The Mixtape: Six60's Matiu Walters

This week on the Mixtape, Matiu Walters of Six60 joins Music101's Charlotte Ryan to talk about the music he grew up with and where he finds his music inspiration - and pick his favourite songs. 

Six60 formed in Dunedin in 2008, and have grown to a huge success through hard work.

The band was in 2019 the first New Zealand act to sell out Western Springs and in 2021 became the first band to play Eden Park to a sold-out crowd of 50,000. They've even had a hit documentary about their rise, Six60: Till The Lights Go Out.

They've just released their fourth studio album, Castle Street, their first in three years.

Matiu says it's a hectic time with their new tour.

"We're really busy at the moment, we put that on ourselves, but it's album release time, so how else would you rather have it?"

Castle Street is named after the location of the Dunedin flat where the band got its start.

"We're pretty confident this is the best album we've ever made," Matiu says. "I think we've come to a point where we're really strong together."

A lot of that is because the band ended up stranded in the United States for eight months during Covid-19 lockdowns.

"We went over there which was supposed to be two weeks playing a couple of festivals."

"We were thrust into this Airbnb together living on top of each other writing music in the living rooms and the kitchens like it was back in Six60 Castle Street."

"I really think we've done a good job of hitting that energy again, but also between finding that balance between the raw and the produced, the hi-fi and lo-fi, the grand and the intimate."

"This album is everything ... yeah, this album is it."

Six60 took in a wide range of influences to make Castle Street, and Matiu cites everything from '80s pop hit 'Come On Eileen' by Dexys Midnight Runners to work by Sting and Nick Cave.

"Not necessarily the songs that they wrote, but their approach to music I suppose is a big influence."

One of Matiu's good friends is acclaimed sculptor and artist Michael Parekōwhai, who has become a sounding board for ideas.

"I've always leaned on him, every album cycle we come in, I usually start with a conversation with him.

"We talk about what's important and what's not and where in the creative cycle I might be.

"He's always said to me you know, 'the job is about saying the most with the least.'

"That's what good art is about and good music is about that, too."

The songs Matiu has chosen for the Mixtape are a diverse mix, and he thanks his mother for sparking his love for a good tune.

"My mum was such a massive part in me falling in love with music. At a young age she used to take me to gigs ... she really formed my love for music."

Six60 started as outsiders and underdogs in the music industry, and while they've gotten much bigger, they're keen to open up their world to other musicians.

Support acts on their tour include Tones and I, Lime Cordiale, Supergroove, Drax Project, Ladi6, Rob Ruha and Ka Hao, Page, Coterie, Mitch James, Kora, Niko Walters, Sons Of Zion, Lee Matthews, Riiki Reid, Kaylee Bell and Hina.

"We're in a position where we can have influence and help people directly, and we want to do that as much as we can."

"We're really proud of the lineup we've got going on."

The Six60 tour starts tonight in Wellington. For information, visit their website.

Songs played on this Mixtape:

1. Tony Joe White, 'Poke Salad Annie'

"One of the first live shows I went to was at Galatos to watch Tony Joe White ... And I was just next to my mom watching Tony Joe White, just him on a guitar and a drummer and he was just the coolest dude I'd ever seen, and he just walked in and he pointed at everyone and acknowledged them and he just oozed swag. This song has become an anthem for our whānau."

2. James Brown, 'It's A Man's Man's Man's World'

"In my final year of high school I went to see James Brown at the St. James Theatre and that just blew my mind from a creative and performance standpoint. He was just unbelievable. He was so extravagant, but at the same time he had little gestures that would have a massive impact. He must have been (in his) seventies, must have been, and he came out and did his spin and his splits and popped back up. He really set me down the track of performing, a little more."

3. Dusty Springfield, 'Spooky'

"I really tried to be this crooner (on the new album)," Matiu says. "A lot of my listening to music growing up was the drive from Auckland to Mangawhai Heads where we have a family home. ... For the longest time the track list to (the movie) Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was massive in the car and every song was amazing. This one was so cool, because it's so effortless and it's a beautiful song. Sonically, it's amazing."

4. D'Angelo, 'Brown Sugar'

"There's two things I love most in music is when I can see the craft and I can see it and it makes beautiful science. And then there's this kind of unhinged part of music that's just completely primal and wet and wild that is incredible. My goal is always to merge those two things, to me it's like the perfect song. And D'Angelo is the unhinged just all the way there. Pure raw talent, god-given ability, and everything is just so off the beat. ... I became really obsessive with him and his music, like crazy, would just sit in my room and listen and study. I knew every ad-lib and I knew every note."

5. Che Fu, 'Waka'

"Look, I'm a half-caste boy that grew up in Central Auckland and when I was young, he was like me. ... I don't know, he just set us all on fire. And I've got a lot of respect for him. I've never told him this, but I don't think I'd be making music if it wasn't for him."

6. K-C and JoJo, 'All My Life'

"This was like the biggest song in the whole world. And everyone wanted to try and learn the piano line and everyone was trying to be R&B singers. It was the first song I sang, the first song I bought. I fell in love with singing and RB. A lot of people agree that for my generation this was just kind of the song that set them off."

7. The Chicks, 'Landslide'

"This just is my favourite song of all time, the version that the Dixie Chicks did. I think it might be the harmonies, the instrumentation, it just hits my soul, and I can't deny it."

More Six60 live on RNZ:

First song: Six60 release their new single

SIX60 on their new film 'Till The Lights Go Out'