Scott Sorry (Amen, The Wildhearts/ Brides of Destruction) tells us about his new single "Broken Hearts and 45s" which comes from his solo album "When We Were Kings". Here is the story:
So, I had this riff in my head for a couple years. I don't remember how I came across it, but I'd find myself playing just about every time I picked up a guitar. I loved the riff but I really had no idea what to do with it. Tried playing a bunch of different ways until I could find something that would inspire the rest of whatever that song was supposed to be. Super fast, to slow and almost Shoegaze-ish, to folky..nothing really worked. So I just kept putting it on the back burner. Then, during one of the first writing sessions for "When We Were Kings", it clicked. I plugged in my guitar and turned on my amp. To try to get my tone and volume right for rehearsal I just started wailing on these two notes. It was just a spur of the moment riff, but I really liked it. I immediately started getting a vocal melody and started humming along to myself while the other guys were staring at me like "Scotty..what the hell are you doing?".. As the vocal melody progressed in my head I heard where the chord change needed to be and where it needed to go. I slid down the neck and landed right into that riff that had been stuck in my head for years. I laughed and just shouted "I've got it! This is what we are working on today!". Within a couple hours we had a pretty impressive skeleton for "Broken Hearts and 45's".
We were all buzzing about the song after rehearsal and I went home to start writing lyrics. Like the original riff, the lyrics just eluded me. I had a couple words that kept bopping around my head but I couldn't figure out what the song was supposed to be about. There was this melody that I kept dwelling on waiting for it to unravel itself. Then I'm sitting on a Broadstreet line bus in Philadelphia with my drummer. I'm looking at my hands and just started thinking about life. My hands are pretty banged up. I'm missing a knuckle and half my pinky on my right hand from a bike accident in L.A.. there is a bone that protrudes through the top of my left hand from fighting when I was a kid. They're covered in nicks, scratches, and scars and each one has a story, and all of those stories led me to where I am now..and in this 10 minute daydream on a sh*tty bus in Philadelphia..I wrote the entire song. Got to rehearsal and sang it for the guys.
The song came out great but it wasn't supposed to lead off the record. I had this whole master plan about how the record was going to flow and that song was supposed to be further down in the mix. Our drummer Lar suggested that we use it as the opening track..and everyone but me agreed haha. The guys and our producer, Jonathan Wyman, talked me into it and I couldn't hear it any other way now. They were totally right. That song is about the long road that took place on the way to the stories behind each song that follows..and how music has always been there to save my ass. It's been a crazy road but I wouldn't change a thing..especially letting that song lead off "When We Were Kings".
Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself right here!
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