LAist interviews Coop

Hot on the heels of the LA Alternative cover story profile of Coop, Tony Pierce has an excellent interview with the artist.

200609071141 PIERCE: You also seem to have a lot of love for Satanic imagery and work that some would easily describe as sacrilegious. In fact in an interview you said that Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey deemed you and your wife Satanists and ordained you both priests. In the interview you said that Satanists believe that man's true nature is an animal. Don't they believe that our true nature is also an evil one?

COOP: I am a member of the Church, and have lots of friends in the organization. "Evil" is a construct designed by organized religion to brainwash man into denial of his true nature, to trade fun hedonism for pious hypocrisy. The only real evil is denial of your true nature.

I see Dr. LaVey's Satanic philosophy as way to rid yourself of all the negative bullshit and guilt of religion, while keeping the interesting stuff, like using ritual and ceremony as mind-focusing psychodrama. I attended the 6/6/06 Black Mass here in L.A. this year, and it was an incredible experience. I felt charged up with inspiration afterwards, all without having to give credit to some skinny whiner on a cross.

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