Win a double pass to see the Herd!

The Herd have been around the traps for more than 7 years and their politically charged lyrics, anthem hits and carefree mentality have truly ingrained them into Aussie hip hop culture.

The recent addition of lead female vocalist, Jane Tyrrell, marks a new, more complex sound for The Herd and a new era for the genre.

With the release of their 4th album, Summerland, The Herd have hit the road, with a long list of shows lined up, and one just for us at ANU Bar on Friday, 8 August.

Summerland is truly epic. Debuting at number 7 on the national ARIA chart, this is the highest ARIA position gained by the band and killer accomplishment for the 8 piece, who are completely self-managed and independent.

When listening to the Herd’s latest single from Summerland, ‘The King is Dead,’ Tyrrell may seem every bit the picture of a ‘female hip hop singer.’ Smooth voice, feminine harmonies, but listening to Summerland in its entirety will confirm that she is far from your average ‘female pipes’ on a pop sprinkled hip-hop outfit.

With musical routes dipping into every genre; Tyrrell’s stint with indie pop band ‘Fire Kite’ matched with jazz influences and traditional African music studies in Zimbabwe make Tyrell far from cookie cutter.

Tyrrelle shuns the idea of being dubbed a ‘hip hop singer’ and prefers to be ‘just another instrument in the boiling pot.’

“I’m a vocalist, and there are instrumental elements to that,” Tyrrell said.

For someone with such a broad musical palette, Tyrrell is a frequent pop-binger, with the quirky French puff tunes of Camille getting a frequent play in her CD player.

“Her vocal percussion is amazing…that’s the gear! I love loading up a track of vocal instruments as opposed to actual instruments… it’s so good.”

After several guest appearances at the Herd’s live shows and feature vocals on 2 tracks from album ‘The Sun Never Sets’, Tyrrell is glad to say that she’s a fully fledged member on ‘Summerland’ and got to indulge in the group creative
processes.

“Writing Summerland was such a cool process. We rented a holiday house in Summerland and just camped out and just started from scratch. We were there for a month, then we all had to go back to our day jobs. I know after that we all thought to ourselves at least once, I wish I was back at Summerland, relaxing and writing music and doing what we love together.”

Summerland is jam packed with upbeat goodness, with lyrical content ranging from the social commentary of ‘Kids Learn Quick’ to the political slander in ‘The King is Dead.’

“I think we were just fed up with everything that was happening with the Howard at the time. We were doing a concert when the election was on, and we were going backstage and watching the TV, and coming back out on stage and going backstage… when Howard lost, it was just a relief of change. But yeah, you can hear it in the song and it’s such a genuine frustration!”

As the only female band member in a Herd of 8, Tyrrelle didn’t need to adjust to fit in with this tight knit band, but jokes that it takes practice to keep them in line.

“We have this really healthy understanding that if someone has something on their mind, they just get it out. We just say it and laugh it off, take it serious if it is serious, it’s very democratic.”

But with such a big group, surely there are personality clashes?

“There are little combinations that are more frequent than other, but all in all its family. You figure out who you work with really well in a room, and you stick with those combinations. Sometimes you get a lucky dip which is interesting, you might end up with someone who likes to party all night and they might wake you up in the middle of the night, and you go – oh that’s right, that’s why I haven’t done that for a year!”

The Herd will be playing live at ANU Bar on Friday 8 August and although the Herd have played Canberra many times, Tyrrelle assures me that with more harmonies, more instruments and more complexity, the latest aural fest will be a like nothing we’ve seen before.

“It’s very self indulgent but I’m the most excited about using vocal effects on stage. A bit of Goldfrappy action…grabbing it by the balls and being experimental. It’s going to be a really fresh experience, a new palate for The Herd.”

Tell us why you want to see Tyrrelle and the rest of the Herd for your chance to win a double pass to see them perform live at ANU bar! Email your answer to [email protected].