An Interview With Musician JIMMY URINE All About His Latest Compilation Album, Being on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 and Much More!

Get to know Jimmy Urine from the band Mindless Self Indulgence. He recently made the move into composing for film and games, and he released a compilation of his soundtracks called The Secret Cinematic Sounds of Jimmy Urine on April 28th. The album came out just one week before he appears as the Ravager Half-Nut in what will probably be the year’s biggest movie, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 — for which he also secretly composed a piece of “alien music” for.

As you’ll hear the album runs a gamut of styles, from the traditional wacked-out MSI techno-rock sound of “Fighting With The Melody” (from Kasedo Games’s Metronomicon) to classic Chiptune/8-bit game sounds (from from Rising Star Games’ I Want To Be Human), to the creepy “All Together Friends Forever” (from The Nerdist-produced horror film The Hive, featuring Jimmy’s wife Chantal Claret), and then onto to serious electronic compositions that channel his heroes Tangerine Dream and Vangelis — a sound that Jimmy says would be referred to by today’s kids as “Stranger Things-style”.

Connect With Jimmy Urine Here:

Jimmy Urine official site: http://jimmyurine.net
Album purchase and stream link: http://smarturl.it/Jimmy-Urine
Jimmy Urine official Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimmyurine
Jimmy Urine official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyurine
MSI official site: http://mindlessselfindulgence.com
MSI official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msi

Learn more about Jimmy in the following All Access interview:

Thanks for your time! How is 2017 treating you so far?

Fucking great! I’ve got a soundtrack album, a vinyl reissue and a major movie all coming out around the same month, so shit is awesome over here.

Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Can you recall your first musical memory? Could you imagine doing anything else today?

Growing up I wanted to be a comic book illustrator and I went to art college for that. But then the music actually started to work and pay my rent so I went down that road. In an alternate reality I am an illustrator. Insert X-Files music here.

First things first, I am a huge fan of Guardians of the Galaxy so I must ask how you got involved with Vol. 2 playing Ravager Half-Nut? And what was it like composing a piece of “alien music” for it?

Well I am friends with James Gunn so he was like, we would like you to play our “insane” Ravager, And I was like, shit I am so fucking down. And now thanks to James I am part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and what could ever be better then that. And the answer to that is having a piece of music in Guardians of the Galaxy! Writing the alien piece was such a quick process. I was excited to compose it and I knocked it out super quick. So it wasn’t like when I worked on a full soundtrack for a cartoon which was like a month of work. This was quick and most of the time spent on it was in meetings with James seeing how it fit in the scene and adjusting some of it to his notes.

You will be releasing a compilation of your soundtracks called “The Secret Cinematic Sounds of Jimmy Urine.” What was it like putting this collection together? How long did it take? 

It was quick and fun because I had a lot of stuff laying around from about two years of composing work on film, video games, TV etc. I added about seven new tracks of 80’s classic synth soundtrack-style work, a style that I grew up playing and programming.

I’m curious to know what it has been like making the transition from rock musician in MSI to serious music composing? Has this transition always been something that you’ve wanted to do?

Well way before I was in Mindless Self Indulgence I was a kid with a shitload of synthesizers and a love of soundtracks. I did not buy a rock record until I was 15, or have a rock band until I was 26. I spent a lot of time as a kid messing around with synths trying to make stuff that sounded like it could be in Blade Runner or Escape From New York. So it was very easy in 2016 to go back to doing what I did as a kid. In fact some of the tracks were written way back in the early 1980’s.

How do you think your experiences with MSI has helped this new musical venture of yours?

Well Mindless Self Indulgence has given me so much freedom to do anything, say anything, create anything. So having a client or a director with rules and parameters is actually very nice and refreshing for me. If I write a piece and its too fast or too slow, too dark or too light, the director or creator or client will give me notes and I will adjust, and I like that. If I want no rules and to go bat shit crazy I just write an MSI record, so its the best of both worlds.

I understand that you consider Danny Elfman, Nick Cave and Junkie XL to be musical heroes of yours. Can you talk about what influence they’ve had on you? Is there anyone else that you would love to collaborate with in the future?

That’s a little misquoted, but I like Danny Elfman, Nick Cave and Junkie XL and I like what they do. But my actual composing heroes are Vangelis, John Carpenter and Tangerine Dream. I grew up idolizing and emulating their soundtracks. What I’ve said about Danny Elfman, Nick Cave and Junkie XL is that I admired what they did to break into the composing world. Tom Holkenborg really busted his ass to go from Junkie XL to eventually composing Mad Max: Fury Road. Nick Cave had to write his own fucking movie to score it. And Danny Elfman went from a band that was maybe crazier then Mindless Self Indulgence to be one of the greatest composers ever. And I find their struggles to score very informative and enlightening.

At the end of the day, what do you hope your fans take away from your music? What do you hope is the message of your songs?

Well, I think all my fans know the messages of Mindless Self Indulgence over the last 20 years of our career. But with the composing work the main message I want people to take away is “Oh holy shit, I didn’t know Jimmy from Mindless Self Indulgence did composing and soundtrack work and now I do”, and that is the response I am getting. Most of the fans and press have been saying exactly that, so mission accomplished.