They’ve just released an EP on ITunes, they’re in the studio recording a brand new album, they’re throwing parties for university students over O Week, they’re about to head to Australia for an Australian Tour and they’re chatting with Undercover FM late on a Tuesday night. For those of you who didn’t quite get the hints I am talking about SIX60, New Zealand’s’ own five piece rock band.
Bass Player Chris Mac took some time out of his super busy schedule to catch up with us and discuss what SIX60 have been up to as of late!
Undercover FM: Just over a week until you’re heading to Australia, how are you feeling?
Chris Mac: We’re getting really excited actually - it’s kind of crept up on us a little bit. It was something that we planned and then we’ve just been so busy and we got an email this afternoon saying “one week until we’re in Aus” and we all got excited about it.
Undercover FM: How do you handle air travel?
Chris Mac: It’s just one of those things now that we’re just so used to – It kind of seems like just another plane at the moment. I was actually just thinking today that it doesn’t even feel like an international flight going to Australia from New Zealand anymore, it’s so close and we feel like we’re over there so often that it’s like we’re just going up the road.
Undercover FM: So you have been to Australia before?
Chris Mac: Yeah, we have done a few tours through Australia and every time is better than the last. I love coming back. I am actually from Australia originally, so we love getting over there.
Undercover FM: What are you most excited about heading to Australia this time?
Chris Mac: Well I haven’t been back for a while and I have a lot of friends there, obviously from growing up there. So I get to catch up with friends and family and we have great fans there as well that I would love to catch up with. It’s the people really; I get excited about seeing people and hanging out.
Undercover FM: What can we expect to see from your shows?
Chris Mac: This is a brand new show, so if you have seen us before this is a new show. We are also going to put in a couple of new songs – brand new songs that people won’t have heard before, so that will be exciting. We have a few other little tricks up our sleeve, a couple of covers, a couple of instrument swaps, and some backing vocals coming into play – we’re fully stocked, it’s going to be a great night!
Undercover FM: How do you expect Australian audiences to react to Six60 this time that might have been different to the last time you were here?
Chris Mac: Well we haven’t been there for a while. I think it has been a year or so, so hopefully people are excited to see us again. We have proved as musicians, we have new songs, a whole new show and it’s an exciting time for us. We are just on the verge of recording a new album, so there’s a lot going on and it’s definitely worthwhile coming down.
Undercover FM: Will we get a sneak preview of some of the songs from the new album?
Chris Mac: Yes! We will definitely do three brand new tracks! One of those is off our EP – we just put out an ITunes EP, so one of those is on there and it’s called ‘Home’ and there’s two others that we will be doing that are brand new that no one will have heard before. We actually might even sneak a couple more in yet!
Undercover FM: What was the reaction towards the ITunes EP?
Chris Mac: Great! We have had great feedback; we did a cover of ‘Waterfall by TLC which is great and we will be playing that live as well. By far that has gotten the most heat; people really love that cover. So if you haven’t heard that – whether you like the original or not I think it’s a good idea to jump on ITunes and grab that!
Undercover FM: Were you expecting that kind of a reaction?
Chris Mac: Well we knew people would like the songs, we took a couple of older songs and we changed them up a bit and made them a bit more acoustic or just kind of changed them around in general, we also did two new songs. Actually one is a very old song that wasn’t on the album that we decided to redo and we knew people would like that but the reaction to ‘Waterfalls’ was pretty great! It was a little surprising that people love it so much. So I definitely recommend grabbing that one.
Undercover FM: Do you have a favourite song to perform live?
Chris Mac: At the moment it’s probably ‘Waterfalls’ because I get to play drums in that! I jump off my bass and play the drums! I also like playing some of the heavier stuff and getting a little rowdy and having a bit of fun!
Chris Mac: Sorry about the noise there are some people walking down the street
Undercover FM: You’re not in the office today?
Chris Mac: I’m just out the front of my hotel! It’s O-Week here, so it’s all fresh students, all first year students just getting wasted.
Undercover FM: Will you get to play a show for them?
Chris Mac: Yeah! Last night we actually put on a party at our old flat and that exploded there, there was police and the whole thing – it kind of got a bit out of hand. So that was awesome and we’re going to do a secret show later this week that we will announce a bit closer to the time and then we’re playing a show in a stadium down here which will be great.
Undercover FM: What do you want to say to our readers?
Chris Mac: I realise that a lot of people haven’t heard us yet because we’re still just fresh and a bit under the radar in Australia, we haven’t had any radio time but if you come to the live show you are actually going to love it! We pride ourselves on having one of the best live shows around and it’s really the perfect way to experience SIX60
Catch the boys Live in Australia:
Thursday February 27th
Perth – Metro City
Friday February 28th
Sydney – The Hi-Fi
Saturday March 1st
Melbourne –The Hi-Fi
Sunday March 2nd
Brisbane – The Hi-Fi
