Twenty years on from The Sun Never Sets, The Herd are still making the earth move

Aussie hip hop icons The Herd will be heading west next month to celebrate two decades since the release of their album The Sun Never Sets. The group will be hitting the stage at Perth’s Magnet House on Friday, February 13, with tickets on sale now. JAMES THORN spoke to band member Kenny Sabir, a.k.a. Traksewt, about the upcoming tour and how the record is just as poignant today as it was in 2005.

Super exciting to have you heading to Perth this February! The last time you performed in Western Australia was all the way back in 2011 for your Future Shade album tour. What’s one thing you’re doing differently on this tour, and one thing that’s stayed the same?

One thing different is we’ve never played an entire album across all our tours. We would put so much thought into the track listing and feel of the album, usually making many extra songs that don’t end up making the ‘feel’ cut. And with three producers, we always had a medley of ideas and interesting cross-collabs to try and work out a semi-coherent track sequence. Do the slow sections take you somewhere, give the ears a break and help amp up the hype tracks? Do the ideas flow?

Yet playing live, we’d strip each album down to a handful of songs that we’d refine over the years of gigging the circuits. For this tour, we’re reimagining how we could play an entire album—all the songs—for the challenge of it. People would tell us their diverse favourite tracks, so let’s do something for everyone for whom that album meant something. How can we revamp the slowest songs for live? Errm, let’s see. What’s staying the same? After the gig, one of the MCs will try to hide his stinky, sweaty, wet t-shirt in one of our bags.

What’s it been like revisiting and rehearsing the tracks from your The Sun Never Sets album again? Can you share with us any memorable moments when making that album?

It is a blast going back to that album at that point of time, remembering the passions of the day, and also the similarities to now. We were all fiercely anti-Iraq War, so when Triple J asked us if we’d like to do a cover for their new segment ‘Like A Version’ as a promo for the new album, I remembered this song that gave me goosebumps as a kid, Only 19.

The cover went well, and John Schumann from Redgum got in touch to show his appreciation for us bringing the song to the new generation. He ended up joining our album tour and put us in touch with veterans, who worked with us on the clip and came to their first hip hop gig.

What’s your favourite track from The Sun Never Sets? Why is that?

Looking back, one thing I like about that album was how adventurous it was. I remember seeing a clip recently of an MC claiming to do the first rap song in 11/8 time signature. Not claiming that we were the first, as maybe there was someone else more batshit crazy earlier, but National Holiday was 11/8—and sometimes 12/8—back in 2005. The song covered the sudden rise of newfound patriotism in Australia.

We grew up with the political hip hop of the late 80s and early 90s and came of age through the 90s grunge years. The interesting culture coming out was anti-establishment, and even our established cultural institutions like the ABC had more balls back then to challenge government pressure for the sanctity of art.

Hence our surprise when we saw this new wave of nationalism from some of the young and the love of the flag. This was an immediate precursor to the Cronulla riots, and when we played the Big Day Out in 2006, there were suddenly lots of people draped in the flag. ”Kiss the flag,” they told us, like things went medieval.

You’ve achieved much acclaim and recognition for your innovative twist on the traditional hip hop act structure with your full band setup, which wasn’t that common when you started out. Do you feel that in the twenty years since The Sun Never Sets was released, and with the success of your other albums, more new hip hop artists are embracing this structure?

We were inspired by the various hip hop outfits before us: The Roots, the organic sounds of A Tribe Called Quest, and early—I mean early—Black Eyed Peas, though we also drew random influences from various bands of the day, including the energy of the Beastie Boys and Helmet, the drama of Cinematic Orchestra, and the class of Morphine. We just loved music, and we kept rotating instruments trying to find what worked until we settled by The Sun Never Sets.

In fact, this was our first album to bring out the accordion. It was originally just for some eerie key lines on Breakfast Club, but when we used it live for Only 19 on Like a Version, it became a staple. After that, it kind of hung around and allowed me to jump around on stage when compared to just playing keys. We’ve seen some hip hop bands over the years, though we won’t be taking any credit, probably just some friends that want to play music together.

With the current political landscape and The Herd’s ability to incorporate important themes into socially conscious music, could fans see some new tracks on the horizon?

New songs? Yeah the political landscape is needing some more songs. You can say things in art. Art is getting away with it, as our mate Andy says. And we tried, in 2024, we released our first original song in 12 years, though when you sing about ‘Jenny’s side’, search algos give you a hard time—though yay for this TikTok thing, though oh no, it was sold. So you will have to do your own homework and search for Soul of my Soul by The Herd. All strength to political music. I’m going to see Jesse Welles this weekend.

For fans who will be seeing you live for the first time, what can they expect? Can you share with us a bit more about the special guests who are joining you for this tour?

If this is your first Herd gig, hold on. There will be eight of us on stage jumping around and running into each other; sometimes we play a song, though sometimes it predictably speeds up. We will be joined by the ever-so-talented Janna Beth, one of the Elefant family, and you will be in for a treat.

The Herd hit Magnet House on Friday, February 13, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from destroyalllines.com