SACHI and Major Major's collaboration is finally here

The first SACHI performance took place in 2014, both Nick and Will remember being 17 and getting kicked out of shows they had been booked for. Fast forward to now, the dynamic duo have performed for crowds as big as 400,000 and as of this week, they have collaborated with fan favourite Major Major on an exclusive RTD. Few can rival Major Major’s canned cocktails so when the boys decided to tap into the best in the bizz, this was an obvious choice. 

We sat down with Nick and Will to pick their brains about all things music, SACHI’s new era and of course, their brand new collaboration with Major Major. 

Tell me what flavour you came up with and why that was the winner.

Will: We landed on a sparkling tequila margarita & citrus twist.

Nick: Major Major initially asked us if we wanted to do something, Will and I are both huge foodies which obviously extends to drinks as well, we were excited because we haven’t done any custom dishes or drinks, menus, anything like that before so we jumped on the idea. It was great, they had a bunch of flavours they were trying to explore so we went into their facilities in Auckland and tasted a range of options. I think we saw a bit of a gap in the market for a good canned version. Tequila is great, we usually do a shot of tequila before we go on stage if we’re not doing a sober streak. It’s a very light, summery drink. It’s great for festivals and it’s perfect when you’re going for a boogie. 

Will: We tried a bunch of different flavours, some sweet, some spicy and fruity. We landed on this one because we thought it would pair really well with a nice summer’s day. We're really excited for everyone to try it.

Was it a tricky decision or was the winner clear from the start?

Will: We narrowed it down to about four main flavours, two were tequila and two were vodka. It was a process of elimination, we went for tequila because it tasted the best but we also thought it would be the most fun. We’re really stoked with where it ended up and I actually just can’t wait to drink it out of the can. We’re really excited that this is the first mass-produced tequila RTD in New Zealand, I think Major Major was thinking about doing something tequila-focused at some stage, but Nick and I just came in like YO 

You snaked it! I imagine the process of making music is pretty different to crafting an RTD flavour, how was the experience? 

Nick: (laughs)

Will: (laughs) Yeah very, it’s certainly a much more scientific process! But similar to making music, it was like, let’s try a bit of this, try a bit of that, oop too much of this, not enough of that. It was trial and error, then you’re left with this final product and you’re like, hmm…I wonder if other people will think this is good. It’s kind of similar to making music in that way but…it’s also completely different (laughs)

Nick: There kind of are similarities. At the end of the day, we were just choosing a flavour that we liked which is sort of what we are looking for in the studio as well. 

Will: It’s been really fun actually seeing the back end of how it all works, how the cans are made, we were actually astonished! They can produce 1.6 million cans a day, it’s f*cking out of control. It was really cool to see the line and how it all comes together. 

Nick: The entire Major Major team were so great, to be invited into that process was super interesting. We didn’t know anything about producing alcohol, everything is hidden behind a curtain and I think just the fact that we got to create a flavour of our own, was super fun. There was an element of creativity, we could bring our own taste preferences into it and we got to work with people who have an entire career in this so we learnt a lot.

While we are on the topic of music, do you want to talk about your new release?

Will: We recently put out our first new song in 18 months, Whole Again with our friends FOVOS. It's going super well, we got to play it live over the summer and it got a really good reaction from the crowd. This is the beginning of a new era for us and a new kind of visual approach. We’ll be rolling out a lot of new music we’ve been working on, it’s exciting times. 

Is 18 months quite a large gap for SACHI?

Will: Yeah, it was a huge gap. We were resetting everything, it ended up being a lot longer than we anticipated but it gave us the time to backlog loads of music. Now we can put music out every 6 weeks or so. We have a brand new song we just put out called Feel Good which we made in London last year. It was a miserable London day and ironically this track is very uplifting. It was kind of funny, we were like, what would be the wrong song to make today? We were kind of playing into it and we’re super stoked with how it came out. It’s the perfect summer tune.

Can you tell me a little bit about what drives SACHI, and where you pull inspiration from? 

Nick: I feel like there’s inspiration to be found all over the show. We’re both music fans before we’re music creators, my day is constantly soundtracked by an array of different stuff, as is Will’s. We’re always listening to old and new. Just from a fan perspective, I think, now and then you hear something that will spark us to go, what if we did something here? What if we mixed it with this? There’s always a subconscious process that goes on, when we’re working, all of the sounds we’ve consumed as fans, a little alchemy goes on when we’re articulating our stuff in the studio, little bits of all of that comes through. At the same time, I’ll go on a nice hike in central Otago, I’ll get home and I’ll be filled with this drive to, you know, sit down and bang some sounds out or put a beat down. The same goes for, even an incredible meal out can be inspiring, or hey! A really good canned margarita (wink) It’s anything and everything. 

And who are some fellow creatives you respect or maybe look up to?

Nick: Montell2099, I think, is one of the most talented artists to come out of New Zealand. The Balu Brigada boys also just keep leveling up, they’re really good. There’s this guy in Los Angeles called Devault who we’ve been working on a track with, his stuff is sick. He’s a DJ/Producer, his work is quite heavy, dark electronic stuff. He’s amazing. Derek is another huge talent that has come out of our little corner of the South Pacific.

Tell me about a few recent career highlights.

Will: We played the mainstage at Rhythm and Vines on New Year’s Eve, there were 30,000 people watching and we had a bunch of friends with us. My girlfriend is from America and she’d never seen us play before, she’d been like ‘So what is it you do?’ (laughs) We did Tomorrowland mid-way through last year which was amazing, that was a bucket list moment for us. We also did a show in the domain with Synthony in March this year. The sun was setting over the city and we had the backdrop of the museum behind us. It was a really beautiful thing, especially being from Auckland and growing up there as a kid.

Nick: We did a show up at Coronet Peak ski field recently for NZ Ski, it was a free gig and there was a really mixed-bag crowd. There were people there familiar to us but, because Queenstown is such a tourist destination, a lot of people there were new to us which made for a really interesting and fun show. Otago, Queenstown, Lakes District, it’s real turangawaewae for me. We’re both Auckland boys but I’ve been going down there since I was a wee lad and I’ll continue to, it’s just one of those places you’re drawn to. That was a really fun show,

Will: It was minus 2 degrees and everyone was skiing down to join in and have a boogie. 

Nick: We usually get off stage and we’re drenched in sweat but that show, I got off stage and I didn’t have a drop of sweat on my body, my body temperature was so high but it was so cold, there was just no perspiration whatsoever it was bizarre. 

Will: Tomorrowland would probably be the highlight, they have this series of famous after-movies that show all the greats of the DJ world playing. I grew up watching those so doing that ourselves, and seeing that festival in real life, I was just like HOLEY SH*T.  That was definitely a pinch-me moment, it’s on the other side of the world, I never even thought we’d go to it let alone get to play. 

Nick: The whole thing is a bit of a pinch-me moment really, but yeah, Tomorrowland was just bananas. Anytime we get taken that far away from home for music, it’s a real trip and a real privilege. We started all of this when we were 15…

Will: And it’s been a journey but really, we’re just getting started. The new music we’re working on, we’ve really honed in on what we were probably trying to do a few years ago but now our level of production has caught up. With this new stuff, we’re really executing our vision of what we think it should sound like and what we think it should look like. We’re super proud of it, we’re at the start of a new era and it’s feeling really good. 

Nick: We’re also really proud of the connective power of the band, the people it’s brought together. Having conversations after the shows and hearing stories. How people and their friends have a special memory or a bond linked to one of our songs. Someone might come up to me and say our music really helped them, the kind of feedback you don’t get exposed to being in the studio or being on the stage, that’s really special. I’m just like wow, we managed to have some part, some relevance and effect on this person’s life and it’s really great. 

This product available at all good liquor stores from Monday 2nd October.