5 Songs On RedHook’s ‘Mutation’ LP That Are Actually Sequels To Older Songs

At its heart, RedHook’s sophomore LP Mutation is about growth, change and evolution. Not just when it comes to our sound, but to my own tumultuous journey as a two-legged chaos unit, bumbling around on the planet Earth, trying not to break anything. 

In the past two years since we wrote our debut album Postcard From A Living Hell, I’ve done a lot of work addressing my trauma, going to therapy, trying to forgive myself for my laundry list of past screw-ups and just overall trying to be slightly less of a fucked-up mess. 

As a result, I think I’ve grown a fair bit. I’ve begun processing a lot of the worst experiences in my life in a much healthier way, and from that, a lot of my feelings and perspectives have changed. And because I’ve always chronicled a lot of these feelings and perspectives in my songwriting (kind of like a musical growth chart for my brain), a lot of the songs that appear on Mutation are actually new chapters of old stories. 

But because I’m a sucker for a blockbuster movie franchise, let’s just go ahead and call them sequels.

Scream 2 is the sequel to Cure 4 Psycho

At the time that I wrote Cure 4 Psycho, I had no idea that there was actually a name for the horrific experience I’d escaped from that inspired that song: narcissistic abuse. Since then, I’ve basically earned a PhD in NA survival from the University of the Internet. I’ve joined online support communities, connected with other survivors, and half of my feed is now basically just clogged with info from Instagram psychologists specialising in Narcissistic Personality Disorder. 

In Cure 4 Psycho, I likened my experience of surviving (what I did not know then was) NA to Sidney Prescott surviving Ghostface in the Scream movies. I’d let myself become trauma bonded to a particularly malignant narcissist who used extreme emotional manipulation tactics to trap me, control me and systematically strip away my self-worth. Then later, during what’s known as the ‘discard’ phase (that’s when the narc discards you and immediately replaces you with a new primary source of “supply”), they tried their best to gaslight me into taking my own life by convincing me I was alone, a burden on everyone I loved, and doomed to fail if I dared stick around.

That ordeal informed the Cure 4 Psycho lyrics: “You tried to kill me dead / but I won’t feed your ego / Sidney Prescott, bitch / I’m in this for the sequel”

Ironically, a sequel now exists on the Mutation LP. The horror movie plot continues on Scream 2, which is all about the aftermath of escaping the narcissist. 

As anyone out there who has experienced NA can attest, the terror doesn’t end once you take away the narc’s power by removing their access to you. People like this can be just like Ghostface, determined to continue lashing out at you by whatever means remain available to them: social smear campaigns, sending 'flying monkeys' to fuck with you on their behalf, or weaponising your trauma and vulnerabilities against you in whatever other malicious ways they can think up. 

Scream 2 is a song about refusing to let them draw more blood. I was actually very close to just up and calling it Cure 4 Psycho II. 

Cannibal is the sequel to Jabberwocky

I think most people know about this one already. It was really important to me to frame Cannibal as being part of the Jabberwocky narrative when we first released it, mainly out of this crazy fear that people wouldn’t be able to palate a horny metal song about blowjobs from an SA survivor without some kind of explanation. I suppose I was scared that it might somehow invalidate my trauma in their eyes?

And while Cannibal is indeed a horny metal song about blowjobs, it’s also about my own sexual reclamation and liberation following SA trauma. I wanted to write a song that felt like WAP for fans of heavy music. An empowering metal anthem that would help me smash some of the stigma and shame around sex that I felt for a long time after surviving SA (and hopefully inspire other women to do the same). 

Breaking Up With is the sequel to Bad Decisions

Breaking Up With isn’t just the sequel to our most popular song Bad Decisions, it’s also the antithesis of it. Rather than ruminating on feeling like a total piece of shit, this new song is about choosing to break that cycle of self-hate, to forgive your past mistakes, and to just be a bit bloody kinder to yourself! Lyrically, it takes the piss out of break-up cliches to symbolise ending that toxic relationship (with, you know, yourself) which is what ‘Bad Decisions’ was all about.

Tourist is the sequel to Imposter

These two songs were written about the same heartbreak, but at different stages of the grieving process. In the relatively short space of time between writing each of them, my understanding and acceptance of that situation changed dramatically. 

Imposter was still lingering in the denial phase. I had enough information to know that my ex had lied and cheated prolifically for two years, but I was still struggling to reconcile the person I thought I knew so well and loved so much with the cold hard facts smacking me in the face. I wrote Imposter with a confused heart, still somewhat holding on to a love that, as it turned out, was all just smoke and mirrors.

Tourist, on the other hand, was written from a place of defiant acceptance. With all the pretty little lies and illusions of that relationship shattered like a mirror ball on the floor, this new song is me holding my head high, raising a perfectly manicured middle finger in their air and then moonwalking out the door.

Pyromaniac is the sequel to Postcard Xo

In both Postcard Xo and Pyromaniac, the opening tracks to each of RedHook’s two albums, we find ourselves at the bottom of a familiar abyss. It’s a place that I’ve plummeted back to many times in my life - a nightmarish hellscape of trauma, self-loathing and existential pain. But whereas Postcard Xo had me darkly ruminating on self-harm and longing for death, Pyromaniac is me instead asking for help to free myself. There’s a little lyrical switch in the final chorus - “please someone give me the hard truth / I wanna be fireproof” that’s really quite key to the message of the whole album. It’s about wanting to change for the better, admitting you need help, and then doing the work to start getting there. I think that’s my biggest mutation so far.

RedHook’s LP Mutation is out now on all streaming platforms.