Spctrum Interview
Finding More Common Ground with Caeser Pink. . .Really!
Turns out Caeser Pink and I are agreed about Brittany Spears: she's shallow, selling a shallow sexual message to our youth, and parents should be concerned. A couple months ago I would never have thought I would write about agreeing with Pink on sexuality and morality.
After reviewing Caeser Pink and the Imperial Orgy's Gospel Hymns for Agnostics and Atheists in October, I expected a maelstrom of protests about my words from Pink, my Christian readers, or both. I didn't get any reactionópositive or negativeófrom Christian readers of Music Spectrum concerning the review, but I did get a response from Pink.
I thought Pink would be upset about my Christian interpretation of his songs, my way of finding common ground with his sexual celebration message. Instead, Pink wrote in an email:
I wanted to thank you for the thoughtful and intelligent review you wrote of The Imperial Orgy CD. So many reviewers take a very superficial approach to their reviews, so I really appreciate it when someone takes the time to really listen to the lyrics and consider their meaning. Given the context I felt it was a fair review.
Following this comment, Pink's email had some very thoughtful responses to my Christian interpretation of his songsóespecially considering the apparent unintentional way the lyrics questioned Christianity. Seeing that there was plenty of ideas for us to explore, I asked Pink for his time to do a phone interview.
I asked Pink about other responses people have had to the group's religious message. He said, "Overall, the very first reviewers were calling us Satan worshippers. Now they've gone the other way saying we're preaching Christianity. People are just confused."
It sounds a lot like the way Pink describes dichotomy of his hometown: "I lived in a very small town, a very religious town, in some bad ways. If you had the wrong haircut, they called you a Satan worshipper. That had a bad effect on me. The other side of this town has major economic problems, major heroin problem. People who aren't able to fit that [Christian] mold, they constantly get this message that there's something wrong with them and then they live it out."
Again, Pink was saying things that find resonance in my Christian understanding of the world. Whenever Christians focus so much on making people look like Christians, act like Christians (outwardly), and fake it as Christians, the result is that a lot of people feel abandoned, left to their own devices which happens to be the very behaviors that the supposedly holy ones are damning. Of course, this had a negative effect on Pink, and the religious circle of his hometown should not be so quick to say, "Thank you that I am not a sinner like that man."
Of course, you can't have a conversation with Caeser Pink, leader of the Imperial Orgy, without discussing his views on sex. Although, he is quick to say, "Only a small part of the music is about sexuality. The word ëorgy' means excessive, abundance. In our sense it means an extremely wide variety of musical styles, art forms, theater, pushed together."
Granted I can see this wider definition of orgy in what the group is doing, but still, it seems that they promote their shows with a certain sexual hedonism, wouldn't he agree? "Hedonism implies that that's the highest value, and so in that case, definitely not.
"For a lot of people, sexuality is tied up with their growth process, the identity. There are a lot of lyrics about sex, growth, becoming a woman. My sexual lyrics are so tame compared to what you hear on the radio. It's a different mentality. When I write sexual lyrics, it's about something more than sex.
"If I was a parent, I'd be concerned about the message coming from Brittany Spears, etc. It is so shallow. Sex is a really big deal, a sacred thing, but there's a part of me that thinks repressing it is bad."
Perhaps that's where our views on sexuality diverge. As a Christian, I believe that sexuality a gift from God, something to be cherished and celebratedóbut also reserved for marriage. In Pink's worldview, he would see saving sex for marriage as repression. Repression is bad in the sense of acting as if Christians can't talk about sex, but reserving sex for marriage is not a negative. It emphasizes the sacred gift that God created.
Yet, there is that commonality in thinking that there is a lot in popular culture that is cheapening sex. While we come to different conclusions about this, it's amazing what kind of common ground you can find even with someone that appears to have such disparate views from your own.
In the end, the experience of interviewing Caeser Pink is a bit surreal knowing that the band is about performance art. I asked Pink if I should call him "Caeser," thinking there'd be a non-stage name. His answer: "Caeser would be fine." I asked if there is a difference between his public persona and the true Caeser. His answer: "No, I really don't think so." Considering Caeser never said "gotcha" and laughed about fooling the Christian pastor music reviewer, I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, Caeser really is who he says he is.
Of course, it was Tiberius Caesar's minion, Pontius Pilate, who said to Jesus, "What is truth?"
Thank you to Caeser Pink for his time.
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