"That's so much harder than playing to strangers."
Stretch grew up listening to music from his uncle's record collection, or his mum's.
"It was really random because it was classic stuff like Beatles and Neil Young and Mum's stuff was like Abba.
"Really poppy stuff, and then there'd be oddball stuff in between like on those Greatest Hits records that used to be around."
As a teenager, he was more interested in bands like The Smiths and R.E.M. but became interested in writing original material.
"I wasn't interested in playing in a pub and playing Brown-Eyed Girl all night.
"I wanted to write my own songs."
Stretch admits it is much harder to stay with what he believes in rather than follow the crowd and go with something more mainstream.
"To me it felt a bit of a cop out to not push down that path, to not find your own voice and then try and put that out there. It's harder... to present your own voice, rather than use another well-established sound and song and songwriter's stuff.
"I'd rather the harder, less-travelled path."
His latest album, Our Dreams are Changing, was launched at the end of last year.
"I managed to make that album with some great friends and musicians in the midst of various lockdowns and everything that 2020 had going on.
"I managed to get in and out of a recording studio and get it made and out there.
"The album had a great launch but it still remains this kind of well-kept secret."
He says he finds it a full-time job promoting his work, given that he has no funding behind him.
"So I'm out there as my own little cottage industry, bringing it to the people, entirely off my own bat.
"Basically my gigs are the entirety of what I can bring to the world. So I give it a 100 plus per cent because I believe in it, but it's not easy fodder for the mainstream."
Stretch will be performing in Dannevirke on July 22. He will next be in Levin, where, funnily enough, he was actually born.
"Mum and Dad must have been on the road then, visiting relatives."
They were near Levin when the time came and were rushed to Levin Hospital.
Stretch says he still has relatives in the area.
Stretch will continue his tour in Greytown, Palmerston North, Whanganui and Raumati.
"I'm intentionally keeping away from the bigger centres in the cities. This is a bit of an exercise in how to present the latest batch of songs, purely solo, purely one person to the audience. So I'm keeping it small and intimate."
Five years ago, Stretch moved to Napier, where he has a little music studio/writing room in his house on the hill overlooking the bay.
He says he has travelled the world but Hawke's Bay called him home.
Stretch's Last Call for the Road tour will be at Fountain Theatre on July 22 at 7.30pm.
Tickets are $20 (plus booking fee) at www.undertheradar.co.nz or via his website: https://www.stretchsongs.com/.