He's performed for Jimmy Kimmel and Ice Cube, but Seth Sentry's biggest achievement might be surviving his latest tour. The Aussie rapper tells Chris Schulz about life on the road.
If Seth Sentry looks a little tired when he performs in New Zealand this weekend, you couldn't blame him.
When TimeOut catches up with the Melbourne rapper, he's 40 shows deep into an Australian tour that's lasted more than three months.
His first New Zealand shows - Wellington tomorrow night and Auckland on Saturday - will edge him closer to 50.
"This is my life now," Sentry says, sounding remarkably fresh the day after a performance in Dunsborough, a tiny West Australian town with a population of less than 5000.
"I can't remember anything before it, and I can't foresee anything after it."
It might be a test of his stamina, but there's a very good reason for the demanding tour: Sentry - real name: Seth Marton - is quickly rising above his underground appeal and heading towards the mainstream.
Over the past few years, Sentry has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, landed a festival gig that saw him play after veteran rapper Ice Cube, and, thanks to the laid-back flow that's seen him labelled Australia's answer to The Streets, had some of his songs go viral.
Like Dear Science, a rant about the lack of hoverboards in modern life, and The Waitress Song, his hit about good cafe service which remains a staple of his live show despite being released in 2009.
Sentry's also picked up some great tour stories over the past few years. His favourite is from a 2013 appearance at South by South West when a rap battle win earned him a surprise appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
"They picked three rappers from around the world, we played a song and the crowd voted and they voted for me. So I got to stick around to do a show after Ice Cube and before LL Cool J, which is only right - that's the right order," he jokes.
"Then I got a spot on the Jimmy Kimmel show as one of the prizes. It was terrifying. The censorship is crazy - I couldn't say 'piss-weak'. It's pretty overwhelming doing your first American talk show and you're trying not to drop P-bombs."
This tour sees Sentry trying to capitalise on that success by cramming as many shows in as many small towns as possible, making it easier for fans to see him.
"We just started plotting a bunch of regional shows and kept adding to it. We were thinking, 'If we're here, we might as well be here.' Before you know it we've got a 50-show tour," he says.
"It's been really cool: normally we play cities and people have to travel a long way to see me; now we're bringing the show to them."
Since the tour started in June, Sentry's been honing his live skills, learnt how to face up to different levels of crowd drunkenness, and survive life on the road. He's a massive gamer, and says playing Xbox zombie games like Dying Light help keep him grounded.
"I've been slicing heads off with an electric hatchet. It's pretty alarming when my sense of normality is cutting off zombie heads."
Sentry admits he's not sure what kind of state he'll be in when his tour finally ends after this weekend's shows.
"All the relief will come out and we'll be squeezing all our energy out. Actually maybe don't say that. It sounds like we're squeezing out the last little squirt of a toothpaste roll."
Who: Australian rapper Seth Sentry Where and when: September 11, San Fran, Wellington; September 12, Whammy!, Auckland New album:Strange New Past, out now
