Sneaky Sound System
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Sneaky Sound System

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“We started playing live a lot as a band around the time of our second record,” he tells me, “doing a lot of big festival and club shows, and we found that we would have to remix and rework a lot of the songs to make them actually work in a live band kind of context. It was very much influenced by our time playing those kinds of shows.”

The new songs are straightforward and unfussy, focusing on just the essential elements – a catchy bass line here, a driving rhythm there – which is just the way McDonald wanted it. “When you’re making dance records like ours, things can get overloaded,” he says. “You just end up putting way too many elements in there. When it came to this album, with every track, we really thought about what the key elements were,” he explains, “which ones were really necessary. We took the others away and just let the important ones sing.” The idea from the outset was to make things more simple, and from opener Friends, with its catchy disco hook and soaring chorus, it’s clear that this approach was effective. 

Sneaky Sound System are operating as a duo since the departure last year of founding member Daimon Downey, and this has also helped in the streamlining of their sound. “We just seem to work so much faster and with a lot more intensity now,” he says of the current, slimmed-down lineup. “It’s really clear who does what – I’m the music guy and Connie’s the star, you know?” When it comes to working in the studio and writing songs, he continues, being a duo makes things a lot easier and more cohesive. “In the past, the lines were getting a bit blurred as to who was doing what. It took a bit of adjusting when Daimon left, but ultimately, things worked out for the better for us. Being a duo works really well in the live setting, too.”

The live stage is were McDonald’s head is at right now. Sneaky Sound System are all set to take From Here To Anywhere out on the road for its debut headlining tour – the new show had its debut recently at Mardi Gras, and he couldn’t have been happier with how it went. “Doing Mardi Gras this year was incredible,” he says. “We got to play a show that was an absolute extravaganza, with huge lighting rigs and dancers in all kinds of crazy costumes, so that was pretty cool. After we did that, we got to go and play about an hour and a half in the Hordern Pavilion, which was one of the best shows we’ve ever done. It was great to be able to do those two shows as part of the one event.” The tour may not be quite as explosive as Mardi Gras, but McDonald promises a dynamic, exciting show. “We’ve got a couple of dancers, the production is beefed up a bit, so it’s really quite a dynamic show now.”

Sneaky Sound System’s live show has taken them right around the world, from Miami, where they are currently attending the annual music conference, all the way to Moscow. I ask McDonald what some of the highlights, or perhaps the craziest experiences, have been. “We’ve played Russia six times now, and we never thought we’d be going back there,” he says. “That was a very strange place, it was crazy. The people and the culture are radically different to anything we know. It’s a vast, isolated country, and they’ve been through so many hardships, but they love to party. Then you see these phenomenally beautiful women everywhere with these sketchy looking dudes.”

The promoters for one of the band’s recent Russian shows, McDonald explains, were a little intense. “They ask you to play the same song at the start of your set, in the middle and at the end – they really want to control the program and what you play.” I’m mildly taken aback by this, and ask McDonald what song the band had to play, and if they were forced to do so at gunpoint. “There was this one song we did with Tiësto, which was a big hit over there, called I Will Be Here,” he says with a laugh. “That’s the one we had to play three times. Before we started the show, this big Russian dude came up to us and said, ‘Swedish House Mafia very popular at the moment – we want you play more like that!’ It was just bizarre.”

It’s doubtful Sneaky Sound System will need to double up on songs on their next Australian tour. “I’m really excited for people to see the new live show,” he says. “We’re always working on it, so it’s the best it can be, but right now, we’ve got three albums to draw upon now, so we really can put in the best of the bunch.”

BY ALASDAIR DUNCAN