You've heard them before. You almost certainly have.
When Sneaky Sound System tore their way through the Sydney dance scene and infused themselves into the very sound of Australian talent, bursting with life onto the airwaves with songs like UFO and Pictures, no one could expect the impact Connie Mitchell and Angus McDonald would leave on those who grew up with their work. Not only did they do it with style, but they did it almost entirely independently.
“Early on, we were doing something no one had done before. It was cool, but it was a problem because when we recorded our first record, we had interest from labels, but the offers were kind of pathetic,” says Angus.
Waterfront Festival 2025
- Friday, 7 February and Saturday, 8 February
- Frankston Waterfront
- Entry is free
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“At the time, dance music was considered the poor cousin to the more mainstream types of rock and indie. No one saw it as a viable position commercially. In the end, they were offering us the same as we would get doing shows on the weekend.”
Angus, Connie and several others including Damien Hesse and Daimon Downey formed Sneaky Sound System out of their Sneaky Sundays set in the early 2000s, pushed to create something unique from the burgeoning rave/dance scene that was taking shape at the time. Performing at a local club, they were encouraged to play around with their sound.
“It was mostly commercial stuff on the Fridays and Saturdays. We did the Sundays which took you away from the ‘regular people’. That was where the real music-hungry people were,” Angus says.
“Fast forward to now, and you look at Dom Dolla, or what FISCHER is doing; it has catapulted. Everyone is into dance music and it is the norm. It isn’t really possible now to do something underground in dance music.”
Set to perform at Frankston’s free Waterfront Festival on Friday, February 7 alongside acts including the Pierce Brothers, Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir and Amaru Tribe, Sneaky Sound System is certainly a long way from their humble beginnings.
Being announced as the headliners for the massive event, which features fireworks, beer gardens and food trucks, shows not only how far Sneaky Sound System has come, but how ubiquitous dance-pop music has become in Australia.
Angus has been thinking hard about the nature of these scenes and how it has evolved for local artists. “Back then, you had to build up from a grassroots level. Now, Australian music has become so hot. It’s a constant climb from 20 years ago to now, where some of the biggest acts in the world are Australian,” he tells me.
“It was very difficult to be accepted as an Australian artist in dance music back then. It was seen as an American or UK-based thing with a little bit of European action thrown in there.
“Now, people are like, ‘What is going on down there’? Now, there is a pathway to be an Australian artist. It’s great, but sometimes it hurts the local scenes. Australian artists used to be the hook for local festivals, now they are so big that they can do their own shows. For better or worse, for our local scenes, people are really interested internationally in Australian music.”
Sneaky Sound System are very much creators of that pathway. With Angus’ ingenuity and Connie’s incredible vocals, their music has brought attention to those scenes that may not have otherwise thrived if it weren’t for their own successes,
“We had four songs in the top forty at one stage. It was mental. It was almost embarrassing finding our songs playing that much on the radio at some stages.” Talking to Angus about their trajectory as artists, Sneaky Sound System’s rise almost seemed like a perfect run.
“Producing our music on our own has given us a lot of freedom. Playing for over 10 years can sometimes be draining, but you can also be absolutely absorbed by it. At times you are almost looking over your shoulder trying to figure out when your time is up.
“It was amazing having that meteoric rise which gave us that buzz that we, thankfully, are still able to run on, especially when you see people at the festivals that might not have even been born when your first songs came out. In that sense, we are keeping that dream alive.”
Waterfront Festival is taking place on February 7 and 8 at the Frankston Waterfront. Find out more information and RSVP here.