The Herd - The Sun Never Sets

Eight piece hip-hop sensation The Herd spoke to The Dwarf about munters, ice cream and the danger of opinions.

The Dwarf: How did this latest album 'Summerland' come about?

Dale Harrison: The Sun Never Sets (our last album) was the first one that I felt that we worked as a proper band - Summerland was a continuation of that process. But more than that Summerland is the first album that I think we've made as a whole package. This is partly due to the way that we made it in terms of writing, recording and mixing, but also in terms of the spirit in which it was made - although there were some tense times we really had a good time making the album. It's also partly due to the fact that I think each of us has found a unique voice and we're each confident in our abilities as performers to not to just nail parts, but to really hammer them into the wall (so to speak...). The album's also really thick with detail in terms of the production - there's lots of layers of sound without ever sounding too busy or too intricate, and I think our songwriting has come along as well.

The vocalists have brought a real ear for hooks and melody into the mix that extends beyond choruses, and the producers and instrumentalists have played counterpoint to that and really learnt how to create a sonic bed for the vocals. It's funny being in this position after all these years playing together - we've never really had a great deal of direction from outside of the band - so everything we've ever done has been a series of learning steps and over that time we've become not only a bunch of musos and rappers but become adept arrangers, songwriters and engineers. And that really shows through.

The Dwarf: Do you ever worry where your views will land you?

In terms of upsetting people by having an opinion no not really - but of course there are some elements in the wider society that are unreasonable - when people take opinions about wider issues as a personal attack that's when it gets to be a bit of a drag - especially since it means having to justify your beliefs whenever you're interviewed or by pissed munters at gigs. The latter is really rare though. We make music out of a sense of joy, even though we are deadly serious about a lot of issues, anyone that's seen our live show will know that it's more a celebration than a series of lectures. Despite the fact that most of us enjoy beer and weekends, there's more to life than that - especially lyrically.

I also don't think what we say is all that radical - if we were advocating violent uprising then maybe there would be potential repercussions. It's funny that in an Australia that has had its political thought stymied by the culture wars that we're held up as some kind of vanguard of political thought. I suppose we do live in an age where mobile ringtones are the format du jour.

The Dwarf: How do the eight of you deal with the song-crafting and recording process?

Dale Harrison: It takes some co-ordinating - sometimes it's more a herd of cats than elefants... We all have other commitments and interests so sometimes it's an exercise in frustration, but we're all pretty committed to the band and though sometimes it's hard to do we all make time. We're also all good friends outside of making music so it means that getting together isn't so much of a hassle.

Urthboy: This job isn't strictly 9-5 and I'm used to being contacted at all hours whether I appreciate it or not. The real challenge is switching off from label-mode when on tour. We're all involved in the label in some respect, whether it be contributing to the overall direction or submitting ads and artwork - and those work relationships have a time and a place - the less crossover on tour the better - we can concentrate on simply hanging out. I suppose we all realise we have to set goals and aspirational targets - 'hanging out' is the ultimate indication of career success.

The Dwarf: Any interesting gig stories?

Byron: Well, well, well. twas a dark and stormy night and the sea was a raging, nah wrong story. (that's the night pirates boarded the tour ship we were on). One gig i particulary remember was at coffs harbour. we use radio micorphones which are set to a certain frequency...on this night, it just so happens that the RSL next door had their bistro mic set to the same frequency. it was like a ghost in the machine. every now and then " number 34, steak dianne" would be broadcast through our system. it took us a while to work out that this was not an aussie ghost who used to work in a bistro but a mere case of crossed wires (bad pun i know!). and to top it off we had a raging after party...they alwasy happen on the nights you're going to have a 'quite one'.

The Dwarf: How do you stay sane on tour?

Kenny: We like to mix it up a little. Sometimes we find a hotel roof top to relax at and deal out the cards, other times what goes on tour stays on tour.

The Dwarf: What do you want people to take away from this record?

Kenny: Hopefully there’s a song for every occasion so most people will find something to relate to. One that comes to mind is toorali, which is a take on the old ‘Bound for botany bay’ bush ballad, with some Guantanamo overtones. While it might be easy to distance oneself from what’s happening in modern renditions, the familiarity of a song we sang (begrudgingly) as kids along with a reminder of our own colonial ball’n’chain past can help people relate to the possibility of someone getting imprisoned and taken away for something they might not have done. The bush ballads are a hard and bizarre genre to crack for modern music, but in the end – its all good story telling.

The Dwarf: What award would you like to win, and who would you thank?

Ozi Batla: We'd really like to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes for this album because then it would have been a film, and films are really great. They have huge budgets and attractive stars and catering trailers with little cakes for FREE, plus you get a chair with your name on it. The public would weep openly at our mesmerisingly beautiful morality tale about a small town Italian boy and his blossoming friendship with the elderly, misunderstood local butcher. And Monica Belluci, Dusty Springfield, Shane Warne, Nigella Lawson and Hugo Chavez would all get a mention in our acceptance speech.

The Dwarf: As a band if you could share a stage with any band/artist past or present who would it be? Why?

Ozi Batla: There's eight members of our band and we tend to fill up any stage we play, so it would need to be a solo act, preferably somebody with just one name: Madonna, Prince, Sade, Diesel, that kind of thing.

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