Today is a massive day for fans of Aussie hiphop, one of the finest purveyors of the scene, Seth Sentry, just dropped his brand-spankin’ new record, Strange New Past.
The highly anticipated sophomore album has been nearly three years in the making, with his epic debut, This Was Tomorrow, hitting receiving high praise back in 2012.
To celebrate the release of the album, Sentry is embarking on an unbelievably huge national 48-date tour which will see the rapper perform in both cities and regional towns scattered across Australia, promising to perform fan-favourite hits as well as a few tracks from the new record.
We we lucky enough to catch the talented wordsmith before he hit the open touring road, dissecting his sophomore release track by track, Sentry describing the narrative and importance behind each of 13 songs on Strange New Past.
From beats that are all about (as he puts it) “straight flexin'”, to hilariously informative and kinda gross tales of what exactly a Honolulu Sunburn is as well as explaining the deep sentiment behind the hardest song he’s ever had to write.
Check out this exclusive ‘making of video’
How Are You
This was one of the first joints that we ever worked on, pretty much as soon as we got the beat we knew that it was going to be the opening song on the album. I wrote it like an introduction as well, I started by asking the question ‘how am I?’ and then rather than give the classic small talk response of ‘I’m fine’ I kind of elaborate a little, over the course of two verses.
The second verse directly references everything that’s about to appear on the album, if you listen through the second verse there’s little tie-ins with every single song on the album. I was hoping people would play the album through and then maybe not really pick up what’s happening in the second verse and after the second time they play the album they’ll start to notice.
Something I tried to do a lot on this album is a lot of self-referencing and just kind of little easter eggs.
Run
This was obviously the first single that we put out, one of the first songs that we worked on, Styles just played that loop from an old People Under The Stairs sample that we flipped and it was just a good start to what our original aim was, which was to make a real ’90s nostalgic feeling but not sounding rap album. We wanted it to feel like the mid to late ’90s but not actually sound like the mid to late ’90s, we had to have a contemporary feel.
It’s just about the little town where I grew up, a little closed off beach community where there’s nothing really there for the youth, no direct outlet unless you’re a surfer or like to play cover songs in a rock band at a local RSL, so you just go and do bad shit.
Nobody Like Me
Straight flexin’.
I just wanted to do a few songs on this album where I don’t stick to a topic, I just wanted to be better than everybody, really. It’s just one of those songs that you just want kind of friends to think you’re dope and other rappers to quit their jobs, that’s my hope.
It features REMI on the chorus, who came through at as about 11th hour as you can get. We literally had six hours to turn in the record and REMI came in right before he left to go to London, he saved the day. He killed it.
Dumb
I just had this thought in the last couple of years growing up, now that I’m in my early thirties, I don’t really know a lot of things that an adult should probably know at this point in his life.
I know what mortgage is but I couldn’t explain it to you, I don’t know what negative gearing actually means, I just don’t know things. I think smoking so much weed in my life keeps your brain cryogenically frozen from when you’re a teenager and I’ve just been thawed in the future and I’m like ‘what the fuck is going on?’.
There’s a story of it on the dirty version – I think we may actually have to do a clean version – but there’s a particular wank story, every album has a good wank story, in this one it’s my trip to Hawaii it’s more an advice on what shower products to not jerk off with. It was probably two years ago, not even, a year and a half. One of my friends came up with the name ‘The Honolulu Sunburn’ is what the name of the chemical issue.
‘The Honolulu Sunburn’ is when you go to Hawaii and you jerk off with shower products and you burn the skin on your dick off, they’re gonna put it in the dictionary.
Hell Boy
I wrote the verses over some random ass beat I found when I was on a writing trip, I was real bogged down in a serious emotionally draining song during my writing trip.
For the album for the first time I wasn’t at home writing on my couch like I did with the last one, I went away into the bush and was doing these trips which was good I got a lout out of it, but it also meant that I delved into some pretty serious self evaluation, so I was writing this really draining kinds of songs and I finished one off and I still had another day or so of this writing trip so I was like ‘fuck, I’m just gonna write whatever the fuck I want, I’m just gonna do more straight flexin’ shit’ y’know?
So I wrote over a random beat and it was ‘Hell Boy’ and I got back and Styles made the beat around the verses.
Fake Champagne
Once you get to a certain point as you get older, you start having less and less people around you, you don’t really have time for people that don’t really enrich your life in any way.
That kind of gets a bit weird when you’re doing music and people that you hang out with that you weren’t real friends with, it was kind of just this fake friendship, you didn’t really like them they didn’t like you but you were in the same social circle.
But then they see you’re doing music and then people want to hangout again like you were just the best of friends back in the day, it’s a really weird thing for me. I had people leaving me messages saying “fuck you man, you’ve changed so much man, we used to be best friends” I’m like “we were never friends?” That shit trips me out, and that’s what this songs about, those fake handshakes and smiles.
Rooftop
When I got back from Sydney one day after festival I got home and all my boys were just sitting up on the roof of our share house getting drunk and so that’s what we did for the next two days, we just ended up sitting on the roof getting drunk for a couple of days.
Hate Love
Trying desperately to do whatever you can from falling in love with someone.
When you’re at that point when you realise that you’re using someone for your own needs whether it be emotionally, sexually or whatever, and they’re doing the same with you but there’s always that danger that at anytime that it could turn into something a lot more serious and it’s just trying to avoid that from happening, ’cause love is a game, every time.
Violin
This is by far the most difficult song I’ve ever written in my life.
I really had to delve into my childhood with this, and it just felt like the right thing to do on this album, I just felt compelled to do it, I had to get it off my chest, y’know? It’s about my father who I never see, who I’ve tried to get in contact with a few times and that’s been declined and it’s like “well, I don’t know any other way to get this out of my system, out of my head” so I put it in a song. I tried not to mention his name or even have it be too angry or anything, it was really tough for me to balance. I wrote probably 10 different versions of it trying to get it perfect.
It’s one of those things where not only he would hear it, but other people would hear it, my family would hear it so it had to say the exact right thing, at the exact right time in the exact right way.
Pripyat Pt.1 & Pripyat Pt.2
This is really one song but we split it into two because I hate albums with un-skippable skits at the start of songs, I fucking hate that, and for some reason rap albums have shitloads of them.
I’m fascinated with abandoned cities, buildings, apocalyptic scenarios for some reason I’m really drawn to it, so Pripyat which is the site of the Chernobyl meltdown, I’m just fascinated by it.
Despite that something horrible happened there and the city was evacuated, there’s still something peaceful about it, the forest is regrowing, you’ve got fucking deer running through old classrooms and wolves hunting through the city centre, that shit is just cool and really lovely, in a weird, haunting sort of way.
We got Kučka from Perth to sing the chorus, she smashed it.
1969
I wrote this years ago over a different beat, and it’s just like a weird alternate past, I guess, and the alternate past rather than landing on the moon in 1969, we blew up the moon in 1969, that’s really just about trying to paint that picture.
A few of the other songs I’ll talk about how there’s no moon, things are like that, kind of tied in and make the album Strange New Paths almost it’s own world, which is something that I wanted to do from the start.
Sorry
I just wanted to take a second and just apologise for all the fuckin’ dumb shit I’ve done, and be really specific.
I probably had seven verses worth of sorrys. I was overseas in Europe and I had the idea for the song while I was cruising around Italy, just listing all the things I’ve done and never apologised for and that amount to a lot.
I can’t wait until the right people who I owe these apologies to hear it.
Seth Sentry National Tour Dates
Thursday, 11th June 2015
Mt Isa CiVIC Centre, Mt Isa QLD
Tickets: Tickets.com
Friday, 12th June 2015
The Venue, Townsville QLD
Tickets: Ticketek
Saturday, 13th June 2015
The Jack, Cairns QLD
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 18th June 2015
Sugarland Tavern, Bundaberg QLD
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 19th June 2015
Villa Noosa, Noosa QLD (All Ages)
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 20th June 2015
The Met, Brisbane QLD (All Ages)
Tickets: Moshtix
Sunday, 21st June 2015
The Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta QLD
Tickets: Oztix
Wednesday, 24th June 2015
The Plantation Hotel, Coffs Harbour NSW
Tickets: The Plantation Hotel
Thursday, 25th June 2015
University Of New England, Armidale NSW
Tickets: Big Tix
Friday, 26th June 2015
Panthers, Port Macquarie NSW
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 27th June 2015
Panthers, Newcastle NSW (All Ages)
Tickets: Moshtix
Sunday, 28th June 2015
Entrance Leagues Club, Bateau Bay NSW
Tickets: Oztix
Wednesday, 1st July 2015
Dubbo RSL, Dubbo NSW
Tickets: Dubbo RSL
Thursday, 2nd July 2015
Katoomba RSL, Katoomba NSW
Tickets: Moshtix
Friday, 3rd July 2015
Academy, Canberra Act
Tickets: Moshtix
Saturday, 4th July 2015
Unibar, Wollongong NSW
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 9th July 2015
Paddy’s, Albury NSW
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 10th July 2015
Area Hotel, Griffith NSW
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 11th July 2015
Home Tavern, Wagga NSW
Tickets: PopUpGigs
Sunday, 12th July 2015
Thredbo Village, Thredbo NSW
FREE ENTRY
Wednesday, 15th July 2015
Theatre Royal, Castlemaine VIC (All Ages)
Tickets: The Royal
Thursday, 16th July 2015
The Black Swan, Bendigo VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 17th July 2015
Barwon Club, Geelong VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 18th July 2015
The Westernport Hotel, San Remo VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Sunday, 19th July 2015
The Conti, Sorrento VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Tuesday, 21st July 2015
Karova Lounge, Ballarat VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 23rd July 2015
Kay Street Entertainment, Traralgon VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 30th July 2015
The Cider Tree, Mildura VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 31st July 2015
HQ, Adelaide SA
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 1st August 2015
Shadows, Mt Gambier SA
Tickets: Oztix
Sunday, 2nd August 2015
The Whalers Hotel, Warrnambool VIC
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 6th August 2015
Tapas Lounge Bar, Devonport TAS
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 7th August 2015
Club 54, Launceston TAS
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 8th August 2015
Unibar, Hobart TAS
Tickets: Moshtix
Wednesday, 12th August 2015
Judd’s, Kalgoorlie WA
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 13th August 2015
Pier Hotel, Esperance WA
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 14th August 2015
Studio 146, Albany WA
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 15th August 2015
Settlers Tavern, Margaret River WA
Tickets: Oztix
Wednesday, 19th August 2015
Dunsborough Tavern, Dunsborough WA
Tickets: Oztix
Thursday, 20th August 2015
Prince Of Wales, Bunbury WA
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 22nd August 2015
The Astor Theatre, Perth WA
Tickets: Astor Theatre
Friday, 28th August 2015
Discovery, Darwin NT
Tickets: Oztix
Saturday, 29th August 2015
The Gapview Hotel, Alice Springs NT
Tickets: Oztix
Friday, 4th September 2015
The Forum, Melbourne VIC
Tickets: Oztix
