Black Angus may be the voice on the other end of the line, but he’s no longer the person that people think of when they hear the name Sneaky Sound System.
That now falls to former Primary vocalist Connie Mitchell, whose fuzzy hair-do is instantly recognisable, and whose powerful pipes have carried such fabulous pop songs as the likes of Pictures to the top of radio playlists around Australia.
Even so, Connie was merely a ring-in for the Sydney group’s second release, with her contributions to the self-titled Sneaky Sound System album originally conceived as a guest spot, not a full-time role. Where the group’s debut was an electronic release, for their second effort the group approached their songs in a different manner, emphasising the pop and making the tracks more danceable after they’d been conceived of as songs pure and simple.
“The most important thing for us is that the songs stand up as songs,” Black Angus outlines, “before we give them our treatment. I played guitar far more than I played piano [for the second album], because I find it much easier to come up with ideas on the guitar. But that doesn’t mean that they start out as acoustic songs, because all the other parts are in my head.”
From there, the group work the songs out and give them ‘the Sneaky Sound System treatment’. “We never really know what they’re going to sound like until we sit down in a studio and then everything falls into place,” he says of the group’s songwriting and recording method.
For their third album, which is tentatively planned for a late 2007 release, Black Angus has already written about nine musical beds. But the big difference this time around is that Connie is very much part of that process. “She’s really great with lyrics and melodies,” he enthuses, “so for me I’m writing templates and then we get together and it comes together really easily. I think we’re going to have a lot more songs to choose from for the next album, and it’s probably even going to be a little bit more upbeat.”
What’s that? MORE upbeat?! Already, Sneaky Sound System was successful because of its sparkling pop nous, where the songs are nothing short of instantly memorable – songs such as the aforementioned Pictures, I Love It, and new single UFO have the sort of melodies that, once lodged into your cerebral cortex, simply refuse to leave.
“We haven’t got too many mellow moments,” he says of the new cuts that the group are working on. “Because we’re performing live it’s the things that really translate live that we like a lot more.”
The next trick for Sneaky Sound System is to take their music to the world – the band are currently in negotiations to take their second album to Europe, with both major labels and independent powerhouses interested in what the band have to offer. Straddling the boundaries of dance and pop – with Black Angus’ history is in dance as a DJ and producer, but Sneaky Sound System being a gloriously mainstream pop juggernaut – it’s the logical place to take their music, where their sunny vibes will perfectly suit the northern hemisphere’s mid-year weather.
“We see ourselves as a pop band more than anything else,” he confirms. “Everybody else seems to say that we’re dance – and fair enough, that’s our roots.”
Sneaky Sound System have just been announced in the second lineup at Slelndour in the Grass. Their self titled album is out now.
