Sneak: More Than A Feel Thing.

Sneak play M-One at ANZ Stadium on Saturday. Feel Like I Do is in stores now.

It’s rare enough that a band gets a shot at putting a release together for a major label. A couple of years back, Melbourne quintet Sneak let loose their cracking Everything Is Green EP, but fate, and timing got the better of them. Within months of the disc’s release, their label cut loose almost every Australian act on the books, condemning many a band to the pages of history.

Sneak, however, have hit an even rarer point in their musical genesis. They’ve been given a second chance with another company.

“We got cleaned out Christmas time in 2000, put together an independent EP, and then got picked up by Zomba. When you’re out there with Neil Diamond’s Christmas Hits there’s not a lot of room,” jokes frontman Andy Grant. “There’s no regrets or ill feelings, they had like 60 artists on the roster, and the pulled it back to 15, so it was a pretty massive cull. Everything is green got a wonderful reaction, and we did some shows. You live and learn.”

Was it a tough time for the band?

“It was a tough time for the band, but I think it’s directly related to the EP we did at the end of 2000. It was like the EP we had to have, and angry little thing. We were a little confused as to where we wanted to go. We we’re recording before we’d done any shows at all, but I think after we found we really could do things on our own.”

Understandably, the time the band has since spent gigging has honed their skills, and brought them closer together as musicians.

“We’ve found out niche,” he enthuses. “We were literally living out of each others pockets, and it’s true test of being happy and content with the people you’re with in the musical spectrum. That’s all I needed, anyway, to see this through on a musical level.”

The Feel Like I Do single is a precursor to the band’s upcoming long player Still Live Moving. While the three tracks on Feel Like I Do range from indie pop with a chorus you can see a mile away to more glam or even stoner leanings, as far as Andy is concerned the mark of a good song is being able to strum it out on an acoustic.

“We do all our writing on acoustic guitars. I hear a lot of people say it, and I tend to agree. If you can strip it back to it’s bare bones and still move people you’re on a winner. The rest is just icing on top.”