With their furious approach, New Zealand foursome The Mint Chicks might have released two albums and a few EPs thus far in their career, but it could be argued that they have yet to release a definitive document that captures their live prowess.
Nevertheless, guitarist Ruben Nielson wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We’ve never worked with an external producer,” he outlines, “so we don’t know whether it would be a good way to work or not. We have all the gear ourselves and we just get on with it and eventually we end up finishing enough for a record and then we can put it out.”
One of the things that sets The Mint Chicks apart is that they seem to be almost completely self-sufficient – their second album Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! was produced by brothers Ruben and vocalist Kody alongside their father, Chris Nielson.
“We worked for about four months on it by ourselves,” he says of the recording of the release, “and by the end of four months it wasn’t quite sounding how we wanted it to sound. We had this idea that we were going to create this certain type of power pop record, and as we got deeper into it we ended up recording so much material that was all so different that we didn’t have the ‘clean’ sound that we wanted it to have.”
As such, they pondered what they should do from there – should they hire an expensive overseas mixer to buff it into completion, or should they look closer to home for advice? Opting for the latter, the Mint Chicks took the bare bones of Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! to their dad, hoping that he’d have some advice that could benefit the band.
“He remixed one of the tracks and it came out really good, so we decided to get him to help us finish [the album]”, Ruban confirms. “He’s an advisor, and doesn’t get that involved in the Mint Chicks because he’s got his own music to do, but he definitely helps us out a lot.”
It’s something that the band intend to continue – instead of looking to outside producers, the Mint Chicks are determined to keep the production of their albums strictly as an in-house affair. “It was quite a good way of working, an enjoyable way of working,” he says of working alongside their father, “and because we’re family me and Kody and dad can tell each other what we think about our ideas without being too diplomatic. It doesn’t really turn to arguments, but it’s quite a ‘free’ way of working.”
But perhaps an external producer could provide the missing link between the Mint Chicks being one of the best live bands you’re likely to encounter and the group recording a genuinely thrilling album – as interesting texturally an album such as Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! may be, it does feel like a hodge-podge of sounds without a cohesive centre to it.
“I don’t know,” he cautions. “Producers bring all sorts of different things to a record, so producing it ourselves the thing that is really good is that we can put down a drum track in March and then not do anything ‘til November or whatever.
“What we did with Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! was we recorded about three albums worth of material and then tried to figure out a way to take the best material of all of that work.”
Admitting that they have always thought about working with outside producers, Ruban says that the deciding factor is always monetary – the likes of Nigel Godrich or the Neptunes are somewhat out of the band’s reach. “We can record ourselves,” he asserts, “so I suppose it would have more to do with the certain types of people who approach us, and most of the producers that have asked us about [working with us] we’ve either been not interested or it’s been the wrong time. Joey from the Bronx wanted to do our next record, and his idea is record the whole band live to tape, and although we could do that I think I’d prefer to do everything really slowly.”
Recently returned from the United States, the group are prepping their return to Australian shores, and perhaps recording live to tape could help capture their on-stage energy.
“We don’t try to capture the live energy – it’s a different art form,” he says of working in the studio. “All the records that seem to capture live energy and re-created artificially and I think it takes a lot of work and a lot of expertise to make it sound like a record’s captured live, when really it’s artificially reproduced it and it’s a trick. Our thing is if we want to work out how to capture that live energy then we can learn all the tricks of the trade that producers use and then do it ourselves.”
The Mint Chicks Crazy? Yes. Dumb? No! is out now through Warner.
if you’d like to see The Mint Chicks for free at Sydney’s Gaelic Theatre on AUG 10, RSVP here
Watch the clip for Walking off a Cliff Again
