Interview by Kris Peters
Melbourne rock outfit Sordid Ordeal are the epitomical Aussie music act, if there ever was such a thing.
Fronted by Laurence Hewson - who some might know by his stage name The Voice Of Flinders - Sordid Ordeal have been through the proverbial ringer and back but survived to tell the tale and then some!
Starting out in Melbourne in 2010 and formed by a group of mates freshly dropped out of university, Sordid Ordeal spent the next 8 years of their musical journey as a hard-drinking, hard-partying, and hard-playing punk outfit but for some reason known only to themselves decided to straighten their act out in 2018 and began actually recording music and touring outside of their comfort zone.
Following an East Coast tour in 2023, the band members took things a step further, assembling more talented musicians to join the cause and getting down and dirty on their debut album.
That sonic effort has manifested itself into part 1 of a two-part album release called When I Left Town, which details the early days of Hewson moving to Melbourne and falling in love with music.
It is a quirky and entertaining trip through musical history, highlighting the many adventures undertaken by Hewson and the trials and tribulations of making it in the real world.
Unleashed on the world today (February 16), When I Left Town is a stunning debut album from a band who are as eclectic as they are brilliant, with Hewson joining HEAVY to talk through things in greater detail.
"I can't even begin to tell you how long I have waited for this moment," he enthused. "In the time this band has been together we've had 20 or 30 mates bands all put out multiple records and break up and look back on a successful career in the time we've been working on this. So it's been a long road in, but it is a massive relief to smash this one out of the chamber. Tracks on this were on previous demos and EP's that we have done, but with this I feel we have finally attained the sound that we always wanted to have. This is the line-up I've always dreamed of for this band. I'm actually glad that it took so long because if I'd done this under previous line-ups or previous circumstances it wouldn't have sounded or been the way I wanted it to be. This is it. This is a true representation of what I think this band should have always been."
In the full interview, Laurence talks more about the album process and getting it to the release point, the musical side of it and what they were going for, the four singles released and how they represent the whole album, the two-part concept behind the twin releases and why he has done it that way, having a 12 piece choir, brass ensemble and string quartet on the album and how difficult it was to keep a cohesive flow to the music with so much going on, the early days of Sordid Ordeal and how they shaped the bands future, the album launch party and more.