Sneaky Sound System

Arguably the most exciting band in Australia right now is Sneaky Sound System. Their single ‘I Love It’ had the longest chart run in Oz history, their debut album has gone twice platinum and at one point they had four singles in the Top 40!

They played the Antipodean Live Earth concert, supported Robbie Williams, and cleaned up at the Arias, the down-under version of the Brits. Yet Sneaky are not a hard-touring rock band or a manufactured pop act. They’re certainly pop and proud of it, but their background lies in their country’s exploding dance scene.

Their story began back in 2000 when Daimon met Angus at a fancy dress party and stole the flute from his mariachi costume. They became friends and decided to start a club on the quietest night of the week. Angus spun tunes and Daimon hyped on the mic. It wasn’t some trendy minimal techno joint, but unpretentious hands in the air fun, “no shoe-gazing, no wallflowers,” as Angus describes it. Still going strong seven years later, it packs in around 1000 people each Sunday, and guests have included Tiga, LCD’s James Murphy, Mylo and Hot Chip.

For five years since leaving school Connie Mitchell had been in reasonably successful industrial rock band Primary but after they split, she was at a loose end. One day, as she sat in a park playing guitar to a friend, Angus and Daimon happened by and asked her to sing for them.  “I thought they were a bit dodgy,” recollects Connie, “You know, two guys coming up to you, excited, jumping around a bit, saying ‘Come to our studio’.”

They did, however, have a recording set up - Whack Studios - and when Connie sang through what was to be their breakthrough single, the contagious dance-pop of ‘I Love It’, Sneaky Sound System had their vocalist. Within days, they’d laid down vocals to their eponymous debut album which, as Angus says, “has one foot in the clubs and one foot in the pop world.” The industry, however, was not convinced.  “We were told by every label we might sell 10,000 copies and it wasn’t worth it,” says Angus, “so we decided to do it ourselves.”

Now Sneaky have finished their second album, working with Spike Stent of Madonna and Gwen Stefani fame. For world release, it will be compiled with the best of their debut and released in September 2008. Like the Scissor Sisters, they’re a pop band whose heart lies in the swirling giddy party attitude of club culture. And like all the best pop bands, they’re a team of distinct personalities and roles. Black Angus, named after a corrupt copper from Oz TV series ‘Blue Murder’, is the musical dynamo, MC Double D is the flamboyant showman with a mic - “Better to be looked over than overlooked,” he says - and Connie, the quirky front woman whose hobbies include fast cars and robot-building, is quite the opposite of a diva. In a time of predictable R&B dross and Luddite indie bands, it’s refreshing to be presented with an ebullient outfit overflowing with such hooky choruses and colourful character.
 

If you would like more information, or to book Sneaky Sound System, please contact us.