Fat Freddy drop fourth album and NZ dates

Wellington nine-piece Fat Freddy's Drop including, second from left, saxophonist Scott Towers.

Fat Freddy's Drop released their fourth studio album Bays last week.

The album coincides with their international tour which kicks off on November 5 in France.

The tour will see the band fly to Australia and Europe and will include dates in New Zealand.

'Bays' follows their last album Blackbird which came out two years ago.

Saxophonist Scott Towers said they were "pretty happy we managed to get the record out in record time".

Fat Freddy's Drop have attracted a lot of international attention over the past 16 years.

They have clocked up 200 more performances in Europe than New Zealand and the band is fast approaching its 1000th live show.

Towers said many of the tracks on the album were ideas from years ago.

He said they constantly recorded their 'jam sessions' and would come back years later to get ideas and work on them.

Towers said they had received a great response to their up-and-coming tour with a few shows already sold out.

"It's excellent ... finally here," Towers said.

For the last eight months the band has been dedicating their time to their Wellington studio and have held off live performances to complete the new album.

Towers said Bays had all the usual elements their fans would associate with Fat Freddy's Drop, such as reggae and electronica.

Most of the tracks were less "dramatic" in this album and incorporated more subtle elements, Towers said.

For their fourth album, Towers said, Fat Freddy's Drop had written many of the tracks in a different process than usual. On past records, the songs were brought together by first testing combinations out at performances.

With Bays, the nine tracks were founded in the Kilbirnie studio.

"We wrote in an organic linear way," Towers said.