"Long Loud Hours" is a single by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

hip-hop artist Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music Music genre, genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African Americans, African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide r ...

Urthboy Tim Levinson, better known by the stage name Urthboy, is an Australian hip hop MC and producer from New South Wales. He is widely known for his solo music under the moniker Urthboy, as a founding member of the hip-hop group The Herd, and for c ...

. The single was the first to feature a music video by the artist in three years, and tells the story of John Killick's escape from Silverwater Prison in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

with the assistance of his girlfriend

Lucy Dudko Lucy Dudko is a Russian-Australian woman convicted of hijacking a helicopter in 1999, which she used in the Prison escape, escape from Silverwater Correctional Complex of convicted armed Robbery, robber John Killick (Australian criminal), John Ki ...

. The song charted on the Australian ARIA charts.

Background

Tim Levinson (known professionally as Urthboy) first constructed the beat to Long Lound Hours on a plane while traveling between cities. Shortly afterwards, Levinson spent a week in the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

s of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

research Australian events to find inspiration for a new song. At first, he planned on writing a song about the Australian music program

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

(presented by

Ian "Molly" Meldrum Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum Order of Australia, AM (born 29 January 1943) is an Australian music critic, journalist, record producer and musical entrepreneur. He was the talent coordinator, on-air interviewer, and music news presenter on the ...

). This was changed when Levinson found inspiration in the story of a "40 year old female librarian with no criminal record hijacking a chopper at gunpoint and flying into maximum security Silverwater gaol to rescue her lover". The song tells the story of

(from her perspective), the Russian-born woman that hijacked a helicopter over Sydney and forced the pilot at gunpoint to land on the oval of the

Silverwater Correctional Complex The Silverwater Correctional Complex, an Australian maximum and minimum security prison complex for males and females, is located in Silverwater, west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. The complex is oper ...

to aid in the escape of her lover John Killick, who was being held in remand for armed robbery. The couple left the helicopter to steal a car, then managing to avoid the police for 45 days. Their luck ran out when they were arrested at the Bass Hill Caravan Park. Questioned about the song in 2023, Killick said "At first I didn’t like it, I’m not into rap and that stuff, but after a while it sort of grew on me. I think it’s quite clever".

Charts

References

{{authority control 2015 songs 2015 singles 2010s ballads