About
I am groot... erh Nils Mango! I'm just here so I won't get fined, plus to make things and try to eliminate the resulting errors. Also, I needed a pretty and simple webpage to show off my things. So with the help of Zola here it is, the website. I also will try to build in public and blog about what I have learned etc. as a help to learn better and to write a lot to learn to write better. Which, as you might have noticed, I could gain from.
A (not so) short Timeline
1985-2000 | getting shit done | Breaking the same leg twice, crying, playing a lot, mostly Lego, but also floorball (Unihockey) and in the forests of Muttenz (and learning a lot about Jesus motherfucking Christ, thanks CVJM aka Cevi aka YMCA), going Windsurfing with my father and learning to play the trombone.
2000-2003 | sweet sixteen | I began my apprenticeship to become a chemical laboratory technician1 at Roche2 in Basel. There I became friends with Michael and his brother Tobias, aka Tobinato. They showed me electronic music and an alternative way of living. They gave me a CD with some cracked and open-source music programs with which I started playing around. My very first track (I am a big fan of the ending) was born with the help of one of these programs and my first digital audio workstation (I sadly can't remember what it was called). Bought my first hardware synth, a Roland SH-32 (I loved that arpeggiator to death), and made some more music with a friend under the name Megaduo. Ironically only two tracks made it to the future: 10 and Morgenflug.
After my apprenticeship, I wanted to join Greenpeace because I wished to save the world3.
2003-2004 | Maturing? | Got my "Berufsmatura" while getting paid by Roche. Thank you! After a strange night out, I drew the first version of the "Zeichen" - the official Logo of Nils Mango. Also won the Swiss Unihockey Championship U18 Elite with Basel Magic, I also drank a lot there. Stopped playing shortly after because I didn't like the new trainer and liked partying way more.
2004 | Bildungsreise | Started taking pictures and traveled to Nepal and a few months later through India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and back again, just making it back before the tsunami hit because my mother wanted me home for Christmas. During traveling, I discovered the music of the Beatles and learned many lessons for life. I was on the verge of alcoholism because any time I would walk around at night in any given village in Southeast Asia, I would get invited to drink something with anybody having a party + I could use a couple of free drink vouchers each after another because the barkeepers liked me or had problems distinguishing one western traveler from another. Good times. A fellow German traveler showed me a DVD with Liard Hamilton foiling waves on a board with snowboard boots. I was vegetarian for some time because I didn't want to kill beings, but then I found out that plants are also beings. So I went back to eating meat because I didn't think I would survive as a fruitarian. Even though my name is Mango.
2005 | Burgknecht | Working at Swiss Youth Hostels in Mariastein and Delémont for my "Zivildienst".
2005-2009 | Studying | Getting my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at FHNW Muttenz while getting paid even more by Roche. Thank you again! I ended up winning the Roche prize for the best diploma and the Dr. Max Lüthi Award for my thesis. Moving to my own place and spending many nights and days trying to make music, getting girls, but actually getting my appendix removed, partying, and taking pictures: Moving Light Series
Summer jobs included working at the Delica factory and trying to find donators for the Green Cross in the streets of Switzerland. A homeless man told me he earns more in 10 minutes of begging than what I made in an hour of fundraising.
2009 | Gärtner | Second part of "Zivildienst", this time at the Botanical Garden Basel. Another dream job I'd always wanted to try.
2010 | mango loco | I refined the "Zeichen" while traveling through South America. Learned how to surf and speak Spanish while traveling through Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. Good times part II.
2010 | master of disaster | Tried to obtain a Master's degree in chemistry at Uni Basel. But when I was having some doubts was told by my lovely Doktormutter-to-be (doctoral advisor) that it would only take about 7 years until I would be able to work on what I wanted as a chemist. Also, the Roche Foundation stopped paying me because of a newly enforced application rule. The prospect of spending 7 years of my life + the lack of payment helped me tremendously in my decision to quit studying chemistry. I am still thankful for that!
So I went full crazy artist instead, because why not? I created a t-shirt collection called modegau under my name/brand megaduo by using stencils and airbrush4, then I designed some t-shirts for the marketplace of the POD company Spreadshirt. One of my designs, the heart partner t-shirt was even featured in a tv advertisement. With this early and unexpected success, I asked myself "why not try molecules & chemistry on t-shirts?". That's how I founded chemikershirts in 2011, and soon changed the name to chemicalshirts. Began to work on the invaluable Toilet Series.
2011 | wild times | Worked as a motorcycle courier for 3 months, went on to do street and other art5 under the name 2000000, and had way too much fun on the internet making a whole exhibition in the shape of the "Zeichen".
Created a horrorscope, a very bad horoscope with JS. First "programming" steps.
Went to the Philippines with a friend; caught Dengue.
2012 | I've run out of ideas for naming the years | Bought a Stand Up Paddleboard and started paddling around on the Rhine in Basel. Made some stencil graffiti. Started Project Selfie
I think the world was supposed to end, but it didn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Quick Note
If you are still reading, thank you! Fac ut vivas.
2013 Grew a beard. Performed my first live set, and had my first paid gig. Changed my Artist name to Nils Mango6.
I made some things with 3D printing and started Project ReUse (wow those printers were expensive in the beginning). Went surfing in Spain.
Made my next steps in programming, playing around with some Processing sketches. I changed the name of chemicalshirts to Molecule Store because I started to sell not only science & chemistry t-shirts but also 3D printed molecule jewelry. The Molecule Store is still going strong today and we now sell over 300 science-themed products with a beautiful twist: You get to shop nerdy AND do good. 1 USD for each product you order gets donated to science education.
2014 Had enough of Basel, went almost homeless, and eventually moved to Flüh. Made a lot of music, started a new band Vogesen Tape Sessions Collective, recorded live sets Part I + II, continued to try to learn to program with processing and went surfing in France and Portugal. Met my significant other. Not a bad year.
2015 Moved back to civilization (Blätzbums). Went to Tenerife for the first time. Worked on growing Molecule Store. Music: Not An Album 15
2016 Cut off part of the tip of my index finger while trying to open a pack of mozzarella. Started to Stand Up Paddle again. Played priest and joined two friends in marriage. Visited Tenerife again. Tried my hand at YouTubing (literally), made a float from PET bottles for project ReUse, and went down a river with it. Traveled to Island. Trying to get to Tenerife at least once a year now. Made some cute designs for apparel, etc. Music: Not An Album 16
2017 Worked as a bike courier. Visited Greece. Foiling for the masses is here, tried to learn Windsurfing again, this time on a foil. Bought my first Naish Thrust foil at Caribbean Village, and liked that SUP Station there, so I founded Birs73, Basel's first Surf Brand. Made more things for project ReUse for Birs73 (laptop sleeves and wallets made from leather scraps, surf ponchos from old towels). Spent Christmas in a cabin, which was awesome. Also started to make concrete vases and pots with the help of 3D printing.
2018 Designed some lamps. Birs73 was now Basel's first Stand Up Paddle Center on the "Kraftwerk Inseli" - I actually managed to pull it off. First attempts at dock starting and flat water foil pumping. Molecule Store is gaining some traction on Instagram. Went to Barcelona. Moved back to Basel. Music: Not an Album 17-18
2019 Visited Israel. Managed to score my first foil pump round. Birs73 got kicked out of the Inseli, now renting a Store and paddling through the city. Needed help, got 3 helpers for Birs73 and a shipper for Molecule Store. Wing Foiling got invented and I was hooked, winging around on the Rhine. Went to Sardinia and Fuerteventura. Call me Mr. Holiday. Got an Apple Watch, wow that thing makes you move and train more! Highly recommended (must not be from Apple).
2020 Went to Mexico, Rügen, Sardinia, Burgund, Tenerife. Sold a lot of shit, trying to be more essential again. Started journaling. Started to learn to program in Swift and made some first apps. Lots of Wing Foiling in the waves of El Medano. Started journaling.
Music: Not An Album 20 + finished up Tracks on a Plane 01, an album with tracks produced on airplanes from 2018 to 2020.
2021 Rügen, Berlin, Tenerife. Started participating in food sharing, and got rid of a lot more shit. Started to dive into Swift and making apps.
2022 Sold Birs73, made big changes to how Molecule Store works, towards a more premium and more ecological version. Went wing foiling in Tenerife. Sold our car. Made three websites: quätschkomode.ch, reitcoaching.ch, and project7iii.com - the last one is the new parent company under which all my business projects find a place. Moved to Biel/Bienne. Started to work on this website. Started to work on Max for Live devices and continued working on my first apps.
Music: Finished up Tracks on a Plane 02, then an album made entirely on the Novation Circuit, and added a third album for good measure.
2023 Learned donwind foiling. Life is a blur since then.
→ See what I am up to right now.
1. ^ I chose to become a chemical laboratory technician because they told me you have to order things in that job and I liked the idea of making things orderly.
2. ^ I favored Roche because the food in their canteen was much better than the one at Novartis.
3. ^ And also because I had heard there would be a lot of cool girls there.
4. ^ Extremely dumb t-shirts because they are made by hand, as I called them.
5. ^ Highlights include: Wenn ich Gross bin, Plakate anbringen verboten, 2000000 letters.
6. ^ Citation needed.