Six60's Chris Mac on the best advice he ever received

In a new series, we put ten questions to leaders in everything from fashion to architecture, in association with Huawei. Today is Six60's Chris Mac.

Chris Mac is the bass guitarist of five-piece Reggae Rock band Six60. Having won 5 Tuis at the 2018 Vodafone Music Awards and with their most recent EP being top of the NZ Album Chart for 42 weeks, we took a walk with Mac at Western Springs stadium. The venue is hallowed ground for the band, which was the first to sell-out the stadium with more than 50,000 in ticket sales.

You're the first band to sell out Western Springs Stadium. What was that like?

It was Crazy! We had amazing support from our fans around the country. We were confident, but that did surprise us how quickly that happened.

What is work to you?

Work is getting stuff done. It's doing whatever you need to succeed.

How does running Six60 the band, as a business work?

It's just making sure you're as effective as possible. I think business is a dirty word in creative industries but we're just trying to get stuff done.

With that in mind, do all your members agree on how the band is run?

Yeah, on how the band is run, for sure. On everything else in life? Absolutely not. It's a five-way relationship.

Music is a pretty hard business. How do you combat or I guess deal with haters?

Yeah you can't really deal with the haters. People like what they like. People don't like what they don't like. At the end of the day if I like something and you don't like it, then I win. So I feel pretty glad for all our fans.

Where did your drive come from?

I'm probably the least driven person. Not in the band, but in life. The band around me and other people around me inspire me, so yeah I guess I get a bit of drive from the environment.

Bourbon or Beer?

Craft beer, all the time. It's my go to.

Who gave you the best advice and what was it?

Yeah I remember I was playing a small gig really early on and I was giving it everything and I was really wanting to be fantastic on stage and this guy just turned around to me and said 'stop trying so hard'. Umm, it stuck with me to this very day.

What have you sacrificed for your success?

I think you sacrifice a lot. You sacrifice lifestyle. You sacrifice small goals, easy goals, just to get ahead and everyone has to do that no matter what field they're in.

Where to next for Six60?

We're just going to keep on working. We're going to set higher goals. We're going to look bigger. We're going to do better and hopefully we'll be around for many years to come.