SOVBLKPSSY & Rydeen’s Mutant Manifesto: ‘DONT TELL ANYONE’

“It’s not uncommon for the best parties in Sydney to feature completely different genres and styles, set to set. Against a cultural context that constantly seeks to flatten, box in, or rip apart culture completely, scenes are instead stitched together through tight social bonds and intentional structures of independence and possibility. It’s not for everyone. And that’s sometimes needed.”

The introduction to Gadigal Land/Sydney-based producers Rydeen and SOVBLKPSSY’s second collaborative work, ‘DONT TELL ANYONE’, penned by local writer Lindsay Riley, is a confident and comfortable critique of so much of modern dance culture.

Following its release, the artists spoke with Mixmag ANZ about their process.

Juanita: It comes from an interaction we had with our little bro, Fog boss man Isayerrr. He booked me for his NAIDOC rave last year, it was held in what used to be a gay sauna. We rocked up at the location and were gagged because of all the work that was involved in setting it up. Especially getting that big ass sound system down underground basically. Anyway, he was like “shhhh don’t tell anyone, don’t tell anyone” and we giggled about that and still do.

Juanita: I’ve definitely become more disciplined and have learned that setting goals and deadlines is the only way to finish things. And that releasing music is hard, especially when you're doing it with little to no resources. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

Ry: I feel there is intention and world building going into this record that wasn’t there before, we’ve also just become better musicians and producers. The main lessons from releasing our earlier music was the importance of owning and archiving things ourselves. It gave us clarity around distributing and communicating about our work.

Juanita: It happened pretty organically. I was in Sydney for some gigs and was also couch surfing at the time because I was trying to move here. Ry hit me up and asked me if I wanted to have a studio session with her. So we met up for dinner and chatted about some of our favourite producers, music we grew up listening to and all of that. We eventually went to the studio and wrote ‘ASBESTOS/JOBSEEKER’. I was quite nervous as well because I hadn’t ever done a session with anyone before that.

Ry: We met on Soundcloud dot com (^___^)!

Juanita: I think just being really specific on what we sample. I think it’s important to sample things that have meaning to you and your individual experience whatever that may look like.

Ry: US club culture is in the DNA of this record. A lot of the tracks are using that musical language, but sampling and referencing music from here, like Juanita said. The intention is not to make a “type beat” and definitely not to steal other people's culture and claim 2 be innovators, just 2 make something that’s true 2 us and where we are from. Also too many of the black artists who pioneered that music still go unrecognised, uncredited and unpaid. Go listen to K-Swift, Rod Lee, DJ Technics, RP Boo, DJ Clent and DJ Rashad.

Juanita: Not everything needs to be shared at the end of the day.

Ry: Lindsay’s words not ours! I think the girls who get it, get it.

Juanita: I feel like we are both very private people online, you won’t see much of our personal life being publicly posted, it's always kind of just work related. In saying that we both really dislike promoting our work on meta platforms and have been thinking about how we can continue to do this and not be feeding the Meta monster. I want to be able to get to a place where I am not participating with these evil data stealing, ai training, genocidal tech giants. So I think having some type of secrecy is important. Even though nothing is really safe online. I dont wanna give all of that away so freely. It’s scary to think about what’s to come.

Ry: Yeah releasing music in 2026 feels like feeding a giant AI data training set. There is a mass corporatisation of every aspect of our lives and that extends into music culture as well. We have investment firms who are actively profiting off genocide buying up platforms like Boiler Room and Spotify. Music venues and ticketing converted into for-profit monopolies. Even something as simple as sampling has become legally privatised to the point that it requires extreme wealth or major label backing to “clear” something for release. Obviously all of this is horrific, but it feels like a small part of a way deeper structural problem with capitalism as a whole. I think artists need to make a choice on what they are willing to be complicit in. And how our legacy and work can break apart that structure, or contribute to it.

Ry: Making music, DJing and radio are all part of the same sound world 2 me. There is definitely a through line of regional club music in that, across our DJ sets and radio shows. That term comes from US artists who make like, Baltimore or Jersey Club or Midwest techno. It describes a long running relationship of dance music to place, but it equally applies to something like grime from E3 London, Gqom from Durban or Budots from Davao City. I think the music we are making right now fits into that. By sampling older Sydney dance music and things we grew up listening 2. We are thinking about what that can sound like here, in this colony, right now but also our work as a continuation of what has come before, both on this continent and elsewhere. Also shout out 2 my radio mentors, Johnny Lieu, Simon Caldwell and Tia Newling who brought me into FBi and really educated me about that space. And shouts 2 community radio in general <3

Juanita: No, I don’t think there was a specific moment? Whenever we make music together (and separately) it’s kind of just vibe based in all honesty. Like we never enter a session being like “oh i wanna make this type of beat”. We set a goal to write 1 track a week together a few months before our soft centre performance in 2025. Once we finished writing those demos we noticed that they sounded like they were all from the same world.

Ry: We wrote 2 records worth of material in the sessions leading up to our soft centre performance last year. The tracks on DONT TELL ANYONE felt like they were part of the same universe, our take on hardcore, more ravey dance music. So I guess it came together as we were making it? The other tracks are still club music but feel more insular and meditative, we felt they belonged on a future-sister-twin release.

Juanita: amongst our peers locally and internationally.

Ry: Ditto ! Ecosystem thriving!