"What was very rewarding for us was that an audience that weren't really familiar with our old and new material responded in some ways stronger to our newer stuff than our older stuff. That made the whole experience of recording new songs feel really worthwhile to us."
After so long without writing music together, Burns found working on new material to be surprisingly easy.
"To jump in a room with someone you have never written a song with, with Steve Balbi, was an amazing experience. Steve is a fantastic songwriter and lyricist and the basic embryos of those songs came together in a matter of minutes."
Burns said the band had been having a great time since they started touring again in 2011.
"We are treating Mi-Sex more as an experience again after 30 years of not playing," he said.
"We are not feeling that we are going to go out and conquer the world, we are not 21-years-old any more, but we are having a really good time playing and we also had a really good time making this record."
When they're not touring, the band members live far apart - in Christchurch, Auckland, Sydney and, in Burns' case, Byron Bay, New South Wales.
"We decide on set lists and things like that when we meet at airports quite often," he said.
Burns produces music for young bands from his own studio but aside from that, doesn't listen to much new music.
"I live in the countryside and I quite enjoy just the empty space because music is a big part of my life. I will be in the studio today mixing for five or six hours and when I come out of the studio I mostly drive around with the windows down and don't listen to much music," he said.
"I listen to the birds in the trees, actually, and the wind."
• Selwyn Sounds will be held on March 4, from 11.30am-8.30pm. Tickets can be purchased via Ticketek and buyers will be able to pre-purchase a return bus ride between pick up points in Christchurch or Rolleston and Lincoln Domain.
