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Where did all that time fly to?
Sometime in early 1992, Bryan Spittle invited George D Henderson to play guitar and sing on an electro-pop tune he was producing as part of his composition studies at Otago Uni. The result thrilled both such that they decided to make something of it, that is, create an outfit that used sequencers alongside traditional rock and classical instrumentation, a very rare thing in the early 90's, especially in Dunedin, NZ.
The name "Mink" was quickly decided upon and a short time later with four tunes written they decided to test the format in the local battle of the bands. They entered as "Musk", both singing and playing guitar to DAT backing. Spittle had earlier formed "The Space Cadet Academy" who at that time had produced (Spittle played the part of Mr Martin in) a version of the Eugene Ionesco play, "The Bald Prima Donna". Cast members fleshed out the first "Musk" show in charachter on stage. Astoundingly they made it to the semi-finals on the big stage at Sammys alongside the slick grunge bands of the day.
By the time December rolled around and Mink were set to make their live debut, Spittle had relinquished vocal duties in favour of former Miss Otago, Margot Schweigman and emerging musical talent, Demarnia Lloyd. The former had acted in "The Bald Prima Donna" and the latter was approached on the street by Spittle after he had heard her on Radio One singing the Munky Kramp tune, "Schoolboy Song". Alan Starrett completed the first lineup on viola, accordion and glockenspiel. During 2003 more tunes were written and more members gleaned from a production of Oscar Wildes play, "Salome" produced in association with the "Theatre of Alchemy". It was during this season that news of a $5000 QEII Arts Council Recording Grant came thru and in Dec 1993, the first album, "Mink" was recorded in Dunedin with Dale Cotton. By this stage the live band had swelled to 13 members and the DAT had been replaced by a Mac Classic and midi modules. "Mink" was released in April 1994 and the blanket student radio airplay that ensued paved the way for extensive nationwide touring. One NZOA funded video of "Mr Creepy" off "Mink" was made by Robert Sarkies and the Nightmare Productions crew (of "Scarfies" fame).
The second album "For My Mink" was recorded over three weeks during November 1995 again with Dale Cotton. This saw an extension from the Henderson/Spittle compositions of the first album with other collaborators tunes incorporated. Most of 1996 was spent finishing the recordings and producing the multimedia material which was included on "For My Mink", the first New Zealand produced "Enhanced CD". "For my Mink" was released in November 1996.
Writing became inexplicably difficult after this period with the single (and video) "Ride" being the only new material post "For My Mink" to see general release in 1998 on the first Arc records compilation. It should be noted that around this time a CDR release, "Aleutian" was "made available". This included the original portastudio and 8-tk demos for the first album as well as outtakes from both albums and other curiosities. (nb: the "For My Mink" outtake "Your Bad Example" was also latterly included on "Arcbeats")
Meanwhile Spittle had focused on a collaboration of a decidedly more electronic nature with Dunedin artist ISO-12 and production/engineering duties with Sola Monday (The Swing Festival) and Marty Phillipps (Sketchbook/Secret Box/Stand By) alongside more daytime joblike audio duties. The last public performances by the legacy Mink were given during and around the failed Sweetwaters festival (but we got to see Pere Ubu.....yay!!!) during Feb 1999.
Whilst living at Church Bay on Lyttleton Harbour in 2002 Spittle contacted Danny Hyde in the UK and commissioned him to create a remix of the 1998 "Ride" track. Long a fan of Hydes work with "Coil", the result essentially signaled the genesis of the Mink resurgence. Having relocated to Auckland in 2003 writing progress remained relatively difficult until 2005 when Spittle decided to not take on any extramural musical work and concentrate solely on writing the next Mink record. Right on cue George D Henderson relocated to Auckland in late 2005 and the pair contrived to collaborate on album .. 3. As of writing, production is well underway and a return to the stage is imminent.
Watch this Space
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