MSI here to "Shut You Up"

Little Jimmy Urine, Steve Righ? and Kitty interview with Nicola “Nix” Crichton

It’s a Thursday evening in Camden Town. Take a right outside the tube station and walk along the road a few yards and you’re right outside the Electric Ballroom. Around about now, all of the markets are getting ready to shut up for the evening and it’s usually not too busy. Tonight, Mindless Self Indulgence were setting up for their show … and they already had a bit of a decadent crowd waiting outside. Some in PVC nurses outfits, some who looked like they’d just fallen out of Cyberdog in the Lock market down the road, some that looked like disco dollies, some that looked like rave demons, some that had just passed out – a complete mix. To those that have not yet experienced Mindless Self Indulgence, they’re a fusion of punk, electronic, rap, angst and everything in between – eclectic to say the least, but like their fans, colourful.

“If you’re not really a strange fan, you’re not really a Mindless Self Indulgence fan” laughs frontman Little Jimmy Urine. Jimmy, Steve Righ? (guitar) and Kitty (drums) are fully prepared for a run of interviews and seem pretty psyched up for their show. “We’ve signed some weird stuff, an ear lobe. That was weird” says Kitty. “Some fans bring you stuff that they’ve made or stuff that they’ve found on the street” says Jimmy. “Sign my balls, sign my ass – we’ve had it all. Stuff like that happens every f***ing day!” sighs Steve jokingly.

Previously, when MSI were last here – they had no releases, no previous gig slots, they went down extremely well with those that came to see them. “We’re really surprised when we showed up here and had sold out shows” says Jimmy. Their relentless online presence on MySpace and off-shoot fan sites seem to be a true example of how independent music can rise on its own. How much more would we be seeing now if a label swooped in and started the marketing machine on MSI? Would they lose their ‘grassroots’ appeal? Jimmy took a slight dislike to the use of the word. “Grassroots is for hippies, we’re superstars, who knows whether having a label or not would have been any good?” says Jimmy. “We might’ve been shoved down everyone’s throats and turned into utter superstars – it could’ve gone either way. Either way, everyone would still smell the same – with our sweaty selves in people’s faces” says Steve who has just borrowed some of my Impulse spray to deodorise his crotch area. Kitty continues “It might’ve been a case of the ‘buy it!, buy it’ syndrome – rather than people realise if it was any good”.

They certainly put a lot of focus on their live shows being as active as possible from light shows and they put a lot on the whole sensory package rather than the music. “We do it because we can. When people come to see us they expect the whole show – when they buy a DVD or a show ticket, they want a show now” says Jimmy. “When was it ever just about the music?” asks Steve. “Why neglect it when you can do it, I don’t like seeing anything that isn’t a show – y’know, I don’t like ugly people in bands, I just want lazer shows!”.

MSI seem to have been having an increasing amount of mainstream press coverage after the range of gig slots that they’ve been sharing. But for a band that seems to have made their successes on their own, it can have its downfall. “I think the thing that’s annoyed me most at the moment with the press is just getting their facts straight. How f***ing hard is it for someone to open Wikipedia and get a little information? – a lot of them seem to be saying ‘oh my god, these guys are off the wall’ or ‘that’s the most craziest show I’ve ever seen’ – some just do not know what they’re talking about”.

The band have just released a DVD titled “Our Pain, Your Gain” filmed at the Webster Hall in New York - aptly named as guitarist Steve was barely out of the operating theatre for a procedure on his hip when that was shot. “It felt like three nights for what we filmed! I think the best thing was surviving it. I like the credits, look at the end credits” laughs Jimmy.

Hard to pin down exactly who exactly would listen to MSI is probably the result of the diverse bills that they’ve shared or supported with acts such as Snoop Dogg, Dresden Dolls, Cypress Hill and in November – My Chemical Romance. “Some of them have just been coincidence but with regard to the fans but we’re that kind of band anyway – we cross over constantly. People say we’re rock, some say metal, some say techno or whatever” says Jimmy “We take a lot of abuse from the audience when we play those kind of shows but the ones that don’t give us the abuse end up turning into our fans, that’s just how it is” says Righ? “The My Chemical Romance tour should be ok because there is much more of a cross over and we’ve played with them already anyway. We’ve had a lot of our fans on MySpace commenting about the MCR shows and how stoked they are to be seeing both us and them on the same bill so it should be alright, I think they’re one of the bands – although we are different, seem to be a band that we can play with and have that kind of connection to. We have a lot more in common with them – more so as people - than a lot of the other people that we have shared a stage with”.

“Oh and if anyone asks, we’re ‘Rock-tronic’” enthuses Kitty.

 

The follow-up to 'You'll Rebel To Anything' is scheduled for release in 08 and we’ve been told its in the first quarter with more f***ed up stuff than we’ve heard before. Catch them on tour with My Chemical Romance and no doubt next year when they’re back for a UK assault. Go to www.myspace.com/mindlessselfindulgence for more information.

Words by Nicola "Nix" Crichton, top image (c) MSI and live shots courtesy of the Mindless Self Indulgence MySpace - video promo for 'Our Pain, Your Gain' from MSIvideo.

© Pure Rawk 2007