Jordan Lawrence performs as Bored in Florence. Photo: Facebook.
Sunshine Coast songwriter Jordan Lawrence has spent years writing songs, but a one-minute political folk track about Pauline Hanson has suddenly introduced his music to a much bigger audience.
Jordan Lawrence, known to Sunshine Coast music fans as the songwriter behind Calan Mai, is going viral under his new solo project Bored in Florence after his song “Whinge & Win” took off on social media.
Lawrence started the new project as a way to curb boredom and keep creating, posting short acoustic takes on politics, news and whatever was happening around him.
One TikTok featuring the anti-Hanson song has attracted more than 188,000 views, with several other posts across Instagram and Facebook seeing similar figures. The song has also reached beyond Lawrence’s own audience, with Ben Lee liking one of the posts and John Butler sharing it.
“I’ve been posting on this page since February, but when Whinge & Win started blowing up, I recorded and released it,” Lawrence said.
Getting music onto streaming platforms, however, isn’t the main aim of the project.
“Honestly releasing music on Spotify is very far down my list of priorities. Social media is the main priority of this project.”
Writing songs in plain sight
Lawrence has been releasing music as Calan Mai for more than a decade, initially as a solo project before expanding it into a four-piece band. He also works as a music therapist and remains active in the local music community, helping create grassroots live music events across the Coast, collaborating with artists including Christian Patey and Frank & Louis, and playing in new folk trio Emma Quit the Bakery.
Bored in Florence gives him a looser, more immediate way to write, post and see what connects.
“But mainly, it’s just a channel for me to do what I’m best at and connect directly with people,” he said. “I post three original songs a week, usually about something fairly current.
“Whenever something truly connects I’ll record it and release it.”
More than 25 years after Pauline Pantsdown turned anti-Hanson satire into a national talking point, Lawrence is finding a new audience for that same kind of political provocation.
The acoustic track is unapologetically blunt, taking aim at Pauline Hanson, One Nation and their supporters. Lawrence has described it as an anti-Hanson anthem, and it has since made its way to triple j Unearthed and received airplay on Double J and triple j Unearthed.
Listen to “Whinge & Win” below.
The comments never bothered me anyway
Despite the response to “Whinge & Win”, Lawrence said he is not trying to manufacture another viral hit and is instead continuing with the political songwriting that has shaped the project from the beginning.
“I’m not thinking too hard about it honestly,” he said. “The main through line of all the songs is just pretty political, because I’m just sick of repressing or ignoring this feeling of dread that I have about the political situation across the world.”
The subject matter means the audience is not always friendly, with supporters and critics both piling into the comments and helping push the videos further.
“The best part about this project is that I get double the engagement,” he said. “Some people really like it, some fucking hate it, but they all engage.”
Lawrence remains unfazed by the reaction online. “The comments don’t really bother me anymore.”
For now, he is continuing to write and letting the project grow without making too much of the sudden attention.
“Honestly, I’m just trying to stay very grounded and have fun with it.
“Writing songs is my favourite thing in the world and this lets me do it constantly!”
