With his unmistakable falsetto and rapid-fire lyrics, James Euringer (known on stage as Jimmy Urine) has been a fixture in electropunk music since the mid ’90s. His band Mindless Self Indulgence may be on hiatus, but Euringer has kept busy with a number of side projects, including the release of a compilation album, The Secret Cinematic Sounds of Jimmy Urine. The 14-track album, released last month by The End Records, features his work from video games, television and film.

An enthusiast of film music from a young age, Euringer cites synth maestros like Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter among his enduring favorites. This spring, he also cameoed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe—both on screen and in music—with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. He joined the crew of Yondu’s Ravagers as Half-Nut, and he composed a piece of alien music (“Un Deye Gon Hayd (The Unloved Song)”) for a scene reintroducing Yondu’s crew.

Kristen Romanelli: Let’s start off with chatting about your transition from Mindless Self Indulgence to writing for film and video games, and what that’s been like.

James Euringer: Well, it’s interesting because with Mindless Self Indulgence, I don’t have any rules whatsoever. We’re such a crazy band that’s very underground, and we sort of do what we want and write songs about anything that we want to write about. We don’t really have to worry about anybody censoring us. That has so much freedom that when I have time away from Mindless, I find it very comforting and nice to have some parameters set up and to do things in fields that I’m a fan of, like comic books, video games and films. It’s nice to have a director, or the creator, or somebody to just be like, “I need this darker, I need this shorter.” I find that stuff very fulfilling—to kind of go back and forth and work with somebody in that capacity.

KR: It’s interesting. It’s kind of like a new creative challenge.

JE: Yeah, it’s somebody setting up a little test, and you’re like, “Oh, this is cool.” I’ve been lucky so far in that almost everything I’ve done, I’ve been a fan of the project that I’ve worked on.

KR: Let’s talk a little bit about those, which you’ve compiled into this album. It starts off with the very familiar sound that we’re used to from you, with “Fighting the Melody.” Can you tell me a bit about that and how the album progresses? It sounds like as we get closer toward the end, we get a more trance-y Jimmy.

JE: I put the whole thing together, sort of like, “Hey, there’s a lot of stuff I’ve been working on and I’d like to put this transitional record so people can hear it.” I realize that when a lot of people approach me, they want me to write a Mindless Self Indulgence song for a project. Then I talk to them, and I say, “Hey, I’d love to do your whole project or do something exclusive to your project.” And so I figured I’d start with the most Mindless-sounding song to kind of ease you into the album, starting with the melody from [the video game] Metronomicon and then moving into more chiptune stuff, which is still in the wheelhouse my fans know. Then, it slowly graduates into stuff that sounds more like a Tangerine Dream soundtrack, or a really pretty Vangelis soundtrack, which is stuff I love to do and I’ve actually been doing since way before Mindless. I grew up listening to nothing but soundtracks, never listening to rock ’n’ roll until much later. So, when I put the record together, I figured I’d put it in that order to just have it be like, “Hey, look I do this other stuff too, guys.” A little resume there.

KR: Yeah, the big change in the album happens around “All Together, Friends Forever.” Tell me more about that.

JE: Well, a friend of mine, Dave Yarovesky, had done a horror movie called The Hive, which was put out by Nerdist. He needed a creepy kid song and so he came to me, because he knew that I did all sorts of eclectic stuff. And I was like, “Cool, yeah,” because they were gonna take it and warp it and make it really groovy in this horror movie. I had done a real straight version for him and then I did a credits version that starts like a straight-up little kid’s record from 1970 or 1980, then evolves into very creepy, horror stuff to ride out the credits of the movie. My wife [Chantel Claret of Morningwood] did all the vocals; she’s really good at doing different voiceover work and singing, so I had her just do layers and layers of different voices and it just sounds like a whole choir of little kids. I’m very pleased with that work.

KR: Yeah, it’s unsettling. That brings us into the middle of the album, where I found some of my favorite tracks, which were pleasant surprises: “Patty Hearst” and “Not for Me.”

JE: Yeah, I really like “Patty Hearst.” That’s one of the ones on the record that I still listen to. Usually, being a musician, when you make a record, you put it out in the world, you’re like, “All right. Now I’m on to the next thing,” and you’re not really listening to your own stuff for pleasure. But once in a while, I have a track on a record here and there that I’m like, “Ooh, I actually wanna listen to that.” That one keeps coming up when I’m driving around.

KR: Yeah, same for me, too. But as we get further into the album, you have this arrangement of Beethoven...

JE: Ah, yes, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.

KR: Yes, the second movement. Tell me more about that.

JE: Well, thank you for asking because a lot of people don’t. You know, you talk a lot about the transition, the Mindless stuff, but everybody keeps skipping over the fact that I covered freaking Beethoven, which was really fun. I think soundtracks really introduced me, and I’m sure a lot of people, to classical music. In general, if you’re some kid and you’re listening to rock ’n’ roll, you’re like, “Classical? That’s not cool.” But then, if you watch a movie and they put a classical piece in with something really amazing, like a space battle, all of a sudden that particular piece of music is cool. You’re like, “Oh, I like that piece from that movie,” and you learn that it’s Vivaldi or it’s Mozart. If you watch A Clockwork Orange, you know Beethoven’s the coolest thing in the world. I really like throwing back to that era; I love Wendy Carlos, I think she’s genius. I really wanted to capture that same type of style. The seventh symphony is one of my favorite Beethoven pieces, so I did a straight-up synthesizer version of it—and it came out really good! I’m always bummed that people don’t catch it.

KR: Oh, it stood right out for me. I’m a huge classical nerd. I wanted to quickly transition into Guardians of the Galaxy, which you not only wrote this little piece of alien music for, but you also appeared in.

JE: Well, I’m friends with the director, James Gunn. We’ve known each other for about 10 years. He got in touch with me because he was looking for six or seven guys that were kind of interesting people he knew to play these ravagers. I thought it was a walk-on part, but it turned out that each of these ravagers had a little more significance. They have a couple lines and appear throughout the movie. We all flew down to Atlanta and filmed at Pinewood, which was amazing because, even though it’s such a huge movie—the sets were ginormous—I still knew so many people, because Gunn loves to work with people he knows. When you hang out with him, you end up meeting all these people that come to his parties or go out to dinner or lunch, so when you show up on set, it’s so relaxing. The nerves of being in a movie that was going to be a giant blockbuster were just gone. It wasn’t until later, after I wrapped, that I saw Captain America: Civil War in the theater and I was like, “Oh... Oh no. I’m in a huge movie.” And now I gotta be nervous.

Later, when they were in post-production, they had this one scene that needed a song, but not their usual classic rock song, and it didn’t have Tyler Bates’ score, which is usually super cool and very orchestrated. They had this odd spot, and they were like, “Hey, maybe Jimmy would be into this.” So, they called me up, and were like, “Hey, could you come up with an alien piece of music?” It was supposed to be this really small piece way in the background, so I agreed and I knocked it out really quick. Then the scene kept expanding as the post-production kept going. It started out as a couple of seconds but now it’s like a minute and a half. It’s also very surreal because I’m in the background of that scene, so it’s weird. It’s like a little music video for a hot second. But I did a whole alien language thing and transcribed it. It’s a beautiful little piece of music and they really dug it. Everybody was very supportive and Tyler [Bates] gave me a lot of advice. It was cool to go into all those meetings and see people and how they do it on a huge scale. It was very inspiring to see people building sets and talking about everything—the music, the designers and the editors and all that. Very, very interesting.

KR: Yeah, your bit of music was much more prominent than I was expecting. Do you think you’ll end up doing more of that, now that you’ve kind of had taste of it?

JE: Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I end up doing a lot of varied stuff. The pendulum swings very wide, with stuff like Guardians, and then I’ve worked on some cartoons with Jhonen Vasquez, work for VH1 doing theme songs for their crazy shows like My Big Friggin’ Wedding. It’s all over the map. But it is fun that I’ve been able to do stuff for some video games, like Lollipop Chainsaw and Metronomicon, and also do big things. When I look back at it, I’m like, “Oh, I’m a fan of all this stuff.”

KR: Well, it sounds like you’re one of us—a soundtrack nerd. Who are some of your favorite composers? Who’s influenced you?

JE: Well, it’s interesting. Even Mindless people would ask me, “Oh, who influenced you?” And you’re supposed to say some rock person, but it’s not true. For me, I grew up with soundtracks. The first record that I bought with my own money was the Star Wars soundtrack, I’m sure like a lot of other kids. And I loved John Williams’ scores, because they’re so memorable. You can hum any of them right now, you know? And then I just started to buy tons of soundtracks, and at the time there were a lot of synth soundtracks. I bought tons of Vangelis, I loved all of his stuff, and obviously Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter. I would love these movies, so I would go buy the soundtrack.

Once in a while, I’d love a movie that had a bunch of songs on it and that would get me into stuff. Like, I bought the Return of the Living Dead soundtrack, and it would have all these real punk bands, like The Damned or The Cramps. It was really soundtracks that essentially introduced me to all this other music that led to me having a band. But when I was preteen and 13 and 14, my favorite stuff was all the synth soundtracks that people are just now getting back into, like Vangelis with Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire; Maurice Jarre with The Year of Living Dangerously; [Ryuichi] Sakamoto with Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; Tangerine Dream and Legend. Those are the guys I really emulated.

KR: That’s awesome. I’m curious about whether you’re looking forward to the new Blade Runner.

JE: I am, actually. I gotta say, I have a couple of friends that are in it and I’m very excited for them. I’m a huge Blade Runner fan—I think most people are. That tone that they set for the way that the world looks has really been ripped off a bazillion times, but it feels like a really cool remix—especially the music. I like that, even with the new Star Wars stories like Rogue One, where it’s not John Williams doing it but it still has his themes. Even for the trailer for the brand new Star Wars movie, the music is like they half-time the Star Wars theme. I’ve never heard it like that and it really drew me into that trailer. The same thing for the Blade Runner trailer, you hear that it has a little bit of glitchiness to it, and then you hear the theme—the really soft, long synth hits when they’re flying around. They know that people love that theme and they don’t want to mess with it much; they just want to make it their own thing. So, I’m very excited. I can’t wait to see it.

KR: Me, too. What’s up next for you?

JE: The problem I have with Hollywood is there’s always projects, stuff you can’t really talk about. So I have a bunch of stuff coming up that, believe me—I definitely have a bunch of stuff that I can’t talk about. But right now, everything has synergized at the right time. Guardians came out, the song was in Guardians, I was in Guardians, the record came out.... We also had a reissue of Mindless’ You’ll Rebel to Anything on vinyl [with Metropolis Records] for Record Store Day. I’ve got a bunch of stuff. I’ve gotta wait a couple months before I can talk about any of it, but I’m really excited and I know that there’ll be some more soundtrack work.

KR: Well, good! You’re keeping busy.

JE: Oh, yeah. I love it; it’s fun. I’m happy to be able to do music. It’s a very lucky thing to pay my rent doing what I’ve always loved as a kid. It’s great.

—FSMO