They were one of Australia’s favourite party-starters and were destined to become a staple of the local pop charts and perhaps even gain international attention. But after two smash albums Sneaky Sound System seemingly disappeared.
But just ask Connie Mitchell, vocalist and frontwoman for the now-duo, and she’ll tell you that Sneaky Sound System is not only a very active project, but one could argue that she and partner “Black Angus” McDonald are doing better than ever.
Sneaky Sound System was founded in Sydney in late 2001. There was no Australian EDM scene as such, at least not what we think of as the Aussie EDM scene today. Flume and Chet Faker had yet to debut, but the party scene was going strong.
McDonald and mates Daimon Downey, aka MC Double D, and DJ Damien Hesse founded Sneaky Sundays, a regular party series held in Bondi. “We wanted to start a Sunday night, our own night in Sydney, because we didn’t feel we fit into anything else that was going on,” Hesse told Fairfax.
“We played for over a year to over 100 people in a basement in Bondi so it was very much an underground thing.” A remix album under the name Sneaky Sound System followed and McDonald eventually had the idea of creating an album of original music.
The labels were not enthusiastic. “We were told by every label we might sell 10,000 copies and it wasn’t worth it… so we decided to do it ourselves,” McDonald told ABC. Whack Records was established in 2004 to put out Sneaky Sound System’s releases.
After unveiling their debut single, ‘Hip Hip Hooray’, and experiencing a lineup change, McDonald and Downey recruited vocalist Connie Mitchell after spotting her singing to her friend in the park. “I thought they were a bit dodgy,” Mitchell later said of their first meeting.
“You know, two guys coming up to you, excited, jumping around a bit, saying ‘Come to our studio,'” Mitchell told ABC. It was with Mitchell on vocals that the trio scored their biggest hits, including their breakthrough single ‘I Love It’.
The lead track on what ultimately became their debut album of original music peaked at Number 24 and spent 73 weeks in the Top 100, beating a record previously set by The Living End for the longest charting single by an Australian artist on the ARIA singles chart.
More hit singles and a collaboration with superstar mega-DJ Tiesto followed, as well as the band’s 2008 sophomore album, which entered the chart at Number 1. A year later, Downey announced his departure from the group, citing their increasingly hectic travel schedule as motivating his decision.
With Downey’s departure, it seemed as though Sneaky Sound System had left the party early. Singles like ‘UFO’ and ‘Pictures’ still popped up on radio occasionally, but the band wasn’t the pop force it had promised to be.
But that’s because McDonald and Mitchell have been too busy living the good life in Mykonos, where the duo enjoy a fantastically successful summer residency that sees them regularly playing to houses so full they turn people away at the gate.
“We spent the last two months in Mykonos playing to a few thousand people every Sunday night on the beach at this incredible venue called Scorpios,” Mitchell recently told Fairfax. “Last week we turned away 2000 people, it was crazy!”
“I’m back home now getting ready for the arrival of my baby boy in a few weeks. We have a few shows planned between now and the end of the year, our annual New Year’s Day party at Icebergs, and then maybe a couple of weeks up in Byron Bay where we go every year.”
McDonald and Mitchell, now married, are still very much committed to Sneaky Sound System and even recently dropped a new single, ‘I Ain’t Over You’. “It’s a song with a big vocal about being strong, even though you don’t really want to be,” said McDonald of the song.
Between international residencies and corporate gigs, McDonald and Mitchell command a busy schedule, but it certainly pays off. “I love the fact that I’m responsible for my own income and if I want to buy something nice, I can… Also, I gotta get that Aston Martin!” Mitchell told Fairfax.
As for a new album: “Potentially we have enough material to do so. It depends on what’s going to happen. We might just put out lots and lots of singles. There is a big question mark hanging above that because we don’t live in the same time frames as we used to with making albums.”
“[It is] so daunting to put out an album these days, unless you’re someone like Adele or Justin Bieber.” Sneaky Sound System may not be Adele or Justin Bieber, but as far as the Australian music scene goes, they’re a success story.
