Matiu Walters just wants a break from hearing his own voice.
His band Six60 have been a national sensation since the release of their first single in 2010 – winning countless awards and selling out shows at Western Springs Stadium and Eden Park on their way to unparalleled chart success.
Walters is grateful that New Zealand has connected so much with their music, but says it’s become difficult to go out in public and avoid hearing his own singing.
“We’re everywhere – too much, sometimes,” he laughed in an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night.
“Like, sometimes I just want to have breakfast at a cafe with my family without having to hear my voice … There’s a funny thing when you go into a cafe or a restaurant, rather than coming up and saying hi, the people who work there will just slip your music on.
“For some reason they think that’s something I wanted? But in any case, they’re just showing appreciation, and I appreciate that.”
Walters told Real Life the band’s journey from a small flat on Dunedin’s infamous Castle St to national stardom had been “a wild, amazing ride”.
“We had humble beginnings, just a group of mates who really enjoyed playing music together,” he reflected.
“I suppose we are quintessentially Kiwi in our personalities. We write about the human experience, and people have really latched on to it, and it’s just beautiful to see how they live their lives to the music.”
Six60 released their fifth studio album, Right Here Right Now, last month – and it’s already performing well commercially, sitting top of the New Zealand charts having been streamed more than four million times.
Walters told Real Life Six60 are really proud of the album and said the experience of making it was “joyful”.
But he admits it can be “really, really challenging” swinging from the pace, demands and adulation of a successful music career back to the slowness of everyday life – especially having recently become a father and husband.
“There’s this vertigo of the slowdown, like you’re re-entering an atmosphere. There’s no real method to it; no one teaches you how to deal with that thing,” Walters told Cowan.
“I was actually talking to [fellow musician] Teddy Swims recently … about how un-human, actually, it is, what we do, and that no one’s meant to be up there receiving that kind of adulation, because it is intoxicating.
“Don’t get me wrong, it’s amazing and we’re grateful – you don’t wanna come across like playing to thousands of people is somehow tough or there’s suffering involved in it.
“But it’s just a hard balance because you have these endorphins, this huge rush, and then boom – back to changing nappies, mate.”
Walters said the new album captures the spirit of “whānau and togetherness” that Six60 stands for – qualities the band have been trying to lean into with their recent offbeat touring decisions, which have included small venues across New Zealand.
The band have enjoyed the experience of going from large to small shows and back again.
“It was refreshing for us. We were able to take an entirely different approach, completely different to the kind of preparation that goes into pulling off these stadium shows,” Walters said.
“We were craving the closeness, a connection. Playing stadiums is amazing, but you’re really playing to a mesh, you know? You can’t really make anyone out.
“And then we flip around and play two in these tiny towns in front of 200 people who are at your feet. It’s a completely different experience and a completely different preparation.
“We love that one weekend we’re playing at Stewart Island, and then the next weekend we’re at 20,000 people in Sydney or whatever, and then on a boat, or all these different stages we can make work.”
Walters credits their adaptability with having taken the “old school” route to fame.
“We started from the bedroom and into the garage, and into the backyard and into the small club and by the time we got to playing stadiums, we were prepared, we knew what we were doing.”