Featured Artist: Seth Sentry
Thursday, April 30th, 2009We loved Seth’s Waiter Minute EP when it came in, with it’s vibrant, intricate cover art and cool, easy on the eyes look. We listened to the tracks and loved them. Before we knew it, we were hearing his fantastic laid-back oz hip-hop single, The Waitress Song on Triple J. We love chilling out in the office to that song and we love that Seth is seeing so much success from it. We just had to talk to him about his outlook on being an artist!
Here’s what Hip-Hop Sphere had to say about his EP:
Emerging from Melbourne’s live hip hop scene with the November release of his highly-anticipated debut EP, The Waiter Minute, Seth Sentry has a busy summer ahead, finalising his debut full-length (due for a late 2009 release) whist touring and promoting in support of the EP. The culmination of several years’ involvement in the local scene and a strong musical partnership with respected Melbourne producer Matik, The Waiter Minute EP has quickly garnered widespread media attention and favourable reviews: “Every track on the release welcomes you into the eyes of the 25 year old Melbourne MC with an outlook on life like no other I have heard … along with his hypnotic voice and flow change ups, the entire EP stands to create tracks with an incredibly high re-play value.”
What’s the name of your band? What’s the origin of that name? Who came up with it?
I go by the name Seth Sentry. My real name is actually Seth Marton but I just didn’t think it sounded cool enough as a rap name and plus MC Cool was already taken so I chose Seth Sentry.
“The Sentry” is also the name of one of a really strange comic superhero.
Your single, The Waitress Song is enjoying loads of play on JJJ. That’s fantastic. How did you push it to them? Did Kingsmill love it, or did you get it played on the Hip Hop show with Hau and then it got moved to high rotation?
Yeah it’s been quite strange switching on the radio and hearing a song that I wrote in my bedroom. I guess the way it came about is I threw a bunch of songs up on Triple J’s Unearthed site. Steph from Home and Hosed stumbled across them, loved “The Waitress Song, and asked me if I’d like to be Triple’s J Feature Artist of the week. Which basically meant a studio interview, unearthed interview, but most importantly daily play for a week!
So during that week I rallied friends and family to just request the hell out of it and it just went from there. I would definitely recommend Triple J Unearthed to anyone trying to get their music out there.
What’s the scene like where you are from for your genre?
I feel like it’s a very exciting time in Australian hip-hop at the moment. It’s more popular than ever which some would argue is a bad thing, however I think that this rise in popularity has improved the quality of Australian HipHop being released. It seems that the general public is more aware of the different styles of hip-hop instead of myopically viewing Australian HipHop as “bogan rap”. It seems like there’s a more informed music listening public and it’s forcing artists to experiment and break the mould so to speak.
Who are your favourite artists? Who does your music generally draw comparisons to?
My favourite artists are lyricists such as Aesop Rock, Thom Yorke, and even Leonard Cohen. I just love analysing lyrics, it’s beautiful thing. A few times lately I’ve been compared to Mike Skinner from The Streets, which is a great compliment. I love his music, his story telling is spot on. Someone also wrote in an interview, “if Mike Skinner and Ben Lee had a Melbourne rapper baby, it would be Seth Sentry”. I thought that was kind of a creepy.
What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you have a set time each week in which you practice or are rehearsals more spontaneous?
I probably rehearse twice a week with Chris my DJ. Chris is a good mate as well so it’s a pretty casual thing, an hour or two of running through the set then we usually get a curry delivered. At the moment I am in the process of organising a live band, so unfortunately I don’t think these lazy rehearsals will last much longer.
Hip Hop is big on collaborations. Who have you collaborated with before and who would be your dream collab?
To be honest I haven’t really collaborated with many people in the scene. I have done two tracks with my buddy Pez, one off his album and another for the Forthwrite mixtape. I’m hoping to have a few special guests on the full length album I’m currently working on.
My dream collaboration would probably be with Aesop Rock. On a beat that RJD2 produced.
What inspires you? What makes you wake up and think “wow that really matters?” What makes you want to write songs that make people sit down and think?
To be honest, I get inspired by the tiniest most seemingly trivial of things. I think my favourite things to write songs about are the little things that people don’t really think too much about. I love telling stories in my music, so I try to find something like a waitress crush or a shitty housemate and tell a story about it.
How do you promote your music that you have for sale in the digital outlets? Live shows and hours of myspacing. That’s pretty much it, at the moment I spend between 3 - 5 hours in front of the computer just cyber hustling. I’d love to spend less time staring at a screen but at the moment it’s not really possible, this is just the way of the modern music world. Musicadium’s been dope for getting all the online distro sorted though, that’s definitely made things easier. So that’s it, make sure you grab a copy of my debut “The Waiter Minute EP” and come check out a show. Cheers guys!
You can check out Seth at MySpace, Twitter and you can buy his music on 
