DLW Interview
Interview with:
Mindless Self Indulgence - Little Jimmy Urine
If ever proof were required that Ritalin is desperately needed for each and every one of America's school-age children it could easily be found in the example of Little Jimmy Urine. As long as we have the bottle open, maybe we should dose the rest of Urine's crew in MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE as well. Urine, Little Jimmy to his friends, never did get much attention from Mum and Dad so it is left to us, the listening public, to be surrogates of a sort. Given the damn fine album that he has produced the proposition isn't all that bad unless, it's bedtime and he's got a mouth full of piss that is. "FRANKENSTEIN GIRLS WILL SEEM STRANGELY SEXY" is a disc of disgruntled sounds that agitate almost as much as they amuse and I think that was the intent. It is hard to know as Urine, in his Johnny Rotten meets GG Allen way, never really gets too carried away with fleshing out the details. If he hasn't said what he has to say in less than two minutes then it wasn't worth the effort to say in the first place and this is where the piss guzzling comes in. Yes, I do mean the swilling of human urine by the way, and for no other reason than to entertain himself, though I have heard that it is great for whitening the teeth and Mr. Urine does have a brilliant smile.
Jimmy and friends refer to their music as "industrial jungle p**** punk" and who am I to argue? I also hear a fare amount of metal and Hip Hop which leaves the mix just eclectic enough to either alienate or enthrall anyone who will listen. As for the time investment required, thirty tunes in under and hour, all in their respective title's alphabetical order for those who suffer not only from Attention Deficit Disorder but from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as well. True to his word, Urine and the rest of MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE has hoped on the tour trail with THE GENITORTURERS and will be bringing their water sports show to a fetish party near you. The irony here is that it isn't very likely that anyone will even notice the piss. Bring a raincoat.
Knowing that we here at the ranch are always up for a bit of the kink, Little Jimmy Urine phoned to offer an insight into why he thinks Frankenstein girls are so sexy.
DAVID LEE: You do make a writers job a hard one with your music, it is impossible to describe, at least by comparison.
LITTLE JIMMY URINE: How about "It sucks!" That should cover it all! (laughs) You could file it away between "Country" and "Zydeco."
DL: Now there is an idea! Or "None of the above?"
LJU: Yeah, that way I don't get pinned down to anything. I am like a politician, I don't actually answer the question.
DL: So, this is the first step towards a career in politics?
LJU: No, I can't stand it (politics). I am very non-political but funnily enough there are a lot of bands out there that are very good that are very political and I don't have a problem with that. PUBLIC ENEMY is great and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE but I hate politics and this band is completely non-political. Any message that we have is really very plain. It is right there on the chorus of every song. Boom!, there it is! (laughs)
DL: That reminds me of when Luke from the 2LIVE CREW was being interviewed for the biography of Ozzy Osbourne and he said, "There ain't no backward messages in our music, it is about getting' our d***s sucked. We even tell you how we want you to suck it, there are no backward messages here." Or something to that effect (laughs).
LJU: (Laughing) Mr. Campbell! He is such a nice guy. Well our message is not necessarily a simple message like, "Suck our d***s," but the live show, it definitely sharpened it up but for the creative process, it is pretty much the same.
DL: When people talk about the band they usually emphasis the live show so, just what is a MINDLESS SELF INDULGENCE gig like?
LJU: It is whatever we feel is going to entertain us. I don't like guys who sit there and do nothing, it is boring. I really don't give a s*** if somebody is playing well or not, it is if you are entertaining or not. I hate musicians, we all really hate musicians so it is like, if the guy is going to eat his guitar, I think that he is a much better guitarist than if he is doing an E minor 7th chord or something. It really is whatever is going to entertain us. If Steve wants to go with his little wireless system and go up to a balcony and throw a chair at me, that is fine and that is fun. If I decide I am going to drink my piss that night then that is fun and if Steve wants to join me he can. It is pretty much whatever is going to entertain us and we do try to piss people off all the time.
DL: What has gotten the best reaction for you so far?
LJU: That is pretty much it because when people like us, we don't know what to do but when people hate us we know exactly what to do. We all are definitely from the same school and we never got a lot of attention as kids. For me, it is not like "Woe is me, I have had a terrible life so I am going to take it out on the world," no, I was always just a little idiot who never got enough attention and now I can run around yelling "Hey, it's me guys, look at me I am lighting my arm on fire!"
DL: Have you ever been met by the tour bus...
LJU: Oh, yeah. We like all that stuff and I answer all of my own e-mails and when we were out with RAMMSTEIN and ICP we would always hang out and if people wanted to come over and say hi, we would always hang out. For me, it is not like a tour is all about sex and drug, it is a job. I am going to bloody my face up and all that crap but then the next thing you know I am just going to be hanging out and when it is time to go I am going to go and soak my goddamned legs in a tub somewhere. (laughs) I am not like "Yeah, lets go get some bitches and do some drugs and hang backstage."
DL: Well, are you ever met by people who you have pissed off that night, I hear the live samples on the record where you are telling some guy how you are going to ass f*** his girlfriend, that has to prove less endearing in some places outside of New York and L.A?
LJU: Yeah, but it is funny, ICP was like that where we would come off the stage right after the set and jump down in the pit and say "Here we are, what the f*** do you want?" Not in the sense of like we were going to kick someone's ass or something but, "Hey, so you didn't like the show?" A lot of the kids were really cool once we were down there but I guess they just wanted to put us through it, you know. People either love it or hate it, which is good. For every type of music there is a faction that really love it and a faction that really hate it and there are tons of ICP fans who couldn't stand it but there were also a lot that really liked it. The same thing with someone who likes APHEX TWINS, "This really isn't electronic music, it is just a bunch of goofy fools." But then again there are a bunch of people who say, "These guys are great, I have never heard anything programmed like that before!" I guess that there hasn't been anybody that was like, "Hey, I'll see you at three O'clock you motherf***er!" (laughs)
DL: "I'll meet you at he flagpole dude!" (laughs)
LJU: Yeah! But, hey, it is only music, no big deal, you know? I am not into that whole, "Well, you don't like my music so I am going to get you!" Who cares? I don't like my music! It's all about being an a**hole and not all the testosterone you can handle. Look at me, I am just a skinny little nothing, somebody's grandmother could kill me! (laughs) They could send their girlfriend that I said I was going to f*** in the ass and she could kill me! (laughs)
DL: If you should survive that what do you plan to do with the band in the future?
LJU: I am hoping to finish this next can of soup and write a new record and get another can or two of soup.
DL: If the advance holds out?
LJU: Yeah. I am always working on stuff, I can write a song in a day and then polish it off later but I can pretty much sit down and churn out two or three a week without a problem.
DL: Do you take the skeleton of a finished song to the other guys in the band for their input?
LJU: Yeah but I have pretty much finished it, gone as far as I can take it and then I will sit down with the rest of them and work out live bits and that stuff we will put on top of it when we go into the big studio. That is, pretty much, what we end up using for the live shows as well. If there is a song and all of the live instruments are great and the electronics stink, I will kill it. If I have got an idea, something that I want to write about and halfway through the song I begin writing about chickens as well as this really important thing, if it sounds good then I am going to leave it. It is just whatever sounds good. There are no specifics to it. The thing is, it is all sacrificeable to what we think is fun and cool. Nobody is sitting around saying, "Dude, I didn't play guitar on that song." Everybody just does there thing and has fun but I guess I am the principle song writer.
DL: Each gives as determined by their ability and only takes what they need?
LJU: Exactly, very nicely put! You must be a writer! (laughs)
DL: Naw, Communist! (laughs)
LJU: Oh, OK, either one (laughs).
DL: On this tour will you be headlining or will you be going out as a special guest again?
LJU: If we were to headline it wouldn't be until the end of the year. What we want to do right now is jump on everybody's tour and piss off their fans! (laughs) At this point I'll take anything from SLIPKNOT to CHER.
Written by David Lee Wilson