HDFQNA: Talkin’ bout COCKOLOGY

I asked some friends to ask me some questions about my new album COCKOLOGY. Your questions and comments are also welcome. Thanks.

The word Cockology is very intriguing. It implies the idea of a science or theory concerned with the study of cock. Can you talk about the inspiration behind it and your process for creating this word?

Well there’s a short answer and a long answer to that, so we’d best get to the short answer first.

I really enjoy playing with language, and lately I’ve been making up names that sound sort of institutional or academic but are really just mashups of different ideas. ARCONOMETRY, INDIVISUALISM, CONFOUNDERATIONALYSTIC,  COCKOLOGY. In some cases I’ve used these words as song titles, which I did for one track on the album, and then built the album around that idea.

So on one hand there’s no real relation of the song titles to the music, it’s whatever you bring to it that makes it mean anything. I hope people won’t get too hung up on the titles over just enjoying the music, but if you want to go deeper, then it’s there.

That was the short answer. Would you like something to drink before we continue?

We’re fine, thanks.

Please feel free to masturbate while we talk. We’re all gentlemen here.

Okay, I will, thanks a lot.

So, the long answer:

To me the term Cockology means the practice of informed, healthy human male sexual identity. The album is meant to encourage men to consider that they and their cocks aren’t separate, but one whole identity as a mature sexual being.

Men are led by a natural, innate call of our cocks throughout our lives. And yet the penis, especially the erect penis, is considered to be about the most obscene thing imaginable to look at, a sin to play with, something to be kept away and never discussed. We’re not even allowed to show it on a men’s masturbation blog without penalties. It’s like a male Medusa for whom one brief glance will turn you to stone, doomed for eternity. It’s ridiculous the phobias this culture has about dick.

Cock is one-half of the life-giving devices in mammals on Earth. As humans I think we owe it to ourselves to learn to celebrate cock as a giver of life and knowledge, not just a tool for procreation but for recreation, for inspiration and for masturbation. We’d find more value in our lives if we took our penis seriously as part of our purpose here on Earth, and show ourselves and each other the respect we deserve. For all the ways that our cocks can bring pleasure and fulfillment to ourselves and our partners, we need to be free to celebrate its power in our lives without shame.

These are some of the ideas I was thinking about as I composed this album: Who are we as men to wield this sensual joystick that holds so much power over our identity, our psyche, our heart, intellect and spirit? How can we learn to integrate our sexuality with our other inner powers? If we can see cock as worthy of respect, as a symbol of the whole man, then we can start applying the positive aspects of it to our lives. We don’t have to live in shame and isolation. There are others like us who understand the joys and fulfillment that being in charge of our sexuality affords.

What we need is already here, we just need to take it seriously—which is not to say it shouldn’t be fun. Cock is important and serious fun, and I’d like to see it used as an instrument and symbol of joyful liberation for those of us who want to celebrate our manhood together. The way we live can be a continuing adventure with intelligent and thoughtful sexuality, when shame is erased and dignity is restored for men.

This isn’t an anti-feminist message. I want women to explore their power too, but I can’t speak for them. We all need to chill and just love our bodies and each other. Consensually, of course, respectfully and responsibly.

Why do you think most guys that are serious about masturbation or penis-related practices prefer the word cock over dick and so many other slang terms for penis?

I’ve thought about that myself before, and don’t have a definite answer. I most often use the word cock to infer an erection, and penis to infer a flaccid state, but I don’t know why I like cock more than dick. Maybe I think cock is sexier and more superheroic than dick or something, which I use when I want to be a little more crude, or just as a writing device to alternate with cock. But saying either kind of gives me a little buzz in the ol’ weineroonie.

One might assume that an album entitled COCKOLOGY would be completely XXX rated. But except for the titular song, the names of most songs have no sexual connotations. Most—if not all—tracks are instrumental and have no lyrics, so they could be played anywhere. For an album about cock that is surprising. Can you talk about that?

I refer you to Mary Poppins’ statement, “First of all I would like to make one thing quite clear—I never explain anything.”

Actually, I’m glad to explain everything.

I enjoy oblique enigmas and double-entendres, sometimes even quintendres. It’s the Marcel Duchamp effect I guess. So they often get put into song titles for me. That’s not true of every track on this album, but I think the double-entendre in something like UPSTANDING CITIZEN speaks for itself.

The song titles on this album most often describe something about both the man and the cock. For example HEAD SPACE is a rote term for trippy thoughts, but it can also mean something about the head or imagination of a person. But then it can also refer to, in the context of Cockology, a man’s second head and the spaces it might find itself in.

The titles are meant to provide something to think about as you listen to the music. My objective was to illustrate sexual dynamics without words—the peaks and valleys and rhythms that we experience while we’re sexually engaged. Not literally, of course. It’s interpretive. I mean, nobody expects Rhapsody In Blue to actually BE New York City, do they?

With as few words as possible I wanted to contemplate the intellectual aspects of cock—historical, social, cultural, personal. Unfortunately that goal dies when I explain it in great detail, but there we are. There’s an emotional tone to this album which comes from a very deep place that I think maybe I share with other men, that goes back a long way in my DNA. It’s best not described in words. It’s an emotional state that only music can really reach, and that’s one purpose of this album for me, to kind of speak to the unnameable mysteries of our cocks. The song titles are intentionally oblique for that purpose.

I will say that the track HONORIFIC is suggesting that instead of always using cock as a slur or insult, what if instead we could also recognize it as worthy of honor and dignity? What does it say to us as men when our primary symbol is a negative? We need to demand that our worth be recognized, not denigrated. What if our penis was considered an honorific instead of horrific just for being a penis?

What’s your musical background?

In the Eighties I worked with a friend on a musical project that was mostly studio-based. We released a couple of “mainstream” self-produced studio recordings. I’m not a musician myself—I can write lyrics and melody, but I can’t play any instruments—so that career path died when it became difficult to find musicians willing to put up with me.

I’ve been at this a long time, and pretty much thought I’d stopped just before we got BateWorld going. I only started using GarageBand as a way to unwind and enjoy exploring it without really having any goals. I found it to be so expressive, and now music is something I’m enjoying again. Along with my current career with BateWorld, which is my primary focus.

What’s your inspiration for creating these tracks? Do you have any contemporaries? Who are some of your influences?

It’s just my creative expression, whatever that’s called. I thoroughly love creating music. I did when I was working with musicians and I love it now that I can play with myself lol. I mostly do it to relax when I get some time off, so that’s really the biggest reason I do it.

In terms of contemporaries, the new music I listen to is most often ambient/chill, but only a minority of my tracks really fit into that category. I’m intentionally not plugged into any scenes, in part because I don’t want to be intimidated by people who are better than me, ha.

My influences are all over the place, and not necessarily musical. They’re mostly first from artists like Duchamp, Dubuffet, Warhol, Kubrick, Robert Irwin, and Buckminster Fuller. And zen, dada, and Walt Disney. Not necessarily in that order. I don’t follow any spiritual practices, but zen sans Buddhism informs a lot of my creativity.

Musically I’m a product of my early years. I was a teenager during the Seventies, a time of Soul, Disco, Art Rock, Funk, Punk and New Wave. I guess I’m still riding that wave. It was an awesome time to be that age. David Bowie; Brian Eno; Talking Heads; Sex Pistols; Patti Smith; Parliament Funkadelic; Roxy Music; Genesis; Pink Floyd—they’ve all impressed something on me at one point or another. Music is a language I don’t speak, but I understand innovation. I’m in no way comparing myself to any of them, just saying they’ve inspired me.

I know, I’m a hodgepodge.

Do you have a favorite song?

From this album or from all songs?

Both, I guess.

From this album, no, I love all my children the same lol.

Out of all songs: Absolutely—Billy Paul, Me And Mrs. Jones. Perfect in every detail. I also like: Bowie’s Soul Love; Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, If You Don’t Know Me By Now; Traffic, The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys; Little Wooden Head from Pinocchio; Gentle On My Mind performed by Glenn Campbell; and Johnny Nash’s I Can See Clearly Now, which I happened to record with my friend Devin in a dank basement a few decades back. On cassette tape.

How much work do you put into each song with writing, rewrites, edits, etc.?

It totally depends on the song. Some are finished in the first draft. SEXUAL INTELLECTUAL is one of those. Others like SHOCKWAVE can take maybe twenty hours of polishing, over a long period of time (whenever I can get to it). I finish the first version of almost every track within an hour or so, and rarely take anything out once it’s there. Mixing can take a long time, especially if I’m going for what’s apparently becoming my signature Walls N’ Walls O’ Sound sound. It’s strange because I still think of myself as a minimalist but some of these tracks border on sonic hurricanes. Watch your volume control fellas.

Do you think DJ’s, in gay or straight venues, can add these tracks to their sets?

I’d love that, honestly. My work is kind of eccentric, and it certainly doesn’t hold to one mood for very long, but if that’s a positive for club DJ’s then go for it. I do suspect it’s probably more festival-type dance music, but I’d be happy to know it was being played anywhere where some booties need a-shakin.’ The remixes are definitely worth a shimmy or two.

I personally enjoy listening to my songs when I’m working out. That’s one of the reasons I generally make them a little long, because it helps me to keep the energy going. I’d like to think it translates that way for other people too—whether dancing, walking, or working out, I think it’s good music for moving.

But sitting in a chair or lying in bed, and letting your hand do all the work, that’s good too. Just as long as something’s moving, ha!

BateWorld is one of your most significant projects and both Peter and you have turned it into a universe of its own. It’s more than just a social network, it’s so unique that you can even organize events like this album release that take place solely in that universe.

What does COCKOLOGY add to BateWorld, and how does this album fit into your plans for future events?

From the beginning I’ve been searching for ways to add media and entertainment elements to BateWorld. As Creative Director I feel like it’s my responsibility to find ways to keep things fresh, and a special event now and then helps the general atmosphere, whether members partake or not. We can’t have parades, so I guess this is the next alternative lol.

COCKOLOGY is a project that I had originally planned as a video series, but I decided it was best without visuals. I’m still hoping to get that video series going, and maybe these incremental steps will help get us there. BateWorld needs to keep up with developing technologies, and you never really know what’s gonna pop up suddenly, like a pun outta nowhere. So I feel it’s important to keep ourselves primed. There it goes again.

Lately I’ve done some experimenting with 3D video, and it would be fun to introduce some Premium features that took advantage of that. I can’t make any promises though. I’d love to do an explicit music video in a VR environment. The possibilities for VR are just really intriguing to me, and I hope at some point we could actually create some fun rooms for bators.

These tracks are all kind of a step towards doing that. Imagine a sexual Pirates of the Caribbean type ride you watch on your phone. VR sexual amusement complexes. 360 degree menus and vidchat rooms. These are the things I think about. No promises, no demands. At present we’ve got our hands full as it is. Ok I’ll stop now.

You will certainly keep on producing more songs, but specifically about COCKOLOGY: is it a limited event project or do you plan on continuing it as a series?

The only sequel is the remix album (COCKOLOGY: REMIXED UP), which will be released next week. I do intend on continuing to put out music with sexual themes though, one being DIKTRONICA, which will most likely be the follow-up. That’s pretty much done. There’s another down the road, currently called SUPERHEROIC, which will be split into maybe three volumes, because there’s just so much material.

What possibilities do you see for COCKOLOGY?

After releasing it into the wild I just want it to fly free and live for some length of time, enjoyed by stouthearted people of good will everywhere. I hope that it moves people and inspires them in some way, to be more thoughtful and conscious as you masturbate, to dance freely, to feel some kind of pleasure that you’ll want to share with others, or just share it with yourself in an intimate embrace of your own special purpose.

Thanks for reading, y’all, and I hope you like the music. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below. Bate on!

REMIXED UP will be released next week on TheBatorBlog. Includes the bonus track RIGIDIGITATION.

Listen to a short preview of RIGIDIGITATION: Extended Reboot Edition above. The full mix is over 19 minutes long. All vocals by HDF.