There's a line within the first few minutes of The Sun Never Sets, the third studio album by Sydney hip hop veterans The Herd, that unintentionally sums up the group's entire being: “No-one in The Herd controls The Herd/We don't know what's going on/That's why it's unpredictable.”
As an expansive collective of rappers, DJs, producers, vocalists and instrumentalists, The Herd has always been difficult to wrangle – and that's only gotten harder as the members have gotten older and created herds of their own.
Almost 15 years after their last national tour, however, they're making their way back into formation for a run of shows this February, celebrating The Sun Never Sets' 20th anniversary.
It meant a lot of scheduling, including factoring in each band member's families and their individual quote-unquote “real jobs” – but, after almost two years of planning, the planets have finally aligned.
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“I will say, all of our workplaces have been really excited to hear we're getting back out there,” says The Herd's co-founder Shannon Kennedy, aka Ozi Batla. “It's been a process, for sure – but, in a way, it always was.”
Kennedy also notes that although the group didn't initially set out to do shows commemorating The Sun Never Sets' 20th anniversary, the timing lent itself to a convenient framework – as well as something for The Herd to collectively work towards as part of their ongoing reunion.
“Basing the tour around this album really got everyone engaged,” he says. “We had to think about how to reinterpret the songs, as opposed to our usual one-off reunion shows where it's just the same assortment of bangers and classics we always do.
“We obviously have to approach them differently – Jane [Tyrrell], who'd just started working with us on that album, isn't on a lot of those songs, and [former member] Bezerkatron is. There's also a lot of songs where we all really experimented and pushed us to do things outside of the normal realm of hip hop, which has come up a lot in rehearsals.”
Perhaps the perfect example of what Kennedy is alluding to comes in the album's opening track, Unpredictable – which, indeed, features the iconic line about how no-one in The Herd controls The Herd.
A multilingual, multi-tempo klezmer frenzy, the song quickly became one of the group's most popular songs – and for very good reason, considering it remains one of Australian hip hop's all-time greatest culture shocks.
Kennedy, who raps his own verse in Spanish on the song, remembers its creation well. “That's an Unkle Ho beat, and he was really getting into the various guitar styles of eastern European folk music,” he says.
“We were also big fans of the Sydney band Mikelangelo & The Black Sea Gentlemen, who did a lot of those Balkan party songs that started slow and then sped up. We'd tried it out in live jams where we'd rap in different languages – Bezerkatron was living in Prague, and had spent a lot of time in the Czech Republic, and I'd spent a lot of time in Latin America and had become fluent in Spanish.
“We thought it would be a great way to represent what we were trying to reflect – a multicultural Australia – while also getting more and more frenetic as the song progressed,” he adds.
As he goes over the album's tracklist, Kennedy recalls the creation of National Holiday – a song which, he claims, is a culmination of a self-described “constant creative tension” within the fold of the group.
“Tim [Urthboy] and I were entrenched in the freestyle and battle-rap scene, while Kenny [Sabir, AKA Traksewt] was more classically-trained and Dale [Harrison, AKA Rok Postya] coming from a metal and punk background,” he says. “Because of that, we'd always be pushing the boundaries and not pigeonholing ourselves – just to find a middle ground between what we all liked.
“I think National Holiday is a great example of that. There's a bunch of different time signature changes, which is always challenging and exciting as a lyricist to write to, and it's still one of the weirdest and quirkiest songs we ever made.”
Its polarising nature came to a head when the band were originally touring the album 20 years ago: “It always left crowds bewildered,” he laughs. “Nobody knew how to dance to it!”
On two of the album's more reflective and tender moments – the tragic storytelling of Under Pressure and Can't Breathe – the group enlisted the vocals of a then-upcoming young singer from Newcastle named Jane Tyrell.
The Herd had encountered her in the Newcastle hip hop crew Blades Of Hades, where she performed under the name U-Jive, and their more melodic parts were forged with Tyrrell in mind.
“We could hear her voice,” Kennedy recalls. “From the second she walked into the studio, it was one of those matches made in heaven that fit really well.
“Jane was obviously already a well-seasoned performer, even then – once you've seen her presence on-stage and felt the timbre of her voice, there's no going back.”
Ironically, one of the defining moments of the Sun Never Sets era for the group came from something that took place after the album was released.
That same month, the band entered the triple j studios to partake in its then-nascent segment Like A Version – which, before it migrated into a different studio and was pre-recorded in advance, was done live in the same studio as the Breakfast show announcers with whatever could fit in the room.
It was here the band did their take on Redgum's I Was Only 19, which completely changed the trajectory of their lives. Within days, it had become the most-requested song on the station. Within two months, it was in the top 20 of the station's Hottest 100 poll (ironically, at No. 18, to be specific).
By March, it had been officially recorded with Redgum's own John Schumann and added to the end of a re-released edition of The Sun Never Sets. Needless to say, Kennedy did not expect any of this when he arrived at the ABC that morning.
“It really was its own kind of surreal,” he says. “We were tapping into a deep vein of cultural importance with that song, and we knew we needed to do it justice because of how much it meant to people.
“The album dealt a lot with war and conflict, and we knew we wanted to get that message out there. We actually met with John to get his blessing to cover the song, and we found out it was actually his teenage son who convinced him.
“I think he was just going to reject it outright, and it was his son who said he should absolutely do it,” he adds. “We're very grateful to the junior Schumann for that.”
Although 20 years have passed, the album's ruminations on the grim and desolate nature of war and the throes of addiction and loss still ring with an eerie relevance. The Herd are very much looking forward to bringing The Sun Never Sets back out onto the road again – older and greyer, sure, but also wiser... and certainly more stylish.
“Looking back on this era raised one big question... why did we always dress like we were all going to eight different functions?” laughs Kennedy. “To this day, I have no idea why three-quarter pants were such a staple of our look, or why I insisted on wearing Dunlops on stage.
“Don't even get me started on the board shorts and thongs...”
Tickets to The Herd’s upcoming tour are on sale now.
The Herd – The Sun Never Sets 20th Anniversary Tour
With special guests
Thursday, February 5th – Anita's Theatre, Thirroul, NSW
Friday, February 6th – Factory Theatre, Sydney, NSW
Saturday , February 7th – The Triffid, Brisbane, QLD
Friday, February 13th – Magnet House, Perth, WA
Saturday, February 14th – The Gov, Adelaide, SA
Friday, February 20th – 170 Russell, Melbourne, VIC
Saturday, February 21st – Altar, Hobart, TAS
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
