2012 was a massive year for Seth Sentry… three high-rotation singles, an album debuting at #6 on the ARIA charts, triple j’s feature album of the week and Channel [V]’s Oz Artist Of The Year award… but seeing as though he got to kick off 2013 by driving a DeLorean and currently on his North American Tour, this is already the year to beat.
aahh: How have the last few months been in comparison to this same time last year?
Seth Sentry: Oh last year I was doing fuck all, struggling to write the album, smoking pot and playing a lot of video games, which is a good thing. This year I’m getting fit for the tour and doing shows in America. It’s a pretty drastic change, but I’m getting use to this transition.
aahh: The album has been doing really well, has it come close too or exceeded your expectations?
Seth Sentry: Oh far exceeded, I set my standards real low. To be honest I did the album for myself, I wrote the songs I wanted to hear. I didn’t really think of anyone else, well anyone outside of my fam.
aahh: Dear Science has been a huge hit. Do you find that half the challenge as an artist is to somehow balance the fine line between knowing what your fans like and expect, and how you can still be creative and productive as an artist?
Seth Sentry: Not really, when I did the EP I over thought it, a lot. I didn’t expect a lot of people to be in to it, and with the release and popularity of the Waitress Song, it really did my head in for a bit. My fans have really got to know me by now, they know what to expect, and are used to my style. I don’t have to be pretended, and if they don’t like it, it really doesn’t bother me. I did rap for years without success. People think I just got really lucky, from my point of view it’s been 10-15 years of really hard work.
aahh: The Dear Science film clip, is a great laugh. It looks like you got a few mates to help you out on this one?
Seth Sentry: Yeah it was awesome man. Grey Ghost directed this one and he is a super talented dude, he raps, sings, draws. He’s annoying. It pisses me off those sort of people. He directed my first clip My Scene, which turned out great, he had a real vision for this one. With the Waitress Song film clip I really hated the outcome, I took a backseat for that one and this time around I thought I’d take a front seat approach. I was able to fight for a few more things that I wanted. At the end of the day, it’s hard to trust someone with your work, but I fully trust the guys and what they wanted to do. And I got to drive a DeLorean without a license.
aahh: Your upcoming National tour is titled the Dear Science tour. A lot of artists talk about tours being the highlight of the whole album release process, would you agree?
Seth Sentry: Yeah definitely man, I do like the studio though. I don’t find it as much of a pain in the ass as some others. The writing part of the album is usually pretty bad. I live in my room for days and days, smoke a lot of cigarettes it’s pretty dark. Really, what’s better than being able to meet the people who know all the words to your tracks, it’s such a great part of the process.
aahh: Do you have a favourite track on tour you always look forward to performing?
Seth Sentry: I like doing Vacation, it’s the one we start with, Dear Science with that Trials beat. To be honest the heavier stuff is my favorite shit. I’m a rapper and I’m competitive, it’s a sport to me. Softer stuff is cool and challenging but when it comes to live, I want to perform the music I enjoy listening too as a fan.
aahh: Trials is a beast right?
Seth Sentry: Yeah, I’ve always wanted to work with Trials, just never happened. This time around I hit him up early and he sent this beat back and it had a sample from the game fallout 3, it was exactly my style. So I went up to Adelaide and we hung out for a few days, played games and shit. I’m definitely looking at working with him in the future work, he also helped me out on my recent Like A Version.
aahh: How did you find your triple j Like A Version appearance?
Seth Sentry: Awesome, it was really dope. We didn’t get much notice, I think it 2 weeks. Originally I was going to perform Bulls on Parade. But then I picked Punch In The Face, by Frenzel Rhomb, I use to listen punk back in the day.I think it came out cool, it was all done in one, never really fucked around with that. It was a bit of a challenge and my initial instincts were to say no, lets not do it. If I fuck it up it’d be so bad, it was a bit of a learning experience.
aahh:We also heard Lindsay McDougall perform a version of The Waitress Song?
Seth Sentry: Yeah that was pretty cool, I really liked his version.
aahh: You’ve just been announced to perform at South By South West Festival in Texas and also appearing at Canadian Music Week in Toronto, what was it like finding out that news?
Seth Sentry: It’s huge, never been overseas before and now I get to do it with raps. I’m heading to New York and LA, performing 5 shows and I’m over there for about 3 weeks. I’m going to catch some live hip hop, Hieroglyphics and Dead Prez. Should be really good.
aahh: With a few local hip hop artists heading in to the America market this year, do you expect to see some heads succeed in this market?
Seth Sentry: Not sure, conditions are just about right. I think people will struggle with the accent thing though. In saying that, I’ve got a few fans from the States on my Facebook. I think the good thing about Australian rap is that it’s still in this pure state where lyrics and flow are held in high regard, American’s can see that. In the USA now it’s almost the opposite, it’s a very contemporary rap scene. It’s all about the sounds you make you with your voice and rapping style. It seems to be more about the rapper then the raps or lyrics. I think in a lot of cases we are a lot more technical. People give me shit for a lot of my softer stuff, but that first verse on the Waitress Song is technical as fuck and I worked hard on that verse. I was very happy with it.
aahh: Yoy have also just been announced to play with Flume, The Rubens and Ball Park Music in triple j’s one night stand. Have you played many regional gigs before?
Seth Sentry: I’ve played a fair few, first tour we did we hit a large amount of regional locations. My manager is from regional WA, so I always try to visit those places. I Haven’t done much in QLD as I would have liked.
aahh: We’ve just seen episode 1 launch of ‘Questions With Seth Sentry’, tell us a bit about this series?
Seth Sentry: I really love playing games, I’ve got all these game titles and I’ve been collecting all these cool clips of gameplay. I thought fuck it, I should do some Q&A and people can see how sick I am and I also get to talk shit. I guess twitter and FB and the social media thing, it’s getting a bit hard to respond to everyone. My fan page has always been done by me and now it’s getting a big much. This way I can still connect with my fans and all that. Be sure to log on and send in some questions!
Seth Sentry was announced as the winner in the Doritos #Boldstage competition, which was held at SXSW today. Seth Sentry has now earned a spot on LL Cool J’s upcoming tour and also a performance on the US television show Jimmy Kimmel Live.
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