Hey Jimmy, how are you today, man? Cheers for talking to us.
Thanks for having me! I like to talk, I am a chatty Cathy.
What are the biggest challenges you face as an artist at the moment?
People not taking me seriously. I am like Mad magazine – you look at it and think, oh that’s cute, it’s just for kids you say i remember liking that when I was a kid. When really, Mad magazine is very smart and subversive. It’s highbrow smart talented artists and writers who are super subversive and influence tons of people, but with low brow stuff. But, alas, like Rodney Dangerfield i get no respect.
How do you look back on the success of Mindless Self Indulgence at this point in your career?
I love Mindless Self Indulgence. We are the best live act I have ever seen. Also, Mindless Self Indulgence didn’t break up yo, we are just on a hiatus. At this point I am actually amazed at the number of people who like MSI and I find it weird when I meet like a business man or a pop star or a some kind of super straight person, and they are like ‘I love MSI.’ I am surprised, like why the heck do you like MSI. It’s very interesting.
You’ve said that you want people to focus more on your abilities as an electronic music producer on this record, rather than just a shock rock front man – have people got the wrong idea of you, based on who you are in MSI?
It’s not that they have the wrong idea. I just think if you’re doing outrageous stuff on-stage people are going to focus on that and they’re going to miss all the subtleties of the music….and the music is fucking amazing. I’m a fucking great producer and I’ve done some fucking amazing shit but sometimes it gets kinda lost, as people are focused on a crazy guy singing a crazy song with crazy lyrics over the last 20 years. I’m not mad at that, I’m just letting you know, Hello! I am one of the best fucking production motherfuckers, goddamnit!
Talk to us about the structure of the record, what were your goals when putting that together?
My main goal on this particular record was to structure it like a movie script and stick to the script all the way through, unlike a regular record where as you write songs you put the record together based on the strength of the songs and singles. I wrote out all my ideas two and a half years ago and was like I am going to start with this song I’m going to end with that song and I’m gonna have a middle song about this etc, etc. For that entire time I stuck with that script and that’s very different for me, and I think very different for a lot of people.
To that end, what is your attitude to success?
I believe success is being able to do exactly what you want to do as your job, and I am very lucky to do something i love as my job. Yay, success!
How did building this record challenge you in new ways as an artist?
In a few ways – trying different BPMs, different lyrical styles and really trying to stick to the original layout of the record that was formulated two and a half years ago.
What motivates you outside of music at the moment, think specific people, places, games and movies?
Music doesn’t motivate me as much as video games, books and movies. For every project I always take some time to watch a bunch of movies, play games, read books, go to museums to try to fill my head with data.
For this record I watched a lot of unknown cult movies from the 70s and 80s and read a lot of underground counter culture comic books from the 1970s. Also I focused on the LA and New York art scenes from the early 80s.
Thanks for your time!
Time is a concept. You’re welcome.
