Six60 have emerged from some troubling times with a soulful second album. Chris Schulz gets in the ring with them.
Punches are being thrown, expletives are echoing off the walls and sweat is splashing on to the floor.
But the two members of Six60 aren't in the studio fighting it out over their drums, guitars and keyboards. They're in the boxing gym, and they're going hard.
The City Boxing gym in Kingsland is co-owned by frontman Matiu Walters. He and his Six60 bandmate Marlon Gerbes are daily visitors and they're putting this TimeOut reporter through his paces. I'm wincing just holding the boxing bag as a flurry of fists from Gerbes flies into them.
I've been invited to train with the duo, and it turns out this isn't just a fun way to host an interview ahead of Six60's new album - boxing is a great metaphor for what the Dunedin boys have been through over the past couple of years.
After a whirlwind start to their career - from a student covers act to touring the world three times off the back of one album - it's time for the five-piece to release their "difficult" second effort.
Turns out that cliche has rung true. Getting it done has been as tough as going 12 rounds in the ring.
"That first album, we didn't know what we were doing," admits Walters.
"We were a covers band playing 21sts and pubs and flat-warmings for beer. We thought we'd try some original music ... and in the course of six months, it blew up.
"It did well for us, but the last thing we wanted to do was write an album for the fans. [For the second one] we tried to write an album that we were proud of. It's been a long process.
"We've rewritten it three times ... financially it took a lot out of us."
How the second album was made
In a small studio near Victoria Park, nervous faces are looking on as Gerbes queues up music on the studio speakers.
Fresh from boxing, Six60 are debuting several songs from their new album to TimeOut over sushi and coffee, and we're the first of the media to hear them.
But as the sunny cheer of Special - the first single that reached No.1 - rings out of the speakers, it's clear they have no need to worry.
Six60's second album, out now, mostly steers clear of synth-fired festival anthems like Forever and Rise Up. They've been replaced by something much more appealing: simple, soulful singalong anthems to soundtrack your summer.
"We've stopped being a Kiwi DIY band," says Walters. "We're better.
"There's a lot more thought, skill and knowledge put into this one. It's more cohesive. There's more attention on hooks, melodies, forms and structures."
Their first album saw Six60 touring heavily, including a six-month stint setting up camp in Berlin, as well as high-profile performances at festivals like Glastonbury in England and SXSW in Texas.
But, despite that success, they say they never felt like they had songs that were "true to us".
Gerbes: "It was just a hobby. We were playing catch-up."
For their second album, they returned to New Zealand, and started demoing songs. Settling on that sound took time.
If you're wondering why you haven't seen Six60 on the live scene for a while, that's because it took them the better part of two years.
"As a group, we learnt a lot about ourselves and how to get where we want. Things are a lot clearer. We've got a studio now, we bury ourselves in here for 13 hours a day. I'm more comfortable here than on the couch at home," says Walters.
"The album's different but it's more a representation of who we are than the old stuff was. Only in the last few months have I felt like this is what I do now and I'm good at it."
But the process was clearly a tough one, and Six60's queries about what TimeOut thinks about their new songs shows they're not fully confident in the change of direction.
Several months later, and the laughter speaks volumes. The Walters who answers the phone today is completely different to the one sitting nervously in the studio at the end of 2014.
Walters is doing radio interviews and, buoyed by the reaction to singles Special and So High. He's no longer worried about how fans will take Six60's new sound. It's been universally loved.
"It feels normal and natural for us but in terms of the public there are only two things to go by: the last album and this one.
"I was nervous, but I have no doubt people are going to like the sound. I'm pretty confident about it."
Those singles have opened doors too: Six60 have just signed a deal with Los Angeles-based management company Atom Factory, with an eye on releasing the new album in the US soon.
"It's a match made in heaven ... we're rubbing shoulders with Miguel, Meghan Trainor, Nico and Vinz, and John Legend," says Walters. "There are lots of opportunities there and they see the new sound and album as something that could work in the States."
That's not all: they're negotiating a "global deal" with Capitol Records that could see Six60 relocating to Los Angeles. That's a long way from the grubby Dunedin flat where things kicked off for them in 2008.
"We'll find out in the next few weeks," says an obviously fizzing Walters. "It's so awesome, because all those tough changes we made to our sound ... opportunities are coming that make it all worthwhile."
But what happens to the fitness regime if they move to LA?
"We're always at the gym," laughs Walters. "Always boxing."
Who: Six60 What: Second album, Six60, out now Live: Homegrown, Wellington Waterfront, Saturday, March 7, Wellington's Shed 6 on May 16, Hamilton's Claudelands Arena on May 22, Auckland's Vector Arena on May 23 and Christchurch's Horncastle Arena on May 29.
