Their upcoming Grassroots Tour around New Zealand sold out its first Gisborne show in just one minute on Monday, with fans eager to secure tickets.
They are playing at the now sold-out War Memorial Theatre (seating 500) on April 23, and at Te Puka Tavern in Tokomaru Bay the night before.
Fraser started playing guitar when he was eight, so music has been a part of his life since a young age. He went to boarding school at Whanganui Collegiate and later to Otago University.
Neither he nor lead singer Matiu Walters were accepted into the university’s music programme so they had to find a Plan B.
They lived at 660 Castle Street in Dunedin North. “That’s where it all began. It was the beginning of everything,” Fraser has said.
In 2021 the band bought the Dunedin house and they have set up four residency scholarships through Otago University valued at $10,000 each where students get to live in the iconic flat.
The scholarship programme provides mentorship with the band and pays for rent and power.
“It’s a nice little package for students to go down and start their studies. Dunedin can be pretty cold and miserable and this is designed to make life a little easier.
“You don’t have to be a music student to apply. We weren’t studying music when we lived at Castle Street and we don’t only operate in music ourselves.”
Whether with Massive, their record label in Auckland or through the scholarship programme, the band’s efforts are focussed on helping young people get over a lot of the hurdles they struggled with themselves.
“The mentorship extends beyond anything specific like music — it’s broader than that.
:We try to provide guidance and advice about any subject where we can be of some help,” he says.
The 24-show Grassroots Tour is being promoted as “an intimate tour” of venues “off the beaten track”. It will also be recorded live with the best tracks selected to be part of a best of The Grassroots Tour album.
“It’s just another thing our fans can be part of forever in time,” Fraser says.
“So if you were at the show at the War Memorial Theatre or the Te Puka Tavern you’ll forever be part of that recording.”
“Wherever you play it or stream it you will know you were at that show. I think it’s great.”
Six60 is excited to be playing at smaller centres throughout the country.
“It’s been something we’ve wanted to do but haven’t had the means to do without changing our whole approach. With this acoustic stripped-back show we can tour it to places we otherwise couldn’t get to.”
The band will play music from across the 16 years they have been together including popular classics like ‘Don’t Forget Your Roots’ and through to some new material not heard before.
“We’ve got heaps of new songs. We haven’t really stopped in terms of writing new music and creating and producing new stuff, so it will be good to start road-testing a little bit of the music and seeing what the vibe is and to see what people like. I’m excited for people to hear it.”
Fraser said their music had changed over the years and continued to be a reflection of where they were at in life.
“Even when I look back to Castle Street . . . the latest album, we were in such a transitional place — some of us were becoming fathers for the first time.
“We have a lot more emotion in our lives now - there’s a lot of lyrical content about striving for greatness in that album and standing up for yourself; things you can imagine telling your kids one day.”
Fraser is now dad to two daughters aged three and four and is loving being a father.
“It is my favourite thing,”
