Two of the most prominent women in the Australian heavy music scene, RedHook’s Emmy Mack and Yours Truly’s Mikaila Delgado, have joined forces on “Imposter,” the flagship single from RedHook’s forthcoming debut album “Postcard from a Living Hell.”
The record will be released Friday, April 21, 2023, and is available for pre-order here. Watch the video for “Imposter” below.
Produced by Stevie Knight (Stand Atlantic, Yours Truly) and mixed by James Paul Wisner (Underoath, Paramore), “Imposter” is a dark, empowering break-up anthem driven by alien synths, heavy guitars and striking lyrics. Packed with memorable one-liners such as “Never believed in lizard people / Til I discovered your scales,” “Hearts change like the weather / And now it’s raining on you” and “We used to freak / But now you freak me out,” “Imposter” uses the sci-fi trope of body snatching as a metaphor to articulate a traumatic experience that both Mack and Delgado share–watching someone you love change into a completely different person, before a heartbreaking trail of their past lies and deceptions starts to unravel before your eyes.
“There’s no head-fuck quite like discovering that the person you love most, and who you think you know better than anyone else, has been lying to you and manipulating you the entire time,” Mack said. “At first, it feels like death, you grieve for the person you loved as if they’ve died, and yet somehow they still exist. It’s almost as if some kind of evil, alien life force has taken up residence inside their body and is walking around wearing their skin. Eventually, it causes you to question your own sanity; you question whether that person who meant so much to you ever really existed at all.”
On the topic of tapping Yours Truly for the collab, she said: “This song was already so special to me and one of my absolute favourites off the record. We approached Mikaila to be involved because we love Yours Truly so much and thought her voice would sound amazing on the track. But what I didn’t realise was that she’d actually been going through an eerily similar situation to mine in her own personal life. We trauma-bonded a lot during the process of putting ‘Imposter’ together and the extra vocal parts and lyrics that Mikaila added still give me goosebumps every time! She took this song to a whole new dimension and I’m so grateful to her for it. This is our joint break-up anthem and we hope it empowers other people who’ve been through similar nightmarish bullshit to stay strong.”
The song also comes packing a science fiction-inspired music video directed by Colin Jeffs of Ten of Swords Media (Make Them Suffer, Alpha Wolf), which takes its cues from cult sci-fi flicks like “Species” and “Jennifer’s Body”, as both women slowly morph into deranged lizard monsters with a taste for human flesh.
“Imposter” follows on from “Off with Your Head,” “Soju” featuring Sly Withers, “SAY” and “Jabberwocky,” all of which will feature on the forthcoming “Postcard from a Living Hell” LP.
“Postcard from a Living Hell” track listing:
- Postcard
- Jabberwocky
- Off with Your Head
- The Critic
- Imposter (Feat. Yours Truly)
- Soju (Feat. Sly Withers)
- Psyche vs Psyche
- Low Budget Horror
- Intervention
- Inarticulate
- SAY
RedHook is an independent alt-rock foursome from Sydney, Australia, that’s quickly accumulated a global fanbase and tens of millions of stream.
Featuring the core creative duo of Emmy Mack and Craig Wilkinson, two strangers from regional New South Wales whose paths collided after moving to Sydney in 2017, RedHook combines with young gun drummer Alex Powys and seasoned bassist Ned Jankovic to create heartfelt, attitude-filled rock music that defies classification.
The strength of its debut single “Minute on Fire” in 2018 attracted the interest of one of the lead promoters of the U.K.’s Download Festival, who invited RedHook to play. The band then was snapped up by The Hen House Artist Management (worldwide) and inked booking deals with New World Artists (AUS) and Wasserman (UK/EU), going on to conquer some of Australia’s biggest music festival stages (Download, Good Things, Stonefest, BIGSOUND).RedHook also completed its debut international tour (supporting Three Days Grace across the U.K. and Europe), launched its own gender diversity-inspired alternative festival in Sydney, UsFest, and undertook four complete Australian tours (selling out the Melbourne and Sydney legs of its debut headline tour).
As RedHook’s global fan base grew steadily with each single release and live show, many big things followed. The band was named triple j Unearthed feature artist and Kerrang! Radio feature artist, and was invited to host the ABC’s iconic “rage” program. They’ve consistently featured as one of the top 50 most-played artists on triple j Unearthed every year since 2019.
2021 saw RedHook release its long-awaited debut EP, “Bad Decisions,” which has ticked over 13 million Spotify streams and had its two lead singles added to rotation on triple j. The record earned praise from Kerrang! (UK), Rock Sound (UK), Rolling Stone (AUS) and many more, even scooping a 2022 AIR Independent Music Awards nomination for best punk EP or album.
RedHook continued its steady rise across 2022 with its debut performances at Australia’s UNIFY Gathering, Groovin’ the Moo and boutique festival Rolling Sets, as well as playing one of the world’s most iconic rock festivals Rock AM Ring/Rock im Park in Germany alongside the likes of Green Day and Muse, accompanied by a second tour of Europe supporting The Faim.
RedHook’s headline “Bring Ya Mates” tour was also a huge success with multiple sold-out shows around Australia as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. This was followed by a 28-date, two-month-long regional Australian tour as main support for In Hearts Wake and a triumphant return the Good Things festival stage alongside Bring Me the Horizon and Deftones, where RedHook made history as the first band to grace the lineup twice.
In May 2022, RedHook returned with “Jabberwocky,” its most gut-wrenching single to date, which was added immediately to triple j high rotation and added to the cover of Spotify’s popular “All New Rock” Playlist. Follow-up singles “SAY” and “Soju” Ft. Sly Withers have both since been added to full rotation on triple j.
The band will support the release of “Postcard from a Living Hell” with a monster Australian tour joining The Smashing Pumpkins at the debut of its travelling The World Is a Vampire Festival throughout April, before embarking on its own 11-date Australian headline tour in May.
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