Six60 and Coterie perform on stage together. Photo / Supplied
Six60′s Matiu Walters believes “everything happens for a reason”.
But when it came to finding the right artists to sign to their new label Massive Records, he didn’t think it would “come in the form of being annoyed on social media”, he jokes.
That’s what New Zealand-born band of brothers Coterie did to get their attention - telling their fans to tag Six60 in their online content until they had no choice but to take notice.
“The boys saw it, they gave us a call, reached out and gave us the opportunity to come and hang with them for a couple of hours,” says lead singer Tyler Fisher. Born in New Zealand and raised in Perth, he and his three brothers formed the group in 2016.
Those “couple of hours” turned into a full day - and before they knew it, they were being offered a deal with Six60′s new label, Massive Records.
Pestering their idols online was exactly what the members of Six60 themselves would have done, Walters recalls.
“That’s kind of what we did do. That’s one of the things that really attracted us to Coterie, actually. We see a lot of ourselves in them and we love that.”
It’s something of a full circle moment for Six60, Walters says, recalling the group’s early days “trying to share our music with the world”.
“And it’s always been part of our goals, to help create a pathway for the next generation of artists, so it really just took the right artists to come around.”
Those artists include singer/songwriters Hina and Spencer Coyle and Coterie, who couldn’t be more excited.
“Obviously we’ve been big fans of Six60 for a long time,” Fisher tells the Herald.
“They’re the biggest, they’re the best. And it’s been a beautiful experience for us. Record labels get a bit of a rap, but when the label is owned and run by other artists, you know that their intentions are really good. They’ve been real hands-on with us, and we wrote this whole album that we’ve just released together, and yeah it’s been really cool.”
Now, Walters says the two bands are “closer to whānau” rather than just having an artist-label relationship.
“That makes this whole experience so much cooler and so much more rewarding.”
“It’s pretty surreal,” Fisher adds.
“I don’t want to sound like a cliche, but it’s a little bit of a fairy tale story. Cowboys from the coast writing songs in our garage, spending too much time at the beach and then all of a sudden we’re working with one of the biggest bands in the world ... writing songs together and getting to share a stadium stage with them.
“Our band’s pretty young and we’re kind of new to this, but we’ve been given the blueprint by one of our favourite bands.”
And Walters couldn’t be prouder. “We’re all gaining from this, we’re learning from them and we’re all prospering together.”
The two bands have just finished a run of five stadium shows, with one more set for Dunedin in March.
“It’s been really incredible, it’s amazing to watch Coterie do their thing on stage. They adapt and each time you see them, they get better, and that makes us really excited,” Walters says.
Now Coterie are touring Australia’s east coast amid the release of their first album - and they can’t wait to come back to play festivals in New Zealand over the summer.
“We just did two sold-out shows in Sydney, and it’s strange to hear people singing songs we wrote up in a little beach house in Mangawhai with the boys,” Fisher says.
“We just want to sell a good time, good vibes, you know. Spread a bit of positive energy into the world. And yeah, make people happy.”