Troublegum music and Mint Chick Macs

The Mint Chicks. Photo / Suppled

I love The Mint Chicks. Not necessarily every second of every song, but I love their commitment, and their ethic of not only challenging the rock music genre in general, but also the sub-genre they're part of, which they like to call 'troublegum'.

This attitude includes a free downloadable 8-bit mini-album called Mintunes, comprising 'chiptune' versions of some of The Mint Chicks' songs.

It seems the MCs are never content to rest on their laurels, which I find laudable. And live, there's no doubting they're pretty great.

But I also love the way The Mint Chicks have effectively, (although quite unofficially) mentored a whole new young, thriving and exciting Auckland band scene that includes Never Nude, Nice Birds, Bandicoot, Moron Says What?!, FatAngryMan and many others.

The Mint Chicks contributed a track to Stroke, the two-CD celebration of Chris Knox and his music after his stroke, and rerecorded Ray Columbus and the Invaders' She's A Mod with proceeds going to the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust.

I was listening to an interview with The Mint Chicks on BFM about their forthcoming EP the other day when I heard a distinctive noise – wasn't that the sound Mac OS X makes when a file is dragged onto the desktop?

An email to the contact on The Mint Chicks site confirmed that was the case, and Ruban Nielson agreed to an email interview about him, the MCs and the MacBook Pro.

Bothers Ruban (guitar) and Kody Nielson (vocals) founded The Mint Chicks nearly ten years ago with Paul Roper (drums) and Michael Logie (bass).

In your working, musical life in The Mint Chicks, where does your Mac come in?

I record and write music on it, make videos and artwork on it, run the website and also manage the band on it. It's pretty important.

How long have you been a Mac user?

We bought an iMac a few years ago to record Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! and I've had my MacBook for about a year and a half, I think.

What made you get a Mac in the first place?

A musician friend of mine works at a Mac store in Portland and when I showed him my old Windows laptop with Vista, he suggested I try a MacBook Pro. It was good advice.

What do you like about it?

It's simple. I felt like there was always something that needed tweaking in Windows and I don't find that much fun. Macs are more expensive but if you can be bothered spending the extra money I feel like you can save a lot of time. I also use the hot corners and all that stuff a lot. I like the Dock. It all becomes second nature after a while. I get frustrated with the MacBook Pro a lot less than with any computer I've used in the past.

What software do you use the most?

Chrome, iTunes, Protools, Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Garageband. Mostly for the band.

What do you wish it could do that it doesn't?

Still too many wires! I can't wait until everything's wireless. Plus my MacBook is the older silver one (not the unibody) and has pretty crap battery life (I think they've fixed that with the new ones).

Apart from that, it's pretty amazing. I've made animations, edited music videos, recorded an EP, done endless artwork, made a couple of websites, written loads of songs, made 40 or more fake ads for my radio show, and made a video game on it. Really thrashed it! When this laptop retires it'll have done its dash. Using the thing is what matters. No point having a really powerful computer if you don't use it for anything.

What accessories couldn't you live without?

500GB External HD, iPod, Wacom tablet, Digidesign Mbox.

Do you use the Mac on the road?

Because of the battery it's hard to now, but yeah I still use it in airports and stuff like that.

In the studio?

It is our studio! All of the songs on the record coming out in February were done on matching laptops me and my brother Kody have.

Have you noticed other musicians using Macs here and overseas?

Yeah, I think musicians are the kind of people who might be really good with a couple of apps like Protools or Logic but still be a bit clueless when it comes to the actual computer itself. I'm a bit like that. A Mac is good for that because you don't have to deal with the backend too much. It seems to just work.

Are you the only Mac user in The Mint Chicks?

We all have MacBooks. Also the band shares an iMac which has been for recording. We made the second album Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No! on the iMac and mixed it on my Dad's PC, and made the last album Screens on the same iMac in Portland, Oregon, USA (Kody took it on the plane as carry-on! Pretty awkward flight) and mixed it on our friend Jake Portrait's quad-core Mac Pro tower.

If there was a Mac conference in Auckland, what would you like to see there?

Maybe it would be cool to see famous local and international people talking about using Mac in the real world. Film directors, designers, scientists. I'd be less interested in displays of crazy Mac stuff.

Finally, iPad: what do you think?

I think lots of people will want it!


- Mark Webster mac-nz.com