Sweet Mix Kids Sandon James and Chris Scott have hustled their way from Aotearoa to the rest of the world, performing for some of the biggest musical events including Coachella, Rhythm and Vines and the Melbourne Cup.
James from Te Arawa and Scott from Ōtautahi perform about 500 shows a year between the two of them.
"We can play a reggae festival one day and then a big doof doof dance party in the middle of the bush. The next we can write a love ballad one day and release that and then the next, a hip-hop song. So it's fun," James told Te Ao with Moana reporter Jessica Tyson.
They’ve played supporting acts or at private parties for some of the world’s top artists including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Adele.
James says Adele loves rap music, pop music and loves to have a kanikani.
“We played her end-of-world tour party, which was quite cool. She has a very tight-knit small group, so the majority of the time DJing for her was just us and her, just her standing in front of us dancing, which was awkward for us, but she was having a great time. She was having a ball. It was really lovely.”
They say Ed Sheeran is "famously delightful" and like Adele, he loves rap music.
"Ed loves his Eminem. He grew up listening to Eminem and 50 Cent... One of the funniest things that we did was he was having a great time and he actually ended up singing and doing some karaoke and stuff while we were DJing. And he was playing our drums and stuff like that and just hanging out. It was amazing," Scott says.
Sweet Mix Kids. Source: Facebook
A unique sense of fashion
Apart from their music, what makes Sweet Mix Kids stand out is their unique sense of fashion, sometimes wearing women’s clothing in photo shoots and when they perform.
“If you're up on stage and it's all black and there's lots of stuff going on, there are crazy colours and lights, you need to stand out. So we've always worn bright, crazy stuff to stand out,” Scott says.
One of their favourite designers is Trelise Cooper.
“She dresses us for a lot of her fashion shows and we keep her Trelise Cooper clothing and we don't give them back. So we steal Trelise Cooper's clothing and we wear them for our shows and interviews and parties. She knows, she loves it. She's a great fan of ours and we're a great fan of hers,” Scott says.
They’re not ashamed of wearing women’s clothes either.
“We just get large women's stuff and we wear a lot of it because that's the most flamboyant, brightest clothing and it works,” James says.
Scott says, “That's a little trick to find cool stuff is to look outside the men's section. Cause clothes are just clothes.”
Sweet Mix Kids performing at Lincoln University. Source: Facebook
New album and passion for te reo Māori
Sweet Mix Kids recently released their album Stargazing, which features a dozen other artists including Māori musician Rei. After it was released Stargazing enjoyed over four weeks on the NZ Top 20 Albums chart.
James, Scott and Rei previously performed overseas together. For the new album, they created the waiata Stargazing, Arorangi te tiro. It's the first te reo Māori waiata video ever filmed on Stewart Island and released during Matariki.
“Rei's a well-established, talented te reo artist, so it's cool riding with him. We have good fun touring with him, travelling with him, playing shows with him, and he looks after us with all of his Māori knowledge, especially with the language and the production of waiata,” Scott says.
Rei says he was stoked to be a part of the album.
“I love that about them as well and they're not afraid to be different. That's my kaupapa with my music and my visuals as well, where it's like don’t be afraid to be bold. Don't be boring.”
Embracing te reo Māori has always been important to Scott and James. James is of Te Arawa descent and was born and raised in Nelson. While James wasn’t raised speaking te reo Māori he enjoys creating music in te reo and loves seeing how Aotearoa embraces the language more.
“It's been wonderful, especially over the past couple of years. It's just been phenomenal and you hold your head up so much higher, so much prouder to be Māori. It's been amazing making Māori music with Chris and watching him embrace it as well and watching him get on the mic at gigs and say just a little bit of te reo.”
Sweet Mix Kids at Forsyth Barr Stadium with Rei and friends. Photo: Wolfpack Creative
Labels are ‘a waste of time’
Sweet Mix Kids can credit their hard work for their success. They've been hustlers since way back, self-managed for almost seven years.
“We are our own manager, our own label and in most cases our own booking agent as well. So we are not waiting for gigs to come to us. We have to go out and get gigs,” James says.
They were signed with one of the world’s major labels for about four years but say “it was a waste of time”.
“We were putting out amazing music, amazing content, world-class videos and they didn't do anything with it because they prioritize their biggest artists, the world's biggest artists first. So they're the first people that they pushed to radio, to the media,” James says.
Chris says labels have limited resources "and they need to concentrate those resources in a way that's going to be profitable for the business. So if you're not working for yourself first, you'll get left behind.”
Their recommendation for artists starting out is to learn how to manage themselves first before joining a label.
“You can go online, you can release your own music, you can make your own music in your own studio which can be a laptop and some headphones. You can ask some mates to perform with you. You can release your own music independently so easily now. So the need to rely on major labels isn't really there as much anymore. It's not as necessary,” James says.
Sweet Mix Kids perform at TSB Arena, Wellington for Netsky. Source: File
Stargazing wine
Scott and James have a different perspective on releasing new music, including their latest album Stargazing.
Instead of streaming the album on Spotify, they’ve made it available through wine. People can buy the album in a wine bundle with a bottle of either pinot noir or pet ned sauvignon blanc. There’s a QR code on the bottle that people can scan, which leads them to a website to download the album.
“When we wrote the album, we wanted people to sit down and listen to the whole thing. What better way to do it than with a bottle of wine or two, if you're over 18 of course,” Scott says.
The album can also be downloaded online.