The Herd: 20 Years on From ‘The Sun Never Sets’
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their seminal third album, The Sun Never Sets, The Herd are taking the record on the road this year. Ahead of their performance at iconic Adelaide venue The Gov, The Herd’s Toe-Fu spoke with The Note about the making of the album, covering John Schumann’s ‘Only 19’ and the prospect of new music.
Interview Tobias Handke // Image Cole Bennetts
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the release of The Sun Never Sets. When you look back at that period in the group’s career, what are your immediate feelings and memories?
I’ve got such great memories of that time with the band. So many great trips around the country playing with great people and meeting great people. We were regularly playing bigger stages, to bigger crowds and returning home with bigger smiles and bigger sleep dep! The privilege of being able to do that with your best mates is not lost on me.
What’s your connection with the album today? Have you listened to it recently?
With the upcoming tour, I’ve been listening to it in full once a day and I still love it! I’ve got to re-learn all of the songs again and that’s like looking through an old photo album. One chord, one chorus, can trigger a flow of memories from a recording session, a moment on stage or hearing the track being played on the radio for the first time.
I really like that the album still maintains the sentiment of individual artists coming together to form a collective. I can pick who started each track and remember the band coming together to embellish it. Some start with a beat, some with a sample, some with a lyric or a chord progression, and then they grow.
The Sun Never Sets is regarded as an Australian hip hop classic that helped pave the way for a new generation of artists. Did the group have any inkling they were creating something special, or were you so deep into the creative process that everything just spilled out in the studio without much thought?
I think we were aware that the tracks were special to us, but no artist is completely sure how they’ll be received by the listener and audience. And once you start making songs for the audience rather than yourself, that’s when it becomes contrived and a marketing exercise – you’re creating product and not art. We were focused on the creative process, finished the album and then let the tracks off leash into the community.
The album addresses a lot of themes that are still relevant today. Do you think that is one of the reasons why the album continues to resonate with music fans of all generations, or do you have a different take on the album’s sustained popularity?
Yeah, sadly many of the tracks (if not all) are still relevant. It would be nice to be able to look back on some of the songs and say, “Do you remember when that was a thing?”, but unfortunately, it’s still “a thing”. As a society, the same issues keep rearing their heads… and artists keep responding! ‘I Was Only 19’ is a classic example… but we’ll get to that!
Also, great music, killer beats and conscious lyrics are a good starting point for sustainability!
Speaking of ‘I Was Only 19’, what prompted The Herd to tackle the Redgum classic for triple j’s Like a Version?
As I just mentioned, issues have a tricky way of rearing up again and again – wicked problems. John Schumann wrote ‘I Was Only 19’ with the Vietnam War as a reference and its impact on returned service people. In 2005, we were in the era of the Middle Eastern conflicts (Iraq and Afghanistan) and were aware of the sad parallels across the decades. We had the offer of a slot on triple j’s Like a Version and chose “I Was Only 19’ as a classic piece of Australian music history to cover. It was a way of bringing this iconic song to a new audience.
What was it like working on the recorded version of ‘I Was Only 19’ with John Schumann and did you feel the need to get his approval before recording the track?
It was amazing to work with John Schumman on the cover of ‘I Was Only 19’, and yes, it was important to have his support and permission to re-record such an iconic and important song in the Australian music landscape. It was also important to have the support and permission from the veterans who were involved in the original song. We went out to the Vietnam Veteran Association in Granville and connected with the returned servicemen to ensure we were on the right track with the right sentiment.
The initial live Like a Version didn’t have John on it, but it obviously struck a note with the triple j audience. We then went back into the studio and recorded it with John involved and re-released The Sun Never Sets with the track on it. Having John join us on stage at Homebake in Sydney and The Big Day Out in Adelaide is a definite highlight of The Herd’s journey.
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The release of The Sun Never Sets also saw The Herd become a festival staple. A lot is going on when The Herd play live, from rappers and singers to musicians and more. How did you find the secret sauce on stage, managing to bring all the elements of the record into the live arena successfully?
Our live shows have always been a strength of the band. I think the fact that there are so many people on stage having the best time of their lives is infectious. Yes, it can be tricky in terms of the number of musical elements to combine, but the group have a great understanding of creating and respecting space so that it doesn’t become too messy and crowded in a musical sense. I think the secret sauce is to go out on stage, immerse yourself in the music and have a ball!
Speaking of playing live, The Herd are hitting the road to celebrate The Sun Never Sets next year. Are you looking forward to getting back out there and playing tracks from the album live, especially those that might not regularly make the setlist?
For sure! We are definitely looking forward to getting back on stage. As I mentioned, we all have the best time together when we’re jumping around on stage and have missed that dearly over the past few years. The challenge of revisiting and reworking tracks that we haven’t played in a long time is awesome. There have been so many “remember this track” moments already during rehearsals.
The Herd are bringing The Sun Never Sets 20th Anniversary Tour to Adelaide. What are your memories of playing in Adelaide, particularly The Gov?
The Gov is one of the iconic venues in Australia that you dream of playing when you get a band together. It’s like The Tote, The Annandale, The Zoo and other venue icons that made the dream list on a national tour. And importantly… It’s a pub! It’s real, and pubs are a part of Australian music folklore. The crowd are up close and personal, hot and sweaty (well, it used to be) – everything we like about playing a live set.
Does revisiting The Sun Never Sets for the upcoming tour spark any desire to get back into the studio and record a new album together?
The Herd is a tricky beast! There is always an appetite to write and record new music within the crew; however, with members spread all over the East Coast, it is proving to be a complex equation to solve, especially when work and family are thrown into the mix! We’ll see how this tour goes, and if the appetite is strong, you never know!
Lastly, are there any emerging artists you would like to shout out?
There are so many exciting artists to keep an ear out for. Sereen, Sachem and Mudrat, to name a few.
Catch The Herd performing at The Gov on Saturday 14 February. Tickets on sale now via thegov.com.au.
