NZ Alt-Rockers Six60 Sign With Niche Agency

Five-piece New Zealand act Six60 have been announced as the newest artists to join the growing booking roster of growing Aussie company the Niche Agency, just ahead of the February release of their self-titled sophomore album.

Six60 — six-year veterans of the Kiwi scene — join an existing cabal of Aussie and NZ acts under Niche's purview including Ainslie Wills, Banoffee, Diafrix, Fat Freddy's Drop, Hiatus Kaiyote, Oscar Key Sung, Remi and many others. Their signing comes at a newly ascendant time for the band, in the wake of an extended period of songwriting for LP #2 that saw the band whittle down more than 100 songs to the final 12-strong track list amid dominating their homeland on the festival circuit and playing sold-out shows all across Europe.

The band recently released their first taste from the forthcoming Six60 album — the second to boast that title — in the form of Special, which shot straight to #1 on the New Zealand charts while garnering strong support on commercial radio. The track is up for Australian pre-order at the moment, but you can give yourself a try-before-you-buy listen via the embedded stream below.

The album has a pretty serious pedigree behind it — written and produced by Matiu Walters, Marlon Gerbes and Printz Board, Six60 was recorded at the band's M Studios as well as Roundhead Studios in Auckland, with engineering duties being handled by the esteemed Neil Baldock (Crowded House, Common, Shihad), mixing from the Grammy-winning Tony Maserati (James Brown, Lady Gaga, Beyonce) over in Los Angeles, and mastering from New York's Dave Kutch (Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj).

Six60 will be released on 27 February via Massive Entertainment/Universal Music NZ, a little more than three years after the band's rapturously received debut effort. There's no present news as to their touring plans for 2015 but, if their movements this year were any indication, we should be seeing more of the Dunedin-based band in the very near future.