New Zealand reggae act Six60 have had a whirlwind 12-18 month run.
A debut album that knocked Adele off the top of NZ charts; sold out tours in Europe and Australia; and a social media following that’s ballooning by the day. Frontman Matui Walters is one very happy chappy.
You have 200k Likes on Facebook... does that blow your mind?
Yeah, it’s real cool.
How important is it to be interacting with your online social community?
It’s very important, people love to feel a connection, and it’s important to have a personality online. And we love dealing direct with our fans.
Having such a large community following the band’s fortunes; does that generate any further pressure to perform/ record etc?
It did in the beginning. Once we released our album all of a sudden there were all these eyes and ears on us, and we had no idea how we did it. But no, a few years down the track, we are better, more experienced, hungrier and couldn't care less.
The band joined the likes of Imagine Dragon and Matt Corby by recording your own iTunes Session in December; how was that experience?
It was great. An opportunity for people to see our development, and for us to drop a new track 'Home'. If you haven't got that EP already, go and get that.
You’re headed to Austria and Switzerland in April for the very first time as a band as a part of a European tour... do you still pinch yourself at what the band is achieving at an international level?
We are really excited about playing new spots, and we are fortunate to travel the world doing what we love. But the more you have, the more you want... so we can’t wait to drop the next body of work so we can do more, see more, make more.
Last year you sold out London's Forum twice — does it get any better than that?
Three times! Haha. We do really well in the UK despite being unsigned with no singles at radio. Testament I think to how far our music has travelled and what it means to people.
Six60 play
Sun 02 Mar - The Hi-Fi (Brisbane)Thur 27 Feb - Metro City (Perth)
Fri 28 Feb - The Hi-Fi (Sydney)
Sat 01 Mar - The Hi-Fi (Melbourne)
