Stereoboard Talk To Jimmy Urine Of Mindless Self Indulgence Ahead Of Their UK Tour (Interview)
Tuesday, 09 October 2012
Written by Heather McDaid
"We've been on another planet for ten, fifteen years trying to tell you!" exclaims James Euringer, more fondly known by fans of Mindless Self Indulgence as Jimmy Urine, their erratic, charismatic, wild and wonderful front man. "I don't like to say it - though we were definitely ahead of our time - but we're more like prophets."
It seems that finally, as the world douses its music in erratic electronics and over saturates the climate in dubstep, planet Earth has caught up with Mindless Self Indulgence. "I think all the glitz and grimy shit that we've always done since - Jesus - like '96, it's only in the last year and a half that the world has been like 'OH! That crazy glitched up, fucked up electro shit - we LOVE that now!' It's like, 'Oh, NOW you fucking love it?!'
"We told the world 'Hey, this is what's going to happen' and the world said 'Sure, sure, sure'. We were like the crazy person in the corner screaming what was going to happen and eventually it came to pass. Now it's like 'We told you so!'"
Though it has been over three and a half years since Mindless graced the UK's shores , or if you account for the full line-up, with bassist Lyn-Z being absent on their Kerrang! Tour run, it's more than four (not that we're counting...) the band have been kept busy. Even as this chat takes place, Jimmy partook in a panel at Scottish comic book writer Grant Morrison's own convention MorrisonCon a few days prior.
"It was great! We had a great time. It was like 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'. It was crazy, but a lot of fun." At his panel 'The Sound of the Atom Splitting', he was joined by the likes of Darick Robertson and Gerard Way in discussing the link between music and comic books. "The panel I had - luckily enough - was the best panel I could have, because I don't know much about anything else! I got into comics, I do music - I don't know anything else! There's definitely a correlation between the two, and I definitely started with comics before I started with music, so it was really fun to talk about that."
Now, to later this month. Mindless Self Indulgence are returning to the UK for a four date tour, stopping at Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London. After so long away, are they excited to be returning? "It's been quite a while! We're definitely excited to come back, even just for the food. I'm really looking forward to it."
Initially, the venues announced were tiny. We never even knew there was such a thing as an 'Academy III'. Unsurprisingly, those shows sold out, were upgraded - and most sold out all over again. Most of it was the promoters and a lot of other crap, but the fanbase is definitely crazy!
"When we first came to the promoters, they were like 'You've not been there for three years, you should just do the smaller venues'. I was like, 'Uhh... We just announced a US tour and the only thing we've gotten is a million fucking tweets saying we better come to the fucking UK or we'll kill you'. So, I said the smaller shows would sell out, but they weren't so sure. I was like, 'Oh, we'll see...'"
"You guys sing a lot. You guys sing everything," laughs Jimmy. "That's the biggest difference [in crowds] to me. You go anywhere else and they'll sing the chorus or sing a bit here and there, but here it's like right off the bat - first fucking word to the last word, singing at full volume because they know every single fucking word. That's really cool."
With three or four years away, what should fans expect from the upcoming tour? "What can you expect, man? Girl! We are the show. We've always been the show. We're one of the only bands who does that. We don't have a lighting guy, we don't have any props, we just show up and you come to see us because we are the show. Sometimes that's kind of annoying because we are the ones who have to perform, we can't stand still and the show has to go on even if something's wrong - but that's just us, that's what we do. That's what to expect - your places getting smashed!
"I mean, I think that's definitely a part of the following that we have - it's based on the fact that you know what you're going to get with a Mindless show. You're not going to see another show, but I think with a lot of other bands you get to see a band - you can go see a lot of bands play and they'll all play the same things. Bands like to do guitar solos, which I find fucking horrendous and pretty damn boring!"
Now the band are tentatively returning to the road, will there be an album in the works? "Well, you know, I'm always working and I'm always writing," explains Jimmy. "I've been doing a lot of side projects, so there'll definitely be some new Mindless coming up at some point, I just don't know exactly when or where. I mean, I've just released the soundtrack for a video game called Lollipop Chainsaw for Xbox and Playstation - I did a voice for one of the bosses, I did a munch of music on the game... There'll definitely be something new in the next year, I'll just let you know when I work out what the fuck it is going to be!"
As we all know, the zombie apocalypse is due in December (cough). What is his survival plan for when these events unfold? "My survival plan in the zombie apocalypse is probably to find Michael Rooker," he laughs. "That's probably what I'm going to do. Me and my wife are going to drive to Michael Rooker's house because that guy's on Walking Dead, and he probably knows how to survive that sort of thing. Plus, I'd assume, he has a lot of guns; he seems the kind of guy who has guns so he'd be the kind of guy you'd want on your team for the apocalypse."
So, with two weeks until the UK meets Mindless again, Jimmy's parting words for now are: "It's been a very long time and we are psyched as fuck to play for you and eat your food and then wreck your place and then leave it for you guys to clean up!"
Mindless Self Indulgence will be returning to the UK later this month for a run of headline dates to include shows in Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and London.
Thu October 25th 2012 - Manchester Academy 2, Manchester
Fri October 26th 2012 - Glasgow Garage, Glasgow
Sat October 27th 2012 - O2 Academy Birmingham, Birmingham
Sun October 28th 2012 - HMV Forum, Kentish Town, London
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It seems that finally, as the world douses its music in erratic electronics and over saturates the climate in dubstep, planet Earth has caught up with Mindless Self Indulgence. "I think all the glitz and grimy shit that we've always done since - Jesus - like '96, it's only in the last year and a half that the world has been like 'OH! That crazy glitched up, fucked up electro shit - we LOVE that now!' It's like, 'Oh, NOW you fucking love it?!' 
