Sneaky Sound System

Text: Mark Davie

THE HOUSE OF WHACK

A home studio is one thing, but an Mbox, headphones and a Chinese no-name mic sandwiched somewhere between a half-made bed and copies of last year’s street press won’t really cut mustard when it comes to producing a professional debut. Likewise, Angus and Peter realised they needed quality gear to get a quality sound and went about building up their recording studio, the House of Whack, to suit.

Peter Dolso: I had a bit of equipment in the first place, and when we started to record the demos, we basically entered into it like a job, where we’d sit down and work on it each day. We figured out we were coming up with fresh and interesting things and we needed to record them properly. This meant we had to go and get a good microphone, a good compressor, a good interface, and some other front-end bits and bobs. We eventually found this house in Bondi and set up a ‘proper’ studio; had the room sound designed, and really put our heads down to make it into a fully functioning studio. I was working with Cubase and had a big Soundcraft desk, some keyboards and things like that, as well as new software we’d bought: Trilogy bass sounds and Stylus RMX grooves. From there we just started churning out these songs – that’s how the studio started.

Angus McDonald: It took us a long time to get the gear in order to produce the sounds we required. It’s still a very small studio, but at least it’s acoustically treated.

Mark Davie: What other outboard did you accumulate?

PD: Well, we bought a Universal Audio 2-1176 stereo compressor, a Focusrite ISA220 mic pre, a Rode K2 and some NT5 pencil mics all going through a MOTU 828 mkII. That was the basis, just to start getting the basic recordings down. From there we’ve moved on, but that was the initial stages.

THE DEBUT – BACK TO SCHOOL

It takes loads of dedication to score a nomination for both the Best Engineer and Best Producer categories at the ARIAs with a home-grown effort. But knuckling down in their Bondi studio for four years taught them most of what they needed to know.

AM: I had no technical experience as a producer. I’d been writing songs for ages, and I knew what I wanted, but Peter was the engineer. It took us as long as it would take to do a uni degree to make our record – we effectively went to record-making school. And we came out with our end product, that record. I think it was a good opportunity for both of us to hone our craft.

MD: Can you talk us through one of your hit singles, UFO, and explain what you started with and how you built it up from there?

PD: With most of the songs, including UFO, Angus would come up with a guitar riff and the basis for a vocal. All our songs can be played acoustically, that’s quite important, which means the song can be replicated or covered and played at home on acoustic guitar or a piano. Most of our songs stick to that format.

AM: It was very band-oriented at the start, letting the songs stand up, then we took a lot of the instruments out and ‘electrofied’ it – it’s what we decided to do and we liked the way it was sounding.

PD: I’d start by programming up some beats, and then we’d start laying down some bass and the basis of the riff. From there we’d try it with different types of keyboards, start a band feel with a driving bass line and distortion, change the drum pattern to fit, try different types of guitars, back things up with different keyboards – we were throwing the kitchen sink at things and seeing what happened. Then we’d start stripping things out, seeing what was and wasn’t working. But the basis of the song was always there, which was the riff and the vocal line.

AM: We used Moog-style bass lines and a Roland JX-8P keyboard. There were probably a dozen different keyboards we used, but they were the plug-ins, not the real ones.

PD: The album version of UFO was thrown together really quickly. However, when it came time to release the single, we spent a fair bit of time altering it. We’d been touring with a live drummer, and his technique on that song turned into something different to the programmed track. So we went back into the studio, using all the same backing tracks, keyboard, and bass lines – nothing else changed – and reworked it. When you’re adding something new to a track it’s amazing how little effort is required if you’ve done the job properly in the first instance.

MD: It sounds like playing live took the songs back in the original band-oriented direction.

PD: All the drums are programmed, but what we started getting on to later was layering live hats over the top. I was into disco-style hats, which can be quite complicated to program. So after we’d finished the album and the singles were coming out, our drummer at the time, Felix, did a live session, and we programmed drums over the top of him. We mainly used his hats and feel around the kit – not sound replaced, just added to his kit. We still prefer the programmed sound of things when it comes to drums, but sometimes you can’t beat the live feel of a drummer playing hats.

AM: It’s amazing what a set of live hats with a lot of natural room reverb will do to a track. It can go from sounding boxy and small to sounding huge!

MD: You accumulated a horde of plug-ins over the time it took to make the first album; did you find any that have since become indispensable?

PD: I like all the UAD plug-ins. I’ve got four of the cards; they’ve always been of great benefit. The UAD compressors have always been great favourites of mine, and the EQ as well – all the Pultecs have been fantastic in the vocal chain.

MD: Did you mix the album in the Bondi house?

PD: Yes, I did. I summed it through the Soundcraft desk, and ran a lot of the keyboards through the desk in real-time because I’d used a lot of MIDI. Mixing the album didn’t take long at all actually: I think it took about 10 days all up.

THE NEW ALBUM – SNEAK PEAK

Success has its benefits and one of them is a loosening of the purse strings to accommodate higher production values. For the upcoming second album, Sneaky Sound System has been spending some of their time at Studios 301 in Sydney. Angus and Peter provide a sneak peak into the album so far and how the times have changed from their debut.

AM: We’ve recorded nine tunes so far, so we only have a couple more to go. We started writing it in January last year, getting ideas together, and started doing demos around July. We’re going about it slightly differently this time; we’ve spent two and a half weeks in Studios 301 tracking everything.

PD: We’re sort of splitting it across three work sessions at the moment; we’re working at our keyboard player Donnie Sloan’s house in Darlinghurst, where a lot of tinkering with key lines and sounds occurs to get the basis of what MIDI elements to take into 301; at 301 we’ve put the beds down; and at the moment we’re just endeavouring to record vocals and buffing the tracks at my place.

AM: The Darlinghurst studio has ProTools and a whole raft of other plug-ins. Thankfully the good people at Apple have jumped on board and sponsored us over the last year, so we’ve got lots of goodies from them. Basically, the cornerstone of what we’re using is the vintage Yamaha CS80 keyboard, which we just manipulate to get every kind of sound we want. The Akai MPC is another critical part of the sound. I’ve also got a vintage ’71 Fender Telecaster, going through a ’69 Vox amp – both in mint condition. We use a Rat distortion pedal a tiny bit. That almost sounds like a machine, it doesn’t sound like a guitar. We’ve been focusing on getting the right sound from the Tele through the Vox and using a few mics – just really simple and classic seems to work. We don’t really want the guitars up-front; they’re really just there to add flavour.

We’re tending to go back toward more unusual styles of bass sounds. We’re trying to steer clear of sawtooth basses, which we used a lot of on the first record. We’ve created a few of our own sounds. I guess that’s the dance element, they’re a little bit gnarly. We’ve got a few little extra vintage pieces that we’ve discovered over the last year, which are totally changing the way everything sounds for us. We’re reluctant to tell people what they are, because it took us a long time to find them out from other people, people we look up to. Vintage tools, pieces you can buy for $100 on eBay, you’ve just got to know what you’re looking for. We luckily met the guys from Daft Punk when they were here and we were able to steal a few secrets from them, and it really changed things for us. I’d tell you, but Donnie would cut my throat. [Suffice it to say, cheap cast-offs and quirky gizmos are all worth experimenting with – Ed.]

MD: Are you still formulating ideas when you’re in the studio?

AM: We’re trying to limit ourselves a bit more to clean, really great sounds, and use those instead of experimenting with different sounds. The first time round we didn’t have a vocalist, so we kept on filling in that space in the song with bits and pieces to make them really interesting instrumentals. But in the end, we had to get rid of most of it to make space for the vocals. This time around we’re putting our beds down, and then putting our vocals in, and if it doesn’t need anything else, we’re leaving it as sparse as possible.

MD: How do you find writing for a female vocalist?

AM: Great. It’s embarrassing, because when I do my demos I have to sing at my absolute breaking point, so they couldn’t sound worse. All Connie’s favourite singers are male, and her style is influenced by the likes of Jim Kerr, Simon Le Bon, all those ’80s singers. That’s why she’s such a great fit – we got that perfect mix of: she sounds like an angel, but her melodic quality is that of a man.

MD: Angus, are you still producing this album?

AM: Yes, though this album’s fairly collaborative – both Donnie and Dolso are co-producing it with me. But also, we’ve been doing it at 301, and we’ve got two great engineers there as well (Michael Morgan – Engineer, and Christopher Doherty – Assistant Engineer) so it’s kind of a committee in a way. I’ve really enjoyed working there. It gives us more freedom to look after our respective areas. I’m the overall vision guy, Dolso’s very good technically, and Donnie’s very good musically – everyone’s got a unique flavour. Plus we’re all in a band, their input is critical to the idea of what Sneaky Sound System has become.

MD: How much of a departure is the sound from the debut?

AM: It’s still got hooks, and it’s still dancey with pop sensibilities, but it’s a little more indie. It’s got a lot more songs – there’s not much rapping on it. Everything’s going through the big Neve 88R console and there aren’t any software instruments, whereas the first album was plug-in city. Now we’re starting to dance it up a little bit more, so we might take out some of the organic instruments. We’ve got to see how everything fits next to each other and test things out, play them live, and refine it as we go along.

PD: Being in a studio, with the clock ticking, you do seem to get things done a lot quicker. That’s one of the biggest factors that makes this album different to the debut. When you’re committed to a time schedule, it often makes you come up with the goods. With the first album we had the ability to continuously change elements because we were at home. Being on the meter does make you work a lot harder!

DAFT PUNKS SHOW DANCE IS COOL

MD: What tips and tricks for mixing down a pop dance record have you’ve learnt over the years?

PD: One thing I’ve always said, start to finish is, a good sound is a good sound and an exciting sound is an exciting sound. As long as you get good quality sound, it’s the starting point of everything. A mix can go in so many different directions but it’s just got to be exciting to your ear. I’ve never had rules because the simplest song with the simplest arrangement and simplest of ingredients can sound as amazing as… well… as a Madonna song from the ’80s that might have millions and millions of bits to create the same type of excitement.

The other trick is to get your mix working really well in clubs and on radio. We didn’t want the first album to sound like a club-oriented dance music album, which meant it didn’t immediately translate so well in clubs. This time round, it’s a little simpler.

MD: Why is it simpler?

AM: We didn’t want Sneaky Sound System to launch as a dance act… we were a hybrid dance act, if you like. But, in reality, everybody considers us dance and our most popular songs – the ones we chose to release – are all dance. So, we’ve learnt to embrace the fact that we’re a dance act. Saying that, we’ve also maintained that it’s really cool to write songs from an organic level – it means the songs are stronger, because you can’t hide behind production tricks.

MD: What prompted the ‘we’re a dance act’ epiphany?

AM: I went and saw Daft Punk. There I was in Perth, watching 20,000 people go crazy and it was like, ‘Get over it!’ The songs were well crafted, and they had this beautiful clean production and everyone was going crazy. It just made me think: this stuff still sounds so relevant.

We can’t help but write pop songs, it’s in our blood. And, yes, there’s this vein of cool underground dance in there too, but in reality we’re going for glory – we love the glorious moment in a great pop song where it just takes off.