- January 2001 Mac Design plugs into the mind of Caeser Pink & The Imperial Orgy. This Brooklyn-based band tells us how they use the Mac to promote themselves with a very do-it-yourself-approach, and they share their unique perspectives on how the Mac has touched their lives and given them an outlet for their creativity. Mac Design: Let's start with the first question that everybody probably asks: Is Caeser your real name, and where did the name CP&TIO come from? Caeser Pink: Caeser isn't the name I was born with, but it is the name I live with. The Imperial Orgy is a phrase that means "the feast of life, and that seemed to fit our attitude and our musical diversity. The name The Imperial Orgy came from an old book that is mentioned in a Henry Miller novel, The Tropic of Capricorn. I was already writing under the name CP and it just seemed to fit with TIO. MD: What are some of your musical and artistic influences? CP: You gotta respect your roots. In nearly every form of music there are a few really great people, and then hundreds of boring imitators. One of my main goals when I started The Imperial Orgy was to allow myself freedom to mix whatever styles of music I enjoy, which is something the music industry hates. So I've been influenced by James Brown, The Sex Pistols, Alice Cooper, Bob Marley, Little Richard, King Sunny Ade, David Bowie, Howlin' Wolf...the list could go on forever. MD: As a band, you seem to have a sense of pride that you haven't had to depend on large corporations to achieve the level of success that you've enjoyed. How has modern technology helped you in your self-promotion, and how has the Mac played a role in that? CP: The music business has really become so focused on pop formulas that someone like us who is doing something different has really had little chance of ever being supported by the big corporations. Luckily, the new technology has really empowered artists to both create their work and to get their work out to an international audience. I write and record music on the Mac with Logic software. The three recording studios I work with, Tin Man Music, JDX Studios and Stella Studios, all use Mac exclusively. We have produced 12 episodes of a variety TV series called The Imperial Orgy TV Show that is being broadcast on cable stations throughout the country. We have a couple of G3s and an older Power Mac 7300, and all the postproduction was done with Final Cut, Premier, and After Effects. And our website www.theimperialorgy.com was created on the Mac. MD: How important do you think the Internet has been to your success? CP: The Internet has been extremely important to us, because for the first time, any artist can get their music and message out to an international audience with very little expense. A few years ago it was impossible for a musician to be heard without big record companies and pop radio airplay. We see CDs, videos, T-shirts, and books online. WE design and print the covers at home with the Mac. We record the CDs with our CD writer. And our unique web site brings people into the store. We now have an international fan base buying our work and we've shipped as far away as Singapore. Plus, the Internet allows us to have direct communication with our audiences. It is great to really have direct communication with your fans. One portion of our web site is an interactive journey created to provide the visitor with an eastern style spiritual awakening. In it the visitor is asked to answer a lot of very personal introspective questions. The feedback we get from that is amazing. MD: Why did you choose the Mac over the PC, and are there any situations in which you prefer a PC? CP: Since we're doing creative work, of course we would use Macs. Mac has always been far ahead of the competition when it comes to supporting creative applications. I got into home video editing early in the game and Mac has really led the way in this technology. FireWire technology is really a revolution when it comes to bringing high tech ability into the hands of people who can't afford to pay $150 an hour to work in a video postproduction house. For me, though, I just find the PC environment ugly. Even if they try to copy Mac, the feeling is still very gray and analytical. The Mac is much more human and intuitive. Plus, as artists, we stand for independence, creative thinking, and anti-establishment values. So why would we use anything but a Mac? MD: How do you incorporate multimedia and the Mac in your live performances? CP: One aspect of our live performance is interactive video projection. There is not only video behind the band but it also interacts with the music with audio coming from the video. Many bands use backing video these days, but they use it simply as a nice backdrop. We really make the video add another level of meaning to the music. Without being able to take a lot of time to edit the video at home on the Mac, we would never be able to achieve the high level of artistic expression we want with the video show. It just wouldn't be possible. MD: Besides your music, what other projects are The Imperial Orgy involved with, and how has the Mac played a role in them? CP: We produce both a TV series and film and video projects. Our TV series, The Imperial Orgy TV Show features documentary sections, artist profiles, comedy skits, music videos, and underground films. We created 12 half hour episodes. Our budget was only about $200 per episode and the quality is pretty good. It is now being seen in New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, North Dakota, in a few stations in California, and more stations are added each week. And fans can see it online at ifilm.com and onlinetv.com. Now this is a huge audience we are reaching with an extremely small budget. It's an amazing opportunity for us to get our music out to the public. Because of the show, people come to the web site and they buy our CDs. And the professional quality of our productions could never be achieved with the FireWire technology that was built into the Mac when we got it. MD: With all the books, TV shows, magazines, on-line store, film projects, etc., it seems to go way beyond just the music. What does The Imperial Orgy hope to achieve in the end? CP: The message behind the music is very important to me. We want money and fane and everything, but really, the prime motivation for me goes beyond that. Over the last ten years, rock music has either become very cynical with grunge and alternative, or very mindless with the current bubblegum pop. We are sort of a modernized version of the hippie and punk bands that believed music could express things that mattered on a deeper level, and be a force for social change. The concerns I express win my music deal with socio/politics, spirituality, sexuality, and developing our own sense of community within those values. My goal is really to get our message heard and to build a community of people who believe in what we are doing. MD: What Macs were you using when the band first started, and where do you think you would be now without the Mac: CP: A few years ago I did not even know how to use a computer. Samantha D., one of the band's singers, bought a little Performa 650 and we used that to learn about the Internet and how to actually use a computer. The technology has come a long way since then. The Mac has really become the center of our creative environment. It is the tool that has allowed us to be artists on the level we are. Without it we could not create films or our TV series, we could not be able to record our music inexpensively, and without the Internet we would not be making thousands and thousands of fans across the globe. And most important, by selling our work directly to fans over the Internet, the Mac has allowed us the financial independence to maintain the creative freedom that we would lose if we were forced to depend on a big corporate record company. And for The Imperial Oryg, creative freedom is revolution #1. |