“We’re So Driven By Possibilities”: How SIX60 Went from Student Band to Worldwide Success

For a lot of young musicians, forming a band just begins as a great way to have fun jam sessions with your mates. In fact, that’s exactly how New Zealand band SIX60 got started.

Instead of aiming to book massive gigs in their area, the SIX60 boys played for a bunch of their friends at their uni student accommodation; a house at 660 Castle Street in Dunedin, New Zealand.

They never expected to make it big in the music industry. However, at the end of their degrees, the boys recorded their first original EP containing the popular track “Someone to Be Around” as a keep sake, and things unexpectedly took off.

The current members, Matiu Walters, Chris Mac, Marlon Gerbes, Eli Paewai and Ji Fraser, have sold out New Zealand’s Western Springs Stadium twice, and a documentary charting their incredible success titled SIX60: Till The Lights Go Out is being released later this month.

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As lead singer Matiu tells Student Edge, SIX60 started out playing covers at parties around New Zealand.

"It really just started as a way to entertain our friends. It’s not like we were performing on stage or anything, we were just among our friends playing and having fun, and we did that for years,” he says.

"We all went to [University of Otago] for very different reasons. Most of us actually went to play rugby and pursue that kind of dream, but as that was happening, the four of us original members found each other and started jamming.

"We became known essentially as the 660 boys because that’s where everyone would come and party."

Today, the house on Castle Street still remains as uni student accommodation, but the spot has since become somewhat of a tourist attraction thanks to the boys.

"It’s still a student accommodation, it’s been through a few refurbishments,” he says.

“It really was a piece of s**t when we were there and I think that it’s become a bit of an institution for the area. People are standing outside taking photos with it and that’s kind of cool to see.”

Very quickly, their first EP gained a lot of traction and they decided to give the band a go full-time.

As bass guitarist Chris explains, for the last 10 years the band has been gradually climbing a ladder of success that might look fast on the outside, but to the boys, it has been a lot of hard work.

"I guess it was really gradual. Every six months to a year was another stepping stone,” he says.

“We were quite goal-oriented and we would kind of succeed in one way and then look to the next summit to climb.”

Their success reached a milestone when they became the first Kiwi band to sell out the iconic Western Springs Stadium.

Synth player Marlon describes how emotional and exciting it was for the boys to perform at the venue for the first time.

"The first time, there were a lot of emotions personally," he says. 

"It was nerve-wracking and the pressure of the gig and the expectation was quite high, but once it all started that kind of all dissolved and it was actually really, really fun.

"I remember finishing it and thinking it just went by in about five minutes."

The boys aren’t tied down to a specific genre of music. Instead, they describe their sound as "bloody good”.

"We were just trying to make music that was joyful and that came in so many different forms, and the feeling is the thing that drives us," says Matiu.

"We’re so driven by the possibilities and our ideas and being creative that it just made no sense for us to confine ourselves that way, so I’d just say it’s good music and it’s joyful music."

Directed by Julia Parnell, their upcoming doco SIX60: Till the Lights Go Out was filmed over 18 months and is filled with jaw-dropping vision of the band’s record-breaking concert and a unique Kiwi sense of humour.

Chris explains how honest and relatable their story is to so many people.

"Every story has to have mountains to climb and rivers to cross, and we’ve certainly had a lot of those," he says.

"I think anyone can relate to that because we’re five very different individuals, but we’ve come together to do something that was bigger than any of us."

SIX60: Till the Lights Go Out lands in Australian cinemas on 26 November. It is rated M for coarse language.

Header Image: Supplied