JOANNA: Hello?

CASEY: Hi.

JOANNA: Hi! How are you?

CASEY: I�m alright, how are you doing?

JOANNA: I�m ok.

CASEY: Where are you?

JOANNA: Where am I? I�m in Brooklyn, New York. Where are you?

CASEY: I�m in Brooklyn.

JOANNA: ME TOO! Lemme guess... are you in Williamsburg?

CASEY: Yes.

JOANNA: Oh my God!!!

JOANNA: I could probably see you from outside my window, but I'm too lazy to walk across my apartment and look.

CASEY: Exactly.

JOANNA: So do you know what you�re being interviewed for?

CASEY: Um, BurningAngel? That's what I have written down.

JOANNA: Do you know what BurningAngel is?

CASEY: Um, no. Sorry.

JOANNA: BurningAngel is an adult website.

CASEY: I don't know how much of an "adult" I am. What does that mean?

JOANNA: [Laughs] Like, there�s porno on it.

CASEY: Oooohhh�ok. Is it � oh wait, maybe I have seen it�I�m trying to remember�Is it S&M?

JOANNA: No, it�s not S&M. The New York Times fancies it as "alt porn" but I'm really bad at classifying my own shit.

CASEY: I think I have heard of the site but I haven't seen it...

JOANNA: Well, I just wanted to tell you what you were being interviewed for. Do you have any objections to being on a porn site?

CASEY: No, that�s fine.

JOANNA: [Laughs] Good. I was just making sure.

CASEY: I�ll tailor my answers appropriately.

JOANNA: So did Fischerspooner start in New York?

CASEY: Yeah, we started in 1998. I lived in Chinatown then.

JOANNA: So you guys are a real New York band, not a band who moved to New York to be a band.

CASEY: Yeah, definitely.

JOANNA: Was it difficult for you guys to find venues to play in at first? There weren't that many electro bands playing out in NYC around 1998.

CASEY: Our first show was really a lot about special effects, and it was also very theatrical. It was hard for a new band to find a venue to support that. It sucked because I loved the smaller clubs; the vibe is much more intense and they're more manageable. I never went to big concerts growing up, but my vision couldn't be accomplished in the smaller places.

JOANNA: So where did you play your first show?

CASEY: We organized a variety at a Starbucks. It was a crazy mix of different performances that could�ve been any number of things. We kind of came out of this stranger, more experimental, underground performance. Friends of ours who opened did a puppet show, and then there was someone else who was just experimenting with his keyboard-- i mean, it was really crazy.

JOANNA: Unfortunately, I saw no puppet shows growing up in the rock scene.

CASEY: Yeah- we just didn't have any paramaters as to what kind of music we were and who we were playing for so anything sort of went. We just kept doing these crazy performances and played where anyone would let us.

JOANNA: How did you go from playing at Starbucks to being where you are now?

CASEY: The first show we were ever paid or given any money to play was at a party for this cosmetics company called Tony and Tina � then we were adopted by the art world and did a couple of amazing shows at galleries. Our shows became more elaborate and then it just kept growing.

JOANNA: Do you guys still get to play art galleries?

CASEY: Well, we will, but right now it�s really about trying to put together a show for this record. Everyone wants to see the show �cause they had read about us playing at these galleries. So this time around I�m starting with the knowledge of the practicality of touring. The last big art show we did was in New York, there were eighty people working on the show, which is impossible to take on tour.

JOANNA: Eighty people???

CASEY: Eighty people.

JOANNA: So taking Fischerspooner on tour is like taking Grease on tour.

CASEY: Basically. We have a hair, makeup, and wardrobe team�and that's just the beginning. An American tour bus holds twelve people�so it was like, how the hell do we take this on tour?

JOANNA: Did you have to sacrifice anything to tone it down?

CASEY: Uh, yeah, my personal well- being.



JOANNA: [Laughs] You don't need that, I sacrificed mine a long time ago. So you went to art school- correct?

CASEY: Yeah, I went to the Art Institution of Chicago. I also went to a Magnet School for the Arts in high school.

JOANNA: So it's safe to call you an art aficionado, correct?

CASEY: I suppose.

JOANNA: So BurningAngel just made a video and called "The Jizzperiment", and it basically consisted of two girls giving this one guy a blowjob and he, like, finished onto a piece of glass and then the glass was sealed shut.





CASEY: Huh? Who sealed the glass shut?

JOANNA: Men in spacesuits!



CASEY: Oh, ok.

JOANNA: So now the sealed jizz is sitting in our office, and I'm keeping an eye on it to see what happens. Aside from this project being arousing and educational the finished product is really artistic. I'd like to get it in an art gallery one day. Do you think this is possible or will art critics laugh at my idea of art?

CASEY: You should take a look at some literature on performance art . There�s a long history of artwork that deals with those ideas of the body and different elements. You should go � you know online just look for a book called The Artist�s Body. It�ll give you a complete survey of all the contemporary art that deals with the idea of art and the idea of the body. There�s a long legacy of people doing things with their body � so, you should just look at that and see what other people have done. Yeah, it�s totally not a new controversy. It�s a controversy that�s been around since, like, the 50s.

JOANNA: So I could say that this is a piece of "performance art"?

CASEY: Sure. You decide art and you determine what your idea is and what your work is.

JOANNA: Ok. Do you think that all pornography could be considered performance art?

CASEY: No. I think that it has a lot to do with your perspective and your attitude and what you�re thinking about. I think that art is ultimately a point of view, and in a way I think that we�re living in this era that � what is considered art�what is and what isn�t? And I think that the one thing that for me, being trained as an artist and working in all these nontraditional ways, is that the ultimate definition of an artist is not what you made but what your point of view is.

JOANNA: So if somebody makes something and it doesn�t really do anything for anybody else, but the guy or girl who makes it intends for it to be art, then that is considered art?

CASEY: Ok, but then likewise if someone just creates something and they wanted to sell a commercial product but it instigates all these people giving it all these meanings and personal opinions, but the person didn�t originally intend for it to be art, then it�s not.

JOANNA: Yeah, I mean I think that that�s a fairly good start. But I think that it is mostly the exhibitor�s intentions. So I think that if you�re making it pertain to other things, like what it means in history and what it can relate to, then it�s art, but I think if you�re just some guy wanting to get off, I think that it�s fairly limited.

CASEY: It�s a good question and it�s a subject that I think about all the time. Cause with my background as an artist, a lot of time I think about working in a larger context. So a lot of the time it is like, �What makes it artful for you?�

JOANNA: So would you like to participate in my next Jizzsperiment?

CASEY: (laughs) No, I think my ejaculation is fine where it is.

JOANNA: Ok. Well if you change your mind then let me know. I'm right around the corner...