Who are you?
I am maz :)
What random topic could you talk absolute relentless shit about for hours?
Man there’s a lot of things I could talk about but it’s a fine balance of the topic and the way you talk about it. That’s really what does it for me in terms of good conversation.
I do like to talk about the weather, it’s my go to. It’s a great topic for small talk and it can go many directions. I am a weather nerd. I follow numerous storm chasing pages and meteorologists on Facebook. Yes, I use Facebook. You can tell a lot about a person if they are a Facebook user. I am a millennial - horse person haha. Noa calls it ‘horse book’ …
Anyway!
Back to the weather.
I like how it’s predictably unpredictable.
Mother Nature is so cool.
What does home mean to you? You’ve lived in different places and countries, how has that word changed for you over time?
I guess I consider many places a version of home. For me - it’s not necessarily about the length of time you’ve spent somewhere but where you were in your life at that moment in time.
Personally I see home being on Kauai - where I spent my formative teenage years and early 20s. This is the place I miss the most in terms of friends and landscapes.
Also my dad’s hometown of Port Fairy in Southern Victoria. A lot of great childhood memories riding horses down there - but oddly I feel no emotional connection to it these days.
I can feel close to places at times and then form zero attachment. I guess that’s where a momentary home finds a place of existence in your mind & body.
Much like living in Byron - I was up there for about 10 years during my 20s and early 30s and I learned a lot about life. Haven’t been back since, but I definitely miss my friends and the wild people that live there. There’s a bit more of a wildness about it that reminds me of Kauai a little bit and I guess that’s why I miss it.
Do you miss Hawaii? What do you think growing up there gave you that a typical Aussie childhood might not have?
I definitely miss aspects of Kauai. The friends I have over there are for life. It’s a raw wild place that has a very concise light versus dark energy. I think as a blow in you have to listen to when it’s your time to leave.
I was so fortunate to live there for the years that I did. My childhood was definitely not traditional.
I went from going to a private catholic school in country Victoria wearing a heavy plaid uniform skirt down to my ankles and mandatory blazer to a casual tshirt, short shorts and slippers or ‘thongs’ as footwear on Kauai. The kids sitting on the back of the school bus smoked weed on the way to school, you got checked for guns and knives walking into campus haha. I dropped out around year 10 and did a mix of homeschool then eventually stopped all together and got my GED (high school diploma).
I spent my days on the beach trying to surf or snorkeling with turtles, I hitchhiked around the island, went to beach parties and worked full time. I had a fake ID that looked nothing like me and would go to the Hanalei Liquor Store that had a very old lady working behind the counter. We would buy 40s and drive up and down the North Shore listening to early 00s hip hop and rap music. Hilarious. Lots of hiking and camping. It was a rite of passage to have bare feet everywhere all the time and if your feet hurt you would get teased for having haole feet. I have haole feet - maybe the most haole feet you've ever seen.
The best part about growing up there was a strong connection to Nature and a feeling of freedom.
Moving from Byron to the South Coast, how has that shift felt? What are you thinking about the South Coast? Do you miss up North?
Really good. I was keen to move South for a while before we did. Noa made the final decision and I was totally on board. I hate the heat and keeping horses in those conditions is a nightmare. Also we were caught up in a flood and that was pretty fucked. But as I always say, you have to go through some hardships to get something good - it’s just the way life works. It’s the universal balance.
The South Coast is super cool. It’s slow paced and mellow. The people I’ve met are friendly and down to earth. Also I’m a hermit so the slower pace suits me just fine.
I feel like Byron has changed a lot over the years, I probably miss aspects of what it used to be like - when you could walk down the street and see some familiar faces. I do miss a bit of the wild characters you meet around the Byron Shire though. It makes for interesting conversation and a good laugh.
If you could live one past chapter again, not change it, just feel it -where or which memory would it be?
Hmmm that’s a tough one! Would be a mix of endless days spent riding horses on the beach in Victoria as a horse crazy kid and driving around Kauai’s North Shore with friends blasting music and drinking beers. I guess both these memories feel like fun in a less complicated world haha.
How did Chico's Cheats come to life? You’ve got such a deep wealth of knowledge about oils, I’ve always been in awe of how you balance the science with instinct.
My mum was visiting from Hawaii and we were walking on the beach chatting. Just a random brain wave of an idea fuelled by her endless support and creative energy made me feel like I could actually pull it off. Instead of not doing it I actually followed through hahaha.
I think the science part comes from me - I like facts and retaining information about things that interest me. The instinct comes from my Mum - she is an Ayurvedic Practitioner and an amazing healer. I grew up around a lot of the ingredients as a household staple.
I’ve always admired the quality of your products for their cost, can you walk us through the process from idea to finished piece? The unseen bits people might not realise go into it.
Thank you, that's really nice to hear. I try to keep the costs down as much as possible. I hate when things are marked up unnecessarily and my goal was to make products that worked well and were no fuss. Keep the cost at something that people can hopefully afford in this ever changing economic climate/shit storm.
The process of the idea was basically to create versatile products anyone can use - and that a horse person - can have dual use by also using on their horse.
I wanted to create products that were purposeful and useful. We are around SO MUCH STUFF nowadays. What are our b
asic needs? Can I cover some of those?
I based the brand identity around one of our horses who has a ‘work smart not hard mentality’- Chico is the horse's name and Cheats is a play on ‘life hacks’.
I wanted to use powerful plant based ingredients that I grew up using and was confident in their ability to actually work well.
I also wanted cool artwork to represent Chico the horse. So I hit up Tito La Vole to create the characters - which were based on Matthew Mcconaughey in the movie ‘Surfer Dude’ , Tom Cruise in ‘Risky Business’ and lastly a Ghost Busters esc character haha. I’ll let you guess who is who ;)
What can we expect from Chico's Cheats in the next 12 months? Anything new you’re excited about?
Hopefully more people know about the brand and get use out of the oils. I’ve just launched a smaller travel size bottle because everyone tells me their 250ml bottle is lasting them SO LONG hahaha. More merch to come because I enjoy designing clothes - with the same concept of versatile slow fashion. All the merch is limited edition so it grows old in your closet and falls apart with so much wear. That’s how clothes should be. Plus it means I get to have fun creating one off pieces and more of them (hopefully) haha. Also starting to sponsor some competitive riders in the horse world. Possibly designing an arena shirt with them to wear competing and offer a small run to the general public, that will be fun.
You’ve told me before you fell into marketing, what did that actually look like?
It looked like me applying to every advert I could find desperate for work in Byron. I ended up responding to a classified in the Echo newspaper - for 'fashion commission based sales'. It was vague. It turned out to be an ex glass blower turned digital print artist acid feign wanting to sell stretchy dance wear. Thus I had a job. It ended up being a pretty successful festival fashion brand called Liberated Heart (insane name and not my idea by the way haha) but it was iconic for its time - when girls wanted to wear matching sets in psychedelic prints to music festivals.
The artist Colin Heaney used to take photos of vases in his house and sit at his computer for hours slicing and dicing it up into these insane mandalas. He was a trip.
Loved dancing and 'the female form'. He used to give all of the girls that worked there these hand blown glass 'goddess' figurines. Which kind of looked like vaginas. Apparently inspired by a vision he had drumming on Dolphins beach.
Years prior to this I was taking photos for my friend Mahina (a model on Kauai) and she would fill me in on how social media worked. So I pulled from that and then used common sense to work out how to develop the brand into clothes that would sell online.
After that I studied fashion design at Tafe and eventually landed a job at Thrills. I worked with some awesome people and learned heaps. It was a lot of fun but after a while my heart just wasn't in it anymore. I had a full Saturn return moment and quit to do something horse related. Realised that wasn’t going to cut the mustard so I went back to freelancing.
I absolutely love working for small businesses and seeing them thrive.
When did it shift from curiosity to skill?
I think it was more desperation to skill and a hustle mentality from me. And even still sometimes I’m like what the fuck am I doing haha. But it works because if you really like the brand or company your pedaling for its super rewarding and fun.
You’ve told me you have met some celebs, whats a good story from these encounters?
My best story might not translate as well written as it does in person as I do enjoy the odd voice impersonation.
I was in my local hair salon in Kilauea and a little girl had a face that looked exactly like Adam Sandler and was pressing it against the glass door doing silly faces.
I said to my hairdresser what the hell that girl literally has Adam Sandler's face on her body. That is so wild. Then she replies - yeah that’s him and his kids getting ice cream next door. Moments later he walks over to the door, starts pulling funny faces with his daughter, opens it and says in that iconic Adam Sandler voice ‘Have a nice hairstyle’.
It was a great day.
You dropped out of high school but have built a self-made creative career, what did that hustle actually look like? Any advice for crew in the same sito?
Find jobs you can tolerate that offer some sense of freedom to make it your own. You need to actually enjoy working a bit because overall it sucks. Work with people you really enjoy being around because that’s half the fun. If you are in a good environment and can enjoy what you do you’ll do it well and then more opportunities will come. Believe in yourself even if you’re learning as you go. Know your worth and don’t stick around toxic work environments. They won’t change and you’ll waste time waiting. Time is our biggest value so we have to try not to waste it.
What was it like to be part of a growing Aussie brand and watch it take shape?
Really fun and exciting. It’s better when you have freedom to create - sometimes people wig out and want to control everything. Nothing good comes from that and I’ve seen brands roll over when that happens. It takes the magic out of something core and turns it into some robotic shit that everyone has seen before. Sometimes you might end up making more money though haha
How has your creative process changed since starting Chico's Cheats?
Not much really. I’m pretty manic and random and I feel creative in waves. So I might have a lull where I’m fixated on other things then randomly something will inspire an idea and I’ll fixate, execute and then back to the lull again until next time.
Top horror, comedy, romance and Sci-Fi movies?
For horror I’m going to go with a movie people may not have seen - ‘The Loved Ones’ is an epic Australian film filmed in Victoria. It’s unsettling and has a good soundtrack.
Not sure about comedy. I've got pretty high standards in terms of rating something truly funny.
Any movie by Gregg Araki is epic if you like a mix of Indi 90s core sci fi / sex comedy with iconic script and soundtracks.
Romance I’ll say the movie ‘Love’ by Gaspar Noe.
Other than that lord of the rings hahaha
If you could have a coffee or wine with five people, dead, alive, real, or fictional - who’s sitting at the table and why?
This is such a hectic question lol because firstly table dynamics!!!. 5 people also feels like waaaaay too many to me hahaha.
I’m going to resurrect Wayne - Noa’s dad.
Then I’m going to chuck in Will Ferrel and John C Reilly and of course - Noa. I'll throw in Gandalf as a fictional character.
Add in a few big bottles of rum as Wayne’s drink of choice and hope that we just laugh for a couple hours. Maybe Gandalf brings his peace pipe :) that could be fun.
The Fellowship of The Ring 2.0?
If your life was a film, what would the soundtrack sound like, and what song plays during the credits?
Would be the most bi polar soundtrack of all time hahahah I switch up between so. many. genres.
Probably a mix of 90s anthems, metal, hip/hop and rap, a touch of reggae. Definitely some John Frusciante instrumentals in the mix and end credits would be ‘before the beginning’ by John Frusciante.
What’s something being around animals has taught you that you wish more humans understood?
Stop, be present, listen. There’s a lot animals can teach us if we take the time to listen. Know the difference between projecting your own story and truly listening.
When life gets busy or you start to lose creative flow, what brings you back? What grounds you?
Tapping into my senses more - we are living in an overstimulated environment that is designed to numb and control us. So time spent in nature and around animals helps to bring me back. Connecting to my body through movement - rest doesn’t always look like stillness.
Check out Chico's
https://www.chicos-cheats.com/shop
Mariah in the Tall, Cocoa.
