Newspaper Interview

This post is from an Email interview with a newspaper.

1. It's not everyday an EP is released with the title "Gospel Hymns for Agnostics and Atheists." Care to elaborate on the title?

Many of my friends and I love old time Christian gospel music because we love the music, even though many of them are Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, agnostic, etc. As a musician I try to mix ideas from different genres with modern rock in order to create new musical ideas and sounds. Without realizing it I had been drawing ideas from early 20th century gospel music and decided it would be nice to create a modern type of spiritual music that does not promote any religion or sect, but reaches for a more universal spiritual message.

The lyrical concept was to have blues based verses that speak of life's day to day struggles, then have the chorus respond with a spiritual answer. It is a technique common in old folk gospel and can be heard in Bob Marley's music as well.



2. What message do you hope to give to listeners?

Well on the EP, I was just trying to express my own feelings of frustration with the world we live in, (whether personally or politically) yet still reach for a way of looking at it that was not all negative.

The lyrics tend to mix phrases from gospel music with the kind of contradictory phrases one hears in Taoism or Zen Buddhism, such as "Let the headlines feed the hungry, let the sinless pray for redemption."

I think a common theme on the CD is a search for meaning for answers that ultimately can't be found with intellectual reasoning. Hence lyrics like, "Destiny is a crossword puzzle written on a chain link fence, Compassion is a parable spoken by a tongueless monk." Throughout the undercurrent is the dynamic of a never ending search for truth, against the desire to surrender reason to some level of faith, (in whatever form that takes)


So It Is was written many years ago when I was in college and hanging out with some Dead Head folks. The 3rd verse is very much about those kids. The rest of the song is inspired by South African township music and I tried to speak in those type of simple stories that mix a mundane story with a larger spiritual feeling.

Happy Endings is inspired by the tiny rural steel mill town I grew up in and my relationship to it. It's a place with little hope and lots of unemployment and drug and alcohol problems.

3. How do you feel about censorship in music and in the media in general?

When it comes to political and especially religious issues, things have gotten a lot worse in recent years. In the case of our CD it seems it's the word "Atheist" that is freaking people out. I thought of the title as a bit of a punk joke.

There was once a belief in rock and roll, and youth culture in general, that all authority and all values should be questioned, (So each person might think for themselves as individuals) and there was a general belief that conformity is something to be avoided. Rock was once about creative and personal freedom. These ideas are what made 1960's rock and early punk rock so exciting. These days college students seem to be very conformist. Radio stations are obsessed with "punk" rock but they don't have a clue what it was all about. They think it is a musical formula or a fashion trend.

For an artist you have to have access to the media or you can't get your message out to the public. Most media is controlled by large corporations, and music only gets played on commercial radio if a corporation pays of the stations. Usually about $10,000 per station to play a song.

There was a time when college radio really embraced the original rebellious free spirit of rock and roll, but now it seems to be pretty controlled by the corporations as well, or just reflects the conformist mindset of the students.

As for censorship I simply believe freedom of expression is one of the most important ideas that our country was founded on. Those that want to censorship free speech can wave the flag all they want, but their actions are still anti-American.

4. I read on your website that a number of radio stations have banned your music. What are you feelings on that? have they changed since then?

No. They haven't changed. As artists we just want people to hear our music and hopefully like it. What is frustrating is that I don't think they are really listening to the music or the lyrics. The lyrics present a pretty positive message, but people come at it with these prejudices and twist the lyrics in their heads and think we are satan worshippers or something.

What is strange to me is that most students in college radio and college newspapers don't seem to think censorship of music is an important issue.

What organizations do you support?

I have had a long working history with Amnesty International.

A big issue for me is religious intolerance, and it relates to why the CD is being banned. I spent the months after 9/11 working at ground zero and have a strong sense of what religious hate can lead to.

On other hand I grew up in a small town where if you had the wrong haircut the Christians said you were a Satan Worshipper. In recent years we have seen a wave of religious fundamentalism in America. There are many people who don't believe in the separation of church and state and want to use political institutions to force religious beliefs in others. Its the same philosophy the Taliban and Al Queda have.

In America we are very conscious of racism, sexism, etc, but there is little thought to Religious Intolerance. If a person days "If you don't follow my religion you are going to hell or you are a Satan Worshipper, or your are evil" that is very hateful, and such attitudes are very prevalent in middle America, and even in the media. I really believe it is an issue that needs to be discussed so we might learn to have respect and acceptance of each other's belief systems.

Because of what we express in The Imperial orgy, every day I get hate mail, often people threatening my life. All because they disagree with my ideas and Philip. This is America in 2006, and yet freedom of speech brings death threats to Rock bands?

5. Explain the first two tracks on the EP. What do they mean?

I chose the title for The Amazing Tenacity of Job & His Brethren because Job was given many trials and and yet held on to his values. The song is about surviving the trials of life in the modern world. Whether those trials are personal relationship (verses 1-3), or media overload (verse 4), or working degrading jobs for sustenance in a commercialized world (verse 5).

With the song "In Praise Of Shadows," the first verse was written many years ago but I could never come up with another verse or chorus. Then I was driving through the cornfields in Texas the day after 9/11 and the 2nd verse just poured out, and I think captured my mixed feelings about the state of the nation in that moment.

The chorus returns to the theme of spiritual surrender. "rest your head, what is, it shall be."

6. On the track "So it is," the song starts off with a singing part. What are you saying in the beginning, the lyrics don't say. And it repeats a couple times in the song.


That refrain is a bunch of African words arranged nonsensically. Sort of like the Beatles song, "Michelle My Belle," does with french lyrics. I think one phrase of the African words means, "I don't have money for the rent." I think of it as joyful Dada, or like a children rhyme.

7. When I read the lyrics to "Happy Endings," I felt different things. What are you trying to say in that song?

The first half of the verses tell stories of people who are living day by day without any larger dreams as they do in my hometown. The second half of the verse expresses my feelings of having left my hometown in search of something that I don't know quite what it is.

The third verse tells of a woman I let behind when I left.

The chorus "The are our happy endings, it's the best we can do," refers to the idea that ultimately we must find peace within whatever circumstances life hands us.

8. I see the band goes by Caesar Pink and The Imperial Orgy. How did they two groups get together?

It's really always been one group. Think "Sly & The Family Stone," or "Prince & The Revolution." The Imperial Orgy is also a larger community of artists and activists that formed around the group. Perhaps like the relationship of the Dead Heads to the Grateful Dead.

9. Where are you all originally from and how long have you been together?

I am from a small town called Lewistown, PA and the band formed at the Penn State University about ten year ago.

10. What are your musical influences?

This is most important to our sound, (and the EP only reflects a small sliver of our sound) but I try to draw influences from a wide variety of musical styles. I love great artists from any genre If you only listen to one style of music then the music you create will sound very generic, like most of the music you hear these days. Some artists I love are:

The Clash, James Brown, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Gang Of Four, Jimi Hendrix, King Sunny Ade, Fela Kuti, PJ Harvey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck, Prince, Elvis Costello, Hank Williams SR, The Staple Singers, Mile Davis, Johnny Cash, Sonny Rollins, Parliment Funkadelic, The Residents, Sex Pistols, Roxy Music, Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Stones, Bob Marley, I could go one and on

11. Any tour plans in support of the EP?

Only in our region. We don't have money to tour and when we perform a lot of people are involved. It's very expensive.

12. Will there be a full length in the future?

Yes, the EP was a radio release and in the fall there will be a full length CD titled Mickey Mouse World and the 4 songs from the EP will be included.

13. Any misconceptions about the band pertaining to your lyrics, image and message?

Always, I think people look at the surface and if they are closeminded tend to react hysterically before they listen to what we are really about. To enjoy the Imperial Orgy you have to be both open to new musical sounds, and to considering new social and political ideas. If someone limits themselves to only listening to one kind of music, they won't like us, if people aren't able to think about ideas that are outside the straight mainstream, the won't like us.

14. Last words?

Thanks we really appreciate it!