Seth Sentry

I caught up with Melbourne based Aussie hip hop artist Seth Sentry the day before his sophomore album, Strange New Past, was due to drop. The first two singles ‘Run’ and ‘Hellboy’ have been generating lots of excitement amongst fans who have been heavily anticipating its release, I asked him how he planned on spending the day.
“I’m going to be laying low. I’ve built an underground bomb shelter and I’m just going to sit in that so I can’t hear anyone or read any reviews or anything like that. Nah, it’s all good man, I’m just really excited to get it out, you know?” Seth answers.
“The feedback’s been really good so far actually, the first two songs have gone well. The first song we just did on iTunes, we didn’t do a big launch or anything. That was kind of fun getting feedback from that – it’s all been really good!”
Seth’s first album was an incredible success, released in 2012, This Was Tomorrow, debuted at number six on the charts and even led him to become Channel V’s Oz Artist of The Year. Seth and producer Styalz Fuego have spent the best part of the last two years penning and producing this second recording; with fans rejoicing all around the country when it was finally let out into the world on June 5.
“We probably spent about 18 months on the recording process, then probably another six months on top of that for writing – so 24 months all up,” he says.
“I didn’t over think the concept of the album or the topic choices for each individual song, I just went with whatever my first instinct was.”
Seth has booked in a whopping 48 date tour which all kicks off this week following his performance at the hip hop heavy Come Together festival at Luna Park in Sydney on the weekend. Seth got the chance to perform some of the new material on a line up that also included Thundamentals, Horrorshow, Remi and Ivan Ooze.
“Festival line ups like that – when there’s just heaps of rappers and that – it’s just like a whole bunch of friends hanging out, it’s just going to be awesome. I really can’t wait!” he smiles.
The Victorian native is very impressed by our current live music scene and is looking forward to getting back out and amongst the crowds, not just in the major cities but also the smaller regional gigs. Having grown up in Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Seth understands the importance of looking after his fans in all corners of the country.
“Victoria have it pretty good though I reckon, Melbourne is very lucky when it comes to it’s music scene and the hip hop scene in general,” he says.
“I know what it’s like to have one of your favourite artists to come to your town, so in that sense I wanted to reach out to as many of my fans as possible. We’re going to New Zealand this time too, which I am pretty excited about – it should be really good.”
The Strange New Past Tour will take Seth to mid-September, crazy to think about considering we just hit June. He admits that such an extensive touring schedule takes its toll on life’s luxuries, including much required down time and sleep for that matter.
“Once you get about a quarter of the way in you get to that stage where you can do it, without even really thinking about it,” he says.
“We kinda have to switch it up, we get bored, we’ve got short attention spans so we like to try and switch it up; almost every night where possible. You’re constantly fine tuning everything, especially when on the road. Plus every show I kind of have a little section where I freestyle and kind of improvise a song just to keep it fresh as well.”
Joining him this tour is Dylan Joel and Ivan Ooze, Seth is a huge fan of both and isn’t ruling out the possibility of an on-stage collaboration, “Sometimes we like to get everyone up on stage and have a bit of fun! It’s just going to be such a fun tour.”
So what are his plans post-tour?
“After the tour, I’m going to sleep for a little while and then we’ll be coming into festival season, so we’ll go do a couple of festivals I think. I’ve got Sizzle here, my DJ, ‘What are you gonna do Sizzle?’ Sizzle says, ‘Ecstasy and d-floor’. So I’ll do weed and video games, then we’ve got all bases covered!”
When & Where: The Theatre Royal, Castlemaine – July 15, Black Swan Hotel, Bendigo – July 16, Barwon Club, Geelong – July 17, Karova Lounge, Ballarat – July 21 & Whalers Hotel, Warrnambool – August 2.
Written by Abbey King