The Herd

Love them or hate them, there’s no disputing The Herd’s contribution to hip hop in this country. For the best part of ten years, they’ve been producing music with many of them contributing to the operation of Elefant Traks, a premier label. They have collaborated with some of Australia’s most esteemed musicians on various projects and toured the country countless times. Their most recent offering-Summerland-is a continuation of the unique production style and potent lyrics that they are known for. Urthboy elaborates.

The new album was released several months ago during winter. Why the seemingly-contradictory title?
The album is pretty dark so Summerland felt right. Australia is a great country but underneath the clichés of sand, sun and surf we have our fair share of sinister shit. I thought the album was much the same.

Do you feel the distinctive production style The Herd has become known for has only developed further with Summerland?
Yeah for sure. The Herd has always been a strange beast, neither straight up hip hop but never distinctly anything else. We’re pretty proud of not going down the bangin’ head nodder path cos there’s already a million dudes doing that(some doing it really well). I think that’s one of the interesting tensions in the group too, because we don’t always see eye to eye on certain aspects and production sometimes causes a few tears.

A great deal of instrumental variety from professional talent features on the new album. How do you go about navigating the constant balancing act between experimentation and hip hop conventions?
It’s important to retain a hip hop aesthetic-not because we’re obligated just because we love it. But in The Herd it’s about music first and foremost so we tend to follow wherever a beat leads us rather than eliminating anything that deviates from the sound. I don’t see that as that experimental because it’s really simple-if you’re feeling a different tempo in a samba rhythm, write some lyrics over that and see what happens. Hip hop started by breaking conventions and it evolved by thinking out of the box. If people really feel that hip hop is this two-dimensional artform with a rigid set of rules they should check the history. I feel we’re following in the footsteps of those that created this culture, even if that means we sometimes write some far out shit.

Another significant facet of your music, a strong political ethos, is present from the very first track, 2020. Could you please explain the thesis behind the verses? What’s the deal with the 2020 year and vision double entendre?
It’s got nothing to do with any Kevin Rudd initiative. The heart of that track stems from a few years back when the US government went to any length to rubbish the link between the Iraq disaster from Vietnam. Political spin can only go so far-in the end the bodies start piling up and no matter how hard you try to spin it, your government’s popularity plummets and you look like a dickhead of unprecedented proportions. So why ignore all the lessons history has to offer if the stakes are so high? I dunno, I haven’t worked that last bit out and neither have our world leaders.

You’ve gone through a few minor line up changes in recent years, firstly with the addition of Jane Tyrell. How did this come unlikely aspect come to be?
She sung on a couple of songs on The Sun Never Sets album and it felt right to ask her to be a bit more involved. She brings a heap of energy to us on stage and behind the scenes.

Also, Bezerkatron departed some times ago. What is he up to these days?
He’s a diplomat posted overseas.

“…People in the hip hop scene see us as successful(and we are in many ways) but we’re small fry in the grand scheme. We have international territories to expand in and we have a shit load of groundwork to build on in Australia..”

Is Freedom Samba an anthem of sorts for the disenfranchised? Were the vivid lyrics inspired by a particular country or area’s political situation or in a more general sense?
It’s about government control of populations. So in some countries that’s full-on police power, curfews and death squads. In others like Australia, that’s shutting down the city for the APEC summit and giving our police a whole bunch of new powers to clamp down on our human rights. It’s interesting what a country will do to impose authority on their citizens.

A monumental sense of relief is lyrically depicted on The King Is Dead. The verses really attack the hollowness of John Howard’s leadership. Can you describe your reactions to the 2007 Federal election result?
Those really big occasions remind you how good it is when big picture shit starts taking a turn for the better-it’s intangible but it feels fucking great.

You also have strong thoughts regarding both the historical and current treatment of the indigenous peoples of this country. Do you believe much has really changed as a result of Kevin Rudd’s actions or are they merely cosmetic gestures whilst the intervention continues unabated?
Not yet-not until we see police charged for deaths in custody(still not one conviction) or more Aboriginal people in parliament and less in the justice system. I’m not the person to ask though, you’re better off asking indigenous people who are affected.

The Herd have achieved a lot thus far, taking a unique place at the forefront of contemporary Australian hip hop. What else do you hope to accomplish in the future?
Still a huge amount of work to do. People in the hip hop scene see us as successful(and we are in many ways) but we’re small fry in the grand scheme. We have international territories to expand in and we have a shit load of groundwork to build on in Australia. I’d like to see hip hop more respected across the industry here. I’m talking taking over, not just getting a table at an awards ceremony.

Zug Zug is the fruity, anecdotal single from the album, along with The King Is Dead, was it always going to be a single on account of its catchiness? Or was there a lot of deliberation?
We didn’t want to put it to radio but we had no choice-radio decided to play it. I don’t know what you mean by fruity other than the word zugzug making no sense-the rest of it is relatively coherent. It’s simply a touring/travelling song made up of anecdotes.

Could you explain the concept behind the track Toorali?
It’s a parallel between Guantanamo and Botany Bay in Australia’s recent and modern history.

What evoked the angst-ridden lyrics of Black And Blue?
I don’t know about every member of the band but I went to school at a place where academic excellence wasn’t at the forefront of the school’s priority-as with many public schools. In western civilisation we’re all giddy about how advanced we are but if we can’t even provide our kids with a level educational playing field we’re pretty backward.

http://www.myspace.com/runningwiththeherd

The Funkoars

Adelaide’s Funkoars are truly in an anti-class of their own. Trigga Trials, Sketchy Hons, Uncle Sesta and Flashy Reflux are back once more with their third full-length album aptly titled The Hangover. Once again, this 14-track offering is a funk-fuelled insight into the ‘eternal hangover’ that is their ‘miserable fuckin’ lives’ However, there are also moments of deviation both sonically and lyrically just subtle enough to compliment the signature elements that have secured the ’Oars a well-deserved position at the forefront of Australian hip hop. Trials and Reflux elaborate.

Most fans in the local scene would be well aware of The Funkoars by now. Say you were describing yourselves to a rock-dwelling, ignorant listener, what would you say?
Trials: Different, haha. We’ve always stood out a little which has helped and hindered us many times but fuck, I dunno. We are four cool and dangerous motherfuckers with equally bad ass pets. Our music is a cross between the best night of your live and being kicked in the sack.

Reflux: We bring the party to the stage…and plenty of guitars.

You guys have plied a, by now, familiar lyrical path of alcohol, women and general debauchery. Did you feel any need to diversify conceptually at all on The Hangover?
T: Not at all, basically we’re a lot older. Who’s Ya Step Daddy? was a bunch of teenagers getting drunk, The Greatest Hits was us touring off the back of the first one and partying even worse. When we all started writing The Hangover we were well worn the fuck out, lots of hangovers, lots of late night TV, lots of paranoia. All we have ever done is write what we do and go through ourselves, usually it was just getting drunk and trying to score but as you grow older the scoring stops and the booze doesn’t help so I guess other shit slips through, haha.

How, if at all, did you approach the lyric-writing side of things differently this time around?
T: Not really you know. I guess we’ve all changed a little bit as people as well as writers and I guess it reflects in the music. It’s not so much battling the mysterious “wack emcee” any more, I guess being conscious of people actually listening as well kind of effects it. I mean I look back at older shit where we threw “faggot” around willy nilly and these days it won’t slip out of my mouth you know? I grew up and realized that it’s all bigotry and dumb shit so I ditched it. Same as I knew it was important to address the size of my penis and the ring that lives at the top of the mast. Contradiction? Probably.

Was the single, Black Sally, a real labour of love, a metaphorical combination of two favourite topics of The Funkoars?
R: Not really, we just thought that’s what the track should be about. It’s a good description of what the sweet lady booze can be.

T: It was funny man because we had to explain it to Hons a million times until he got it, so we figured nobody else would, haha. I had that sample sitting around for years and was running out of shit to make the record with so it was resurrected. Anyone who knows us knows that slow music is not our kinda thing so it was nice to try and make something a bit rougher but just as slamming.

If The Hangover is the end point both literally and figuratively of personal activities and albums, what comes next?
T: I’m just finishing up production on the new Vents & Drapht albums while still making the new Oars one so it never really stops. I took a few weeks off to level up on Call of Duty but we’re back in zee booth already. In between records you can catch us on the final Clandestien album, Patto’s debut joint and my mate Maundz’ full length.

R: There is always another party to go to the next night. Get back on that horse…

There is a noticeable development on the new album in terms of the sound you guys produce. Was it a conscious decision to incorporate more guitar sections, or more a natural discovery?
T: Honestly since we started doing it and even moons before, the funk sound has been around, I just wanted my own variation on it. Sesta and I are huge psych rock fans so it only seemed natural to put some fuzz on the record.

R: I think it came about more by accident…we just keep going down that path and it was what was working for us.

Are these tweaks in production style a means of challenging yourselves?
T: I guess so. You can’t just loop everything and call yourself a producer. The digging and disguising is essential, More so now than ever that the sample watch dogs are keeping a keen eye on us, haha.

“…Our music is a cross between the best night of your live and being kicked in the sack…”

How did the Masta Ace collaboration eventuate? Was it more a result of spontaneity?
T: Hons picked the cut; we made the track with no intention of Ace ever even being a part of it. I was talking to him via the interwebs about beats and it just happened that he was heading down under so it worked perfectly. He was a top dude and even struggled through a video for us when he was well sick. We spent an hour or two discussing the difference between Brooklyn and Australian flies, apparently ours are more ruthless.

What was he like to work with?
T: Unreal man, this dude is one of my favourite MCs of all time so you know, if he was a wanker it would’ve killed it. He couldn’t have been cooler. Same thing happened with Primo when he came down a few years ago for a Gangstarr show. We were sound checking and whatnot and some dude (who happened to be Premier) was setting up behind us and stopped to come over and give us props on the production. Praise from Caesar!

Trials, the collaboration with Ralph Magazine is an unexpected, yet perfectly matched enterprise. How did you manage to hook that up? Did they approach you?
T: I just did an interview with (now frequent drinking friend) Luke from Ralph who is one of the more attractive men on the staff for the mag. We hit it off, met up, drank, and bam! Now every week I’m writing two columns, one for the mag and one explaining why it was late again. They haven’t let us near the girls yet.

You have branched out in a production capacity with two distinct albums, Drapht’s Brothers Grimm and Vents’ Hard To Kill. Are there any more similar projects in the pipeline?
T: Yeah, Sesta and I are going to start on the ‘Statler and Waldorf’ album which is just me and him reading Dianetics passages over psychedelic music. I’ve got a few sneaky beats all over the place coming out soon too: TZU and Adroit Effusive. My fingers are in many a musical pie.

What is in store for punters at Funkoars shows this summer? Is there a tour planned? Or just festivals at this point?
R: The Hangover Tour is hitting capital cities and a few other places from January through to March. Expect mayhem and a new set showcasing the new album.

T: Oh man we have the mother of a launch tour show planned. We’re doing a bunch of festivals which are well fun ‘cos it’s like performing to 6000 Oars, just people out to get drunk and hopefully consensually molested. The launch tour is where you’ll get to see all the theatrics; we’re bringing our blender back on the road with a few more tricks courtesy of the Ralph Magazine friends.

www.myspace.com/themotherfuckingfunkoars