Ruban Nielson

Ruban Nielson is a New Zealand musician, singer and songwriter, and the frontman of the psychedelic rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. He has won two Aotearoa Music Awards, an APRA Silver Scroll, and a Taite Music Prize over the course of his band's five studio albums and one extended play. Born in Darwin, Australia, to a Hawaiian mother, Nielson was raised in Orewa, Auckland in a musical family. Nielson attended Elam, and graduated in 2002 as a recipient of the Sir James Wallace art award, one year after forming The Mint Chicks with Paul Roper, Michael Logie and his brother Kody Nielson. The four members met at Orewa College, although the band started moving between Portland, Oregon, where Nielson would later be based, and Auckland. The band, known for its nihilistic ideology, disorderly behaviour and neo-punk elements, broke up following Ruban's departure. Nielson subsequently formed a more experimental and psychedelic band, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, with musician Jake Portrait. His brother Kody also has performed drums on almost every Unknown Mortal Orchestra album. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruban_N...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)