BAND: Mindless Self Indulgence
INTERVIEWERS: Chris Hazel (chrish@bandvibe.com) and Liz Wise (liz@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Jimmy & Steve @ San Diego / Entire Band @ Denver
DATE OF INTERVIEWS: 07/31/07 (San Diego), 09/03/07 (Denver)

BAND MEMBERS:
Jimmy Urine - Vox & Programming
Steve Righ - Guitar
Kitty - Drums
Lyn Z - Bass

We have a double treat for you Mindless Self Indulgence fans out there! Our Kickass Bandvibers, Chris Hazel and Liz Wise got to interview Mindless Self Indulgence in two cities of The Projekt Revolution Tour 2007! Chris started off first meeting with Jimmy & Steve over in San Diego on July 31st, and Liz did a follow up interview with the whole band over in Denver (near the end of the tour) on Sept 3rd. Check out the pics from Denver (link is provided down this page).

Let's start it off with the interview taken in San Diego...

Who am I talking to and what is your role in the band?

JU: You are talking to Jimmy Urine and my role is to write song that nobody likes.
SR: And my name is Steve Righ and my job is to play songs that nobody likes.

How has the tour been going so far?

JU: Fantastic, it’s actually a really nice tour. We are very surprised but not because we didn’t think that this was a good or bad tour but because in the past tours, chaos was always this and that and the other thing.
SR: When ever you get a big festival tour, it usually not run that well just in its nature but this one is like a well oiled machine.
JU: Oh my god, it’s like German engineering well oil. It’s retarded and every one is nice. How they keep it running so well and not all wake up wanting to kill every one is beyond me?
SR: That will happen though by the end of the tour at least on this bus.
JU: You and me throw down…(Laughs all around)

What is it like to headline the second stage?

JU: It’s fun and awesome to have our own kids table to thrash around on.
SR: When you’re eating at the kids table, you can have food fights all you want with out having to be interrupted by all the grown ups. So we have our own little thing going and we have a trap. So once they come in they can’t leave. (More laughs)

Was there a reason you chose second stage over main stage?

JU: To have a longer set and to be able to interact with our fans.
SR: Also, the set time would be a lot shorter and cut in half. We didn’t want kids to pay whatever amount of money it is to see us for twenty minutes.
JU: This way we can do the show with a longer set and we can hang out while they close the place up talking to every one, sign autographs, and steal every baby.

What is the nuttiest thing that has happened on this tour?

JU: We’ve only been on this tour four days, but we almost melted.

What is the best and worst thing about being on the road?

JU: Best thing for me is that I get a lot of sleep. I don’t get a lot sleep at home, but it seems to be the opposite for you.
SR: No matter where I am I just don’t sleep any more. I get the Tyler Durden insomnia thing going on.
JU: The worst thing is that the calendar just doesn’t exist. All of a sudden, you have bills to pay, it’s some body’s birthday, you don’t know what day it is, or what time it is. The only time you know is what time you go on stage. For example, we have to play at three. What time is it now? Where are we, who are we? We don’t know which is really odd when you get into any trouble because the cops ask you all sorts of questions and you have no clue. You just sound like a maniac or a time traveler. Now I know what terminator is all about.
SR: Damn, you went a long way for that one.

If you could chose a dream team of bands to go tour with, who would you chose and why?

JU: What is this fantasy football?
SR: Gwen Stefani
JU: That would be fun. (Laughs) Actually, I would be less into the bands on the tour, and I would more just want the cool stuff. I would want a water slide or a stage that pivots like in Flash Gordon.
SR: The single production stuff, we are solo when it comes to life. Usually, we aren’t even allowed a smoke machine on stage.
JU: I want what we had on Carson Daily last night. On TV, it’s a whole different animal; they accommodate you for every thing. If I want to build a giant sculpture and hang off that they are like, yeah we got that and they go out and build it for you. I want guys coming up to me every day asking what are we going to do today?
SR: If some one said my dream phrase. If you break, you break who cares. I’ve never heard that before.

How would describe the diversity of fans and in interesting mix of followers?

JU: It was bound to happen because we aren’t just one set style of music.
SR: There are a lot of things people can pick out. If they just like the show only, or they can just like music, or they can just like the combination or parts of it. Our audience has gotten broader and there are fans today that you would have not seen when we first started.

How important is it that the crowd gets involved during the show?

JU: We are reactionary so if we are board or the audience isn’t into it then some times we try to provoke to people so that we have some thing to play off of, but it rarely ever happens because every one goes buck ass nuts.

It seems like the critics and media either hate or love Mindless Self Indulgence and that there is no middle ground?

JU: It’s just like every body else. There’s that wall where you are either on one side of it or the other side.
SR: But if we were in the middle than we would be forgotten. Things that are in the middle are passable but no one will ever remember you.

So controversy is good for a band?

JU: It’s not even the controversy. We must be doing something right if we are getting that much of a reaction. To be ignored is the worst thing because then we are just another mediocre band.
SR: We might suck for all we know or we might be a living art piece, but we really don’t even care. We just do what we do and as long as some body saying something than we’ve done our job.

I hear you are doing a release show for you up coming DVD?

BOTH: Hell Yeah!!! (They Both Scream)
SR: We’ve got a DVD coming out on September 11th called “Our Pain, Your Gain” and we are doing a release show at the Mr. Smalls Theater in Millvale, Pennsylvania.
JU: We are going to party there as we rally our way back home.

Is there any significance to why the show and the release of the DVD is the anniversary of September 11th?

JU: You know what it is? It’s just that a lot of music releases are on Tuesdays and a lot of bad things just happen to be on Tuesday.
SR: One of our albums came out on Columbine but we could have predicted that and it was Hitler’s birthday. We didn’t know any of this and we were completely oblivious to it all. So the fact that the DVD is now coming out on the anniversary September 11th is just pure coincidence. The bottom line when you get down to it is that some thing bad happens every day and the DVD had to get release some time.

What are you plans after Projekt Revolution?

SR: We are going to go do some tour dates in England and in Europe. Then we are going to work on our new album which will come out early next year and then more touring.

How does the crowd involvement in the States compare to the crowd response over seas?

JU: There are two things that I have noticed over seas. First, they kind of get it more, in a sense on a musical level. Second of all, because it took us so long to get over there they aren’t used to us being interactive after the show.
SR: They treat us like we are untouchables and are surprised when we jump right off the stage and start talking to people.

Is there any thing you would like to say to the readers of Bandvibde.com?

JU: We’ve pretty much covered it all.
SR: I’m surprised you can read. (Laughs all around)
JU: Good show.

Now, let's check out the interview at the Denver stop....

A Message from Liz: Mindless Self Indulgence is a truly unique band, both in their music and general demeanor. When I joined them on their tour bus during the final day of the Projekt Revolution tour, the entire band was really relaxed and fun to talk to and had plenty to say. I had no clue that LynZ was going to marry Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance backstage at the tour later that night- or I would have asked her about it for sure!

BV: This is the last date of the Projekt Revolution tour. Did you guys have a good time?
Jimmy: It is totally the last day! School is out! We did have a good time, for a festival, it was fantastic. Hopefully, they’ll invite us back next year. We’re class of 2007, Hopefully we’ll be class of 2008.
Lyn-Z: I doubt it, but we can hope.

BV: So what were some of the highlights of the tour?
LynZ: Probably all the interviews.
Jimmy: Oh my god man! They come from all over the place. Czechoslovakia and places you don’t even know. I’ve been riding my bike around. I bought this forty-dollar Huffy. It’s awesome.
LynZ: I’ve gotten cozy with a golf cart a couple of times.

BV: What do you have planned next?
Jimmy: Well, we do a little headlining tour to get ourselves back to New York with our lovely friends of Julien-K. And on September 11th our DVD is coming out, Our Pain Your Gain. Then we go off to the lovely land of the Britain’s, the UK and tour the UK and Europe. And then we’ll take a little time out and next year we’ll do a new record early in the year. And then you know, more touring. Touring, touring, touring. Basically we’re like out of work thieves, and we think each job is going to put us over the top, and this job might be it.
LynZ: I’ve been hearing that for years.

BV: Speaking of touring, do you really enjoy it?
LynZ: It’s like a rollercoaster. It has its ups and downs.
Jimmy: At first, you’re really excited and then it can get horrible or be really great.
BV: It seems like it would get boring to me, sitting in a bus all day just to play for maybe 30 minutes…
Jimmy: Well (sitting in here) is the part we like! Fuck playing out there. No, no. It’s all a rollercoaster. Some days it’s great, others it sucks, some days you’re drunk and others you’re sober.
LynZ: I mean it beats any other jobs I’ve had.
Jimmy: It definitely beats most jobs I’ve had. There’s been a couple though… I was a stock boy and I had absolutely no responsibility. This is more responsibility than that. I would just sleep on the clothes.

BV: Are you excited to go to Europe?
Jimmy: Yeah! We’re always excited to go to Europe.
LynZ: There’s nothing better than hearing people cheer your name in a foreign language or with an accent

BV: So who will you be touring with in Europe?
Jimmy: We’re headlining baby! I think we’ll be with a couple of Electronic acts but I don’t know who we’ve solidified with. I haven’t gotten that memo yet or I’d totally give them a plug.
LynZ: A bunch of European acts I think.

BV: Have you gotten to know, hung out with a lot of the other bands on the tour?
Jimmy: We know all the bands on the tour! We’ve known a lot of people for a while. We knew some of the guys in Linkin Park, Chester and Julien-K from a million years ago. But we’ve met a bunch of bands like the Saosin boys. We’ve gotten really friendly with Placebo, we’d never met them.
LynZ: Placebo! I love those guys, they are some of the sweetest guys.

BV: In the past, Projekt Revolution has been a tour aimed at bringing together artists and fans in rock and hip-hop. This year, there is only one hip-hop group. Why do you think there has been a decline? It seems like another summer tour, not a revolution…
Jimmy: Yeah, I was very upset that there wasn’t as much hip-hop.
Steve: I think the revolution is that people are getting a lot more tolerant of different styles.
LynZ: I think it’s a revolution. I mean look at the other tours, like Warped Tour, it’s all the same, crappy bands. I think that this tour, more than any other tour has a more eclectic group of acts.
Kitty: Hasn’t rap and rock been done over and over too though? That’s not revolutionary either. You know Placebo is huge in Europe but not here and this tour is giving bands an opportunity to be in the line up with other bands that are different than themselves.
Steve: It’s also giving Placebo an opportunity to play with bands whose fans would like them but haven’t had the opportunity to hear them. And people can come and admit their guilty pleasures of liking bands that they’re not ‘supposed’ to.

BV: Have you been getting a lot of fans, listeners on the second stage?
Jimmy: We don’t have to. They just come in and they’re trapped.
BV: This tour is actually different from most festivals I’ve been to. Most have the second stage going while bands are playing on the main stage so there’s all this competition.
Jimmy: Well ‘F’ that ‘S’ man!
Steve: That’s where I’ve got to give it to Linkin Park for this one. They weren’t just talking shit. They wanted to bring bands on that they wanted to help out and get more exposure for and they’ve done it by closing the main stage down until this stage is done.
BV: So how come you don’t all just play on the main stage then?
Jimmy: Because we suck… it’s all logistics.
LynZ: There’s so much production involved on that stage that it would be a mess for all of us to be on it.

BV: How do you try and draw fans/people to come early and see you on the second stage?
Jimmy: We just have to know that our fans will show up.
Steve: I think a lot of it has to do with ticket price too. When you’re paying so much, you’re going to come and get your money’s worth.
Kitty: We don’t have to try. We’re just awesome, and hot and sexy (laughs).
Steve: We just keep them riveted and captivated.

Jimmy: So who do you interview next?
BV: Madina Lake.
Kitty: Ask them where the hell Madina Lake is… And if it’s funky and cold! (Everyone laughs)

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