MSI, started in 1995, has continually defied the way a band is supposed to look, act and behave. Early shows for the group often ended with bottles being chucked at Urine’s head, usually after the singer started chastising individual audience members (or, if he felt they were truly jock-like, kissing them). A quickly aborted major label stint and continued hatred from the mainstream only solidified their fervent fanbase. Last year, the band’s single “Straight to Video” (released on their own label) hit No. 1 on the dance charts, outselling the likes of Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Madonna. Meanwhile, their headline arena shows usually sell out in minutes, and bands such as Korn and System of a Down have gone out of their way to praise the group as visionaries.
MSI is hard at work on a new album for 2008, as well as a DVD for release in September. And, continuing to defy expectations, the band somehow landed a headlining slot on this summer’s Projekt Revolution tour, which features the far more mainstream stylings of Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance and Placebo. It may seem odd, but Urine had no problem explaining his band’s God-like ascent...
Several years ago you moved away from a major label and struck out on your own. And it worked: You doubled sales and went from bad tours to headlining arenas. Did you always think it would go that way?
Well, the biz is in the toilet, and major labels are kinda shitty—they’re so cookie-cutter about their needs, and that’s not how we conduct business. If we sounded like Matchbox Twenty, there’s a record bin waiting for our record! But we don’t, and nobody takes chances in the music business anymore. They just want to go home, fuck the wife or the dog, or whatever. Once in a while they nail it, like Beck and Public Enemy. But I’ve seen too many good bands get buried. So we did our own thing.
Your shows are pretty nuts. Ever done anything on stage you’ve regretted?
I don’t regret anything... yet. We’ve had injuries. Our bassist LynZ had a popped lung, our guitarist Steve had a broken hip and had it replaced, but he still dives off of balconies anyway. For me personally, I’m going to end up with lower back problems. I remember when we toured with Korn, they had metal gratings as their stage floor. I’d do backflips, but ones where I landed on my back, not on my feet. And when I did that on the grates, I just kind of knew something was wrong. But you’re just so pumped up, you don’t even notice.
You’re on the Projekt Revolution tour with a great, really diverse assortment of bands—My Chemical Romance, Placebo, Taking Back Sunday, Linkin Park. How did you guys get involved?
The nice thing is, Linkin Park gave us a headlining slot on the second stage, so we can play longer for our fans. I get to jump around and piss people off, and just be myself. If you get it, you get it, or if you don’t, you don’t. We won’t pander. But a lot of kids are like “Why do this big, mainstream tour?” It’s business. I got bills to pay. But hey, I’ll wreck any stage.
When you used to do more opening gigs, I remember seeing how hostile people were towards you. You were booed off stage, people threw things at you… it was pretty violent. Are people still like that when you’re not headlining?
We’ve always enjoyed that hostility. The weirdest thing was when we went to piss everyone off on our last tour; all of the sudden, everyone was into it. It was like the Rocky Horror Show on stage—we had kids coming up dressed up in our mascot outfits, they knew when everything was going to happen during a song. It was great, and really interactive. It also kind of spooked me out. It was the first time where I wasn’t yelling, “Hey, go fuck yourselves” after every song. Where were the bottles being thrown at our heads? I used to have to play goalie on stage and knock bottles away from Kitty, our drummer.
So they’ve stopped throwing things?
Now, our fans will bring stuff and throw it, but it’s not knives or anything. It’ll be something fun, like a crate of Barbie dolls. Which is great, because I want to be entertained, too! Enter-fucking-tain me. Hey, a kid dressed up as Blues Clues? Great! I get so bored of the music sometimes, let’s do something new. I mean, bands that just stand there, maybe put a leg on a monitor? Unless you’re U2, you look like a fucking idiot. Come on! We’re entertainers!
You grew up in New York. Was there anything there that influenced your unusual musical direction?
Definitely not bands. I’m so not into bands. Actually, I’m not into music at all. I mean, I’ll study a beat and download it on BitTorrent if I want to hear it. But I love movies and video games, especially older games. I love hacking into them. I’m surprised anyone now is passionate about music. It’s just music. It’s not doing shit. You can’t eat it. It’s not health care. There needs to be something new, like in the 70s, 80s, that’s where all the stuff originated from. We need something new—besides reggaeton.
On your website it says you’ve played with Radiohead. Seriously?
Oh, yeah, at big European festivals. We rocked it. We were more like “Not So OK Computer.”
So, why is the release party for your new DVD in Millvale, Pennsylvania? I’ve never even heard of that town.
There’s just something special about the area—all the cured beef and Amish people, I guess. And it’s on September 11th , which is a great day to release new product. Let’s see... our first record came out the day Columbine happened, the next one was on Hitler’s birthday... and it’s weird, because we don’t plan for it.
You got in trouble for listing yourself as a Christian group on iTunes. Subversive marketing or making a point?
We labeled ourselves as Christian, and that kinda works. We have fanatical fans. And who’s to say that our fanatisicm isn’t inspirational? And it’s funny; we became the number one Christian band on the site for a while. It was hilarious looking at all the comments, too. I’ve never seen people say such horrible things about us. And these people are Christians? They were calling us “freaking retards.” You’re supposed to be nice to people with Down’s Syndrome! Fuck it, we’re inspirational.
Why name yourself Jimmy Urine?
It sounds like my actual last name! Here’s how the name breaks out: It’s Euringer. The funny thing is, nobody ever called me Urine in school. “Yo, Urine, give me your milk money.” What, was everyone stupid? And then Jimmy... well, my mom called me that. Everyone else calls me James.
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