Talking All Girls Go To Heaven (& Other Facts) With Mint Green
CREDIT: Athel Rogers
I love a full circle moment and Boston’s Mint Green performing at Boston Calling will definitely be one! I got to chat with Ronnica about their upcoming performance and SO much more. Check out our full interview below!
Let’s start from the very beginning - how did Mint Green come together?
It started in the fall of 2015, I was coming off the end of my high school band, and everyone basically just kind of quit. But I still wanted to do music. That's like all I ever planned for my life. So I was like, Oh, I gotta keep it going. I went on Craigslist, and I ended up finding Daniel, who was a drummer that was new to town. We practiced a few times, that September, October, November, and then I ended up going on a little vacation. My dad's side of the family is from this really small island in the Caribbean, called Anguilla. I hadn't gone back there since I was like, I don't know, maybe like the beginning of high school or something like that. So I ended up going there in 2015 and while I was there, I wrote four out of the six out songs for our first EP. When I came back, we just started doing shows pretty much immediately, with like those songs, and then like covers and stuff. It's just been kind of grinding since then. I would say like, our real kind of start was like, 2016. Once we had all the pieces of a band, you know, another guitarist, and then the bass, and then we just did any and all shows anywhere, anytime we were there just grinding as much as we could.
Where did your name Mint Green?
Mint green is my favorite color. Really that simple.
How would you explain your sound to someone who hasn’t heard your music yet?
I would say that we are under the rock umbrella. Some stuff is punky, some stuff is more indie and calm. Emo is definitely something I would put in there. But yeah, it's just definitely under the rock umbrella and we try to keep things upbeat.
About a year ago, you got signed to Pure Noise Records - how did things change for your after signing to a label?
I think the biggest change was that we were able to record and release our very first LP, so 10 songs. Prior to that we were self funding our EPS. We have two EPs under our belt that we did, which were six songs, each one of them was recorded in a friend's basement who was amazing and continues to do great things. Then the second EP that we did was like, half done by like Converse, weirdly enough. They had like this weird contest back in the day. We got like three songs recorded by Converse and then just local engineers, but all of it was pretty much self funded. And so yeah, the biggest difference with being signed was we got to do our album. We flew out to Nashville, worked with an amazing producer who does like all the Lucy Dacus' stuff. His name is Collin Pastore. We're huge fans of Lucy Dacus. We really lived our live our indie fantasies out there. We got to sell vinyl for the first time, they're currently still on sale. That's another big change.
Your first album All Girls Go To Heaven came out last year - what inspired this album?
It's a collection of songs, I think the earliest one dates back to like late 2017, early 2018. And then the most recent song I was like, in the chair in the studio, June 2021, like writing lyrics moments before having to sing them. So it spans a lot of time. Through that time, I have gone through different situation ships, whether they be friendships or romantic wise, I've gone through family stuff, I've gone through introspection. We've also been through a lot as a band as well. I think the album is just kind of like a time capsule of basically our entire existence of a band up until that moment. All Girls Go To Heaven was just kind of like, coming to terms with the fact that paradise and peace and acceptance can be defined by ourselves. It doesn't have to come from someone else or something else. If you believe that you're worthy of heaven, then you can go and you can find peace, essentially.
What are you working on now in terms of new music?
It's tough right now because it's our first time kind of having to do stuff remotely because Daniel did move to Chicago last summer. For y'all that don't know, our drummer Daniel, he has been in med school this entire time of the band and thankfully, he's found ways to balance it. But he finally did have to make that move. Once you graduate, they place you somewhere and the closest he could get was Chicago, which has a great music scene. So if anything, we're looking forward to getting out there and hopefully playing stuff like Lollapalooza, or like Pitchfork Fest or any of the amazing music stuff that they have out there in Chicago. But yeah, right now, we're just focusing on finding that stride in terms of writing long distance. And then honestly, we're still kind of focused more on touring right now. So it'd be awesome to like, get out there more. Of course, we'd love to release at least a single this year. I don't think we're gonna release an album this year, but never say never, I guess. But yeah, just focusing on touring and writing I think is what's happening right now.
Take me through that moment when you found out you were going to be performing at Boston Calling this year?
it was crazy, because I don't even know if I'm allowed to say this, but literally was just an Instagram DM from a random person. It said, “Do you want to play Boston Calling?” I'm like, yes! I'm glad I saw the Instagram DM. Who wouldn't be interested in play Boston Calling? So yeah, I said yes and then they emailed us an offer and it was that simple. But it was definitely surreal because you know I'm Boston born and raised and I remember the first Boston Calling happened during high school and it's only grown bigger since then. Funny story, we had the opportunity to work Boston Calling for the bar operations team. College kids to do it during the Memorial Day weekend and stuff. You get to get in sling a few beers, see the show. And so my best friend and Daniel ended up doing it and I flaked out and that was the Paramore year. Sometimes, you'll probably still see Daniel wearing his Boston Calling bar op shirt. But now fast forward to today we're playing it and with Paramore. It's like every full circle for us like from working it to like playing it.
What can the audience expect from your performance?
High energy. Just dynamic, I would say. But we were just talking about the setlist yesterday, you know, we're gonna have peaks and valleys, you know, we're going to tell as much about us as possible on that stage. Obviously, it's hard kind of being an opening band, but we're going to try to give you guys the most dynamic and high energy thing that we can in our, you know, 30 ish minutes of time.
What other artists on the lineup are you excited to see? (Besides Paramore because I know you’re STANS!)
Yeah, so besides Paramore. I'm actually not sure yet if we're gonna be able to go all three days, but if we do, I would love to see Foo Fighters of course. Love to see Niall Horan. As a former Directioner, I gotta give it up for my boy. Fletcher, I've heard a lot about I haven't, like dug too deep into their discography, but I know that they are a gay icon so I have to go support. I support my local Brandie Blaze. Yeah, I think just festivals in general, are just so fun to just walk around and just take it all in. So it'll be good to go all three days. I'm sure I'll just try to see as much as I can.
On TikTok, you make reaction videos to different playlists you’ve been added to. Do any stick out at your favorites?
I don’t remember the titles specifically, but any playlist that has to do with like, being sad, but getting through it, you know, those are always my favorite because that is, I think, what our music is about. There’s sad themes and like sad things happening, but at the end of the day, there's always that grain of hope.
Here in Maine, our state motto is “The way life should be.” According to you, what is the way life should be?
Life should be meaningful to you. It's kind of like that, cliche. You know, you have one life, but greater than that concept, I think we forget that we truly are only ourselves forever, if that makes sense. The moment I realized, like, I'm stuck in this body, you know, my body's gonna change, my face is going to change, my feelings are going to change. There are a lot of things that I can't control like that are out of our control, but for the things that we can control and for the things that we have power over, like who is in our space, who we spend time with, you know, all that stuff we can curate and really just try to make your life something that's worth living to you.
Don’t miss Mint Green live on Sunday (AKA Paramore Day) of Boston Calling! In the meantime, stream their album All Girls Go To Heaven here.