seemed to be doing covers of Jellyfish songs. I always assumed that they were just too difficult to cover properly. Then, one night I was noodling around on YouTube and decided to search under “Jellyfish cover.” I was pleasantly surprised to find two very well-done videos of bands covering Jellyfish – US artist Mike Elgert performing 'She Still Loves Him' and UK band Honeybug doing 'The Ghost at Number One.' The fact that these bands were able to cover Jellyfish so well made me start to think that a Jellyfish Tribute Album would be possible, after all.

Rather than simply come up with a typical Tribute Album that assembled 10-15 covers of the band’s Greatest Hits, I instead had this grandiose idea of covering both of the original Jellyfish albums ('Bellybutton' and 'Spilt Milk') in their entirety and in their original track sequence, as well as covering as many of Jellyfish’s unreleased tracks as possible. The result is a 35-track, 2-CD release titled 'Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish.' Of the 40 original Jellyfish songs that have been released somewhere on CD, we have covered 35 of them!

Babble & Beat – That's certainly a major accomplishment!

How did you conduct a musician search for this project?

Alan – Well, one of the first things I did was to contact Mike Elgert and Honeybug! Both of them ended up on 'Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish' – Mike Elgert covering 'She Still Loves Him' and Honeybug’s lead singer Nigel Frayling-Kelly covering 'Bedspring Kiss' – both tracks are excellent.

The main way that I found bands was through MySpace – in fact, this whole project would have been impossible without MySpace. At first, I just put out a couple of tentative feelers seeing whether bands / performers might be interested in participating in a Jellyfish Tribute Album. The word spread really, really quickly, and within weeks artists from literally every corner of the globe were contacting me about being a part of the Jellyfish Tribute!

One thing that I’m really proud of is that for the most part, the bands / performers on this Album are by no means household names. All I was looking for was for people to contribute one killer Jellyfish cover – I didn’t care if you were a “name” performer or not, all I cared about was the track itself. As people will soon find out, our performers poured their hearts and souls into these tracks – and it shows.

I should also mention that I myself started this whole process with no music industry experience, whatsoever. I was just a fan who had an idea that a lot of people seemed to like. Now, less than a year later, I am running my own indie music label! The label is Burning Sky Records, which I created for the sole purpose of releasing 'Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish.' It’s been a crazy but wonderful ride!

Babble & Beat – Wow, Alan. I didn't know that you created your label just for this project. What an extremely cool story!

Your top 3 favorite Jellyfish tunes by Jellyfish are:

Alan – 'Joining a Fan Club', 'That Is Why', and 'All Is Forgiven'.

Babble & Beat - Your top 3 favorite Jellyfish covers on this album are:

Alan – No fair! This is like asking a parent which of their children is their favorite. I honestly like all 35 tracks – they wouldn’t be on "Sensory Lullabies," otherwise. However, I will mention 3 tracks that stand out for different reasons.

1) 'Hello' – covered by The Sonic Executive Sessions

This track was a real epiphany for me. I mean, 'Hello' was a song that Jellyfish used to open their live shows with, but it never really had any actual lyrics – singers Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning would make up new lyrics every night. In addition, the song was never actually recorded in the studio – the only known recording of the song is a live version on the Not Lame box set. So, imagine my surprise when this UK band The Sonic Executive Sessions sends me this lushly-produced, beautiful Queen-esque cover of 'Hello' that sounds like it could have come right off of a Jellyfish Album! It is an amazing track. As a matter of fact, Roger Manning himself told us that with their 'Hello' cover, The Sonic Executive Sessions had “beaten Jellyfish at their own game,” which of course was a huge thrill for us.

2) 'Ignorance Is Bliss' – covered by Loveshine

'Ignorance Is Bliss' was a song that Jellyfish wrote for a 1991 album put out by Nintendo called 'White Knuckle Scorin’. It basically was a goofy little tune about the Super Mario Brothers video game, and I really never liked it at all. As a matter of fact, when U.S. band Loveshine initially suggested covering 'Ignorance Is Bliss,' my response was way less than enthusiastic. Well, I’m glad I kept my mouth shut, because their cover is incredible. Loveshine guitarist Don Mabus basically replaced all of the synth sounds with guitar – I still don’t know how he did it – the man’s a genius.

3) 'Sebrina, Paste and Plato' – covered by Rockosaurus Rex

This is probably our Jellyfish cover that is the most “out there.” 'Sebrina, Paste and Plato' is a sprightly tune with an almost nursery rhyme sort of feel to it. Imagine my shock when U.S. band Rockosaurus Rex turned it into a Black Sabbath-esque stoner metal track! I’m sure some Jellyfish fans are going to hate it, but it is a truly great cover. When I first sent it to our ace Producer Steve Turnidge, he happened to be doing some work with former Nirvana / Posies / Soundgarden producer Steve Fisk at the time, so he played the track for him. Steve Fisk immediately contacted me to let me know that he loved the track, and that we HAD to include it on the final 2-CD release! I thought that was pretty cool. Also, I sent the track to Roger Manning (who wrote and sung lead on the original). I later found out that Roger threw a “Bring a Bizarre Song” Party at his home for the sole purpose of playing this track for his friends!

Babble & Beat - To your knowledge, do all of the members of Jellyfish know about this effort? If so, what else has been said about it?

Alan – I can tell you that the former members of Jellyfish are definitely aware of 'Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish.' It’s amazing how the word spreads over the internet. I’ve already mentioned a couple of examples where Roger Manning has been liking our tracks – he was been wonderfully supportive and encouraging from the very beginning, for which I am extremely grateful.

As for the other former Jellyfish members, we’ve adopted a strict “no comment” rule for any and all questions relating to singer / songwriter / drummer Andy Sturmer. As all Jellyfish fans know, Andy really values his privacy, and we respect that 100%.

Former Jellyfish guitarist Eric Dover is not only supportive of the project, his band Sextus is contributing a track! Sextus went into the studio this week to record their cover of 'That Is Why' from Jellyfish’s debut album 'Bellybutton.' I think that Jellyfish fans are going to be very fired up to hear that track.

Original Jellyfish bass player Chris Manning has also been very supportive. In fact, Chris manages U.S. band Fred, who have contributed a really nice cover of 'Bellybutton' standout track 'The King is Half Undressed.'

Babble & Beat - Will there be music videos for any of the song interpretations?

Alan – There already are! Several of our bands / performers have posted videos on YouTube, which I think is just great. Here is what is out on YouTube so far:

Mike Elgert – 'She Still Loves Him'
Watch now

DC Cardwell – 'I Wanna Stay Home'
Watch now

The Pozers – 'Will you Marry Me?'
Watch now

The Vague – ' Need Love'
Watch now

In addition to these videos, LA-based Documentary film maker Scott Essman has approached us about doing a “Making of Sensory Lullabies” Documentary! Needless to say, we’re sort of blown away by this, as you just don’t typically hear of Documentaries being made about Tribute Albums. Also, Scott does excellent work – we’re thrilled to be doing this with him. We’ve still got a good bit of work to do, but we’ve pulled together some great material so far.

Babble & Beat – This is turning into a huge event here!

Any plans to offer special merchandise like t-shirts, limited editions, posters,... ?

Alan – Funny you should ask about that. We’re still kicking that around, but we are going to be offering Burning Sky Records t-shirts for sale very soon. We also going to be selling a 5-track Preview EP starting next week.

We have an ONLINE STORE. You will be able to buy the EP, t-shirts, and the “Sensory Lullabies” Album there.

Babble & Beat - What else can you tell us about the EP?

Alan – The 5-track Preview EP, titled 'Hello! A Tribute to Jellyfish,' will be released on Tuesday, April 31st. It features The Sonic Executive Sessions’ cover of 'Hello,' as well as 4 other tracks, including 2 tracks that are only available on the EP. I’ve seen and listened to a prototype of the EP, and it looks and sounds amazing!

In Closing

Documentary film maker Scott Essman is working with us to film a “Making of ‘Sensory Lullabies: The Ultimate Tribute to Jellyfish’” Documentary. Many of our contributors have already sent him footage, and others are pulling their footage together now. In addition, several contributors have recorded music videos of their Jellyfish covers.

Super-popular UK band McFly is scheduled to release a cover of Jellyfish’s 'Baby’s Coming Back' as a single in the UK on May 7th. That will likely set in motion a significant resurgence in interest in Jellyfish, which 'Sensory Lullabies' will be in a perfect position to capitalize on.

I would encourage people to check out our MySpace page for the latest information about 'Sensory Lullabies,' as well as CD Release Gig dates, new merchandise, etc.
Official MySpace

Babble & Beat – Thank you so much, Alan! We can't wait to hear the EP and the full album... and see the documentary!

Alan – I enjoyed the interview - it's fun for me to be able to tell our story!