A decade ago Conrad Sewell’s life changed forever with the release of hit single Firestone.
Written and sung by Sewell, the track was released in December 2014 by Norwegian producer Kygo, who had shot to international fame the year before with his remix of Ed Sheeran’s I See Fire.
Firestone became a top five single across Europe, charting at number one in Czech Republic, Hungary, Lebanon, Norway and Poland, going multi-platinum in Australia.
Sewell soon found himself supporting Ed Sheeran and Maroon Five for their respective 2015 Australian tours, featuring on on NBC’s Today show, winning ARIA’s 2015 Song of the Year for his single Start Again and featuring on a Coca-Cola ad campaign.
Four years later Sony released his debut album Life, which peaked at number one on ARIA’s Australian Albums chart.
In 2025 Sewell is celebrating with the Firestone 10th Anniversary Acoustic Sessions, a nation-wide tour of regional Australia.
“My career launched 10 years ago, as far as the public’s concerned, with Firestone, and that song in particular changed my life, took me around the world and created this fan base,” Sewell said.
“So this is an opportunity to get back on the road and say thank you to everybody, and play all these songs in a really stripped back form.
“That’s how I wrote them, essentially; piano and acoustic guitars. The first album, and especially Firestone, it was a piano ballad when I first wrote it.”
Originally booked as a tour of New South Wales and Queensland, shows throughout Victoria, Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania were added in July and August after “overwhelming” turnouts for the shows in May.
Part two of the tour kicks off at Geelong’s Eureka Hotel on July 4, featuring Sewell accompanied by a violinist and pianist.
For Sewell, who comes from a family of musicians and has been gigging in pubs, bars and smaller venues since he was a teenager, the regional tour is a return to where it all began.
“That’s one thing hated about when I became successful, I was used to playing three times a week at pubs and being able to do what I love,” he said.
“It got to the point where, especially in this country, you tour and it’s like five dates, then that’s it. Then you’re just doing media stuff.
“You’re not actually getting to do what you love because you can’t tour that much. You can’t do a capital city tour every couple of months.
“I really like it because I can just be myself, talk to the audience… it feels like I’m with a bunch of friends and everyone’s just enjoying themselves.”
Sewell, who now has two children, is “still writing every day”, but left Sony last year to pursue music independently.
He said new music was “right around the corner”.
“There’s a bunch of collaborations incoming that I can’t wait for everyone to hear,” he said.
“I’m working with artists from dance music, hip-hop and everything in-between.
“The next release is with 360 for his upcoming album, the song is called Someone Else’s Dime, I can’t wait for everyone to hear what we’ve cooked up.”
Conrad Sewell is at the Eureka Hotel on Friday, July 4. Visit conradsewellmusic.com for tickets and more information.
