Beloved across Australia, a few months back Sentry’s second record Strange New Past debuted at #2 on the ARIA Charts. Not one to rest at the first sign of success, he’s currently on a mammoth 49-date tour across the country, ably supported by Dylan Joel and Ivan Ooze. When we catch up, he’s in Margaret River on the cusp of show number 40.
“Tonight’s show’s sold out way in advance, it should be pretty sick,” he says. “Half and half of the shows have been selling out.” It’s an impressive statistic when you consider there are nearly 50 of the bloody things spread out all over our vast nation.
“A lot of the time people are coming to three or four shows in a row and shit, ’cause it’s only an hour or two drive to the next one. So they’ve just been saying, ‘Fuck it, might as well,’ which has been nice to see the same faces in the front row.” Yep, you know you’ve made it when people are devoting four nights of the week to drive out and see you.
So why not make it an even 50 show stint? “I don’t know actually. It is a bit annoying. I’m quite obsessive, so don’t mention that again,” Sentry laughs. “We’ve done way better than I anticipated though man. It really is quite a monster of a tour.”
Although he’s packed out the majority of venues, the audiences haven’t been letting him off easy. “Hell Boy’s one of the ones where people stand back and say, ‘Right, let’s see if he can do it live’,” Sentry says. “That’s been cool; it’s been like a showcase time for me and I really enjoy it. It’s a good challenge to have.”
Fans of Sentry’s work will be well aware of his turbulent relationship with growing up. He’s now over 30, but he doesn’t feel pressure to write songs about taking the plunge into adulthood.
“I just write whatever my first instinct is,” he says. “If I write about feeling grown up, it’s ’cause I’m feeling that at the time. For example, I moved out of a share house recently, and when I’m telling a story you can normally find some element of truth in it about myself personally.”
For some people share house living can be a bit too chaotic, but it turns out Sentry tended to contribute to the disarray. “I was one of the people stealing the food,” he says. “I was a food stealer, I had it down man. The trick is you take a photo of the inside of the fridge and then you just go fucking nuts and eat all the things. Actually, just nibble at all the things, never eat a whole thing, and then you use the photo you have on your phone to re-set the fridge. They’ll never know.”
Giving out share house tips was previously one of Sentry’s favourite topics, but now that he’s moved on from that lifestyle, he’s no longer such an expert.
“Keep your toiletries in your own room; that’s a classic. Oh man, I’ve been out of share houses for a year and a half now and I can’t remember. I do miss it a little bit. I feel like the second I moved out of the share house I was plunged into the adult world. I even bought a plastic cup for my toothbrush to sit in, in the bathroom. That’s when I was like, ‘Fuck. I’m a grown up now.’ That was the defining moment. I felt really smart for even thinking about it. I was real proud of myself then that passed and I was just bummed out [laughs]. But as a rapper, you never really feel like an adult.”
Hair-brained anecdotes are Sentry’s bread and butter, and his deviant charm falls directly in line with a history of slagging off former bosses. “The boss I ripped on in Thanks For Your Hospitality – I think – was at a seaside restaurant in Sorrento where I grew up. I quit there in a real ‘Fuck you’ way. Like mid shift, ‘Fuck this.’ As I was walking out, the dude said, ‘You’re still wearing our shirt there mate.’ So of course I replied, ‘You want your fucking shirt mate?’ and I ripped it off like the Incredible Hulk, threw it on the ground and walked out like a boss. So gnarly. I felt good about that one.”
Sounds pretty macho, right? But what differentiates Sentry from your average rapper rattling off heroic tales is that he’s always up-front about the shit coincidences he’s orchestrated for himself.
“About five years later I was working in another restaurant in Melbourne and my boss said, ‘My friend’s opened a new restaurant, can you go help him out?’ So of course I went to go help him start a business. And it was the same fucking guy I Incredible Hulk’d. But it’s always been like that in hospitality. Other workers would ask, ‘Why is Seth outside on his tenth cigarette this shift? He looks stoned as fuck.’ And the boss would just be like, ‘That’s just Seth’s thing’.”
Sentry’s rebellious side played a major role in establishing his massive fanbase. But die-hard fans shouldn’t despair that their favourite game-geek stoner has given up on what endeared him in the first place. “I still play video games on the reg. I wouldn’t say I’m an adult. I still couldn’t tell you exactly what negative gearing is.”
Does anyone really understand what negative gearing is, though; apart from the fact some people are really angry about it? “Oh is it a bad thing? I don’t know even know if it’s bad or good. That’s what I mean man].”
The combination of Sentry’s happy-go-lucky demeanour and his intimately detailed lyrics means as soon as he’s mentioned in conversation, people quickly attest to how closely his lyrics mirror their lives. However, he doesn’t make a concerted effort to write songs that’ll directly relate to his fans.
“Whenever I write a song I think, ‘Fuck, no one else is going to relate to this, this is purely for me and my benefit,’ and most of it is, to be honest. My drive is always just to be a dope rapper. I’m a tough motherfucking critic on myself. But really, rapping’s not just a passion for me; it’s a part of me. But as soon as songs are released people hit me up with a ‘me too’ and relate to it. It’s validating, knowing that I might not be that weird.”
After coming to attention with The Waitress Song in 2008, Sentry had a major breakthrough with the 2012 hoverboard-referencing Dear Science. Basing your admiration fo r the Melbourne MC on these tracks alone would be selling him short, but it’s hard to have a lengthy conversation with him and notmake mention of hoverboards.
“Oh man, this Lexus board? It’s not really what we’re after is it? This one only works on certain surfaces. It’s so funny with that song, it was me being really high for about 40 minutes; that’s how long it took to write the song. It’s just a lifetime of links to hoverboard memes from now on.”
BY JONTY SIMMONS
