Who said saxophones and hard rock don’t mix? Never one to play by the rules, RedHook are pushing the boundaries yet again with their latest single “Breaking Up With.”
“This song is pretty much the antithesis of our most popular single ‘Bad Decisions’. Rather than revelling in being a total piece of shit, this one is about breaking that cycle of self-hate, forgiving your past mistakes, and just deciding to be bloody kinder to yourself,” explained the band’s frontwoman Emmy Mack. “Lyrically, it takes the piss out of break-up cliches to signify ending that toxic relationship (with, you know, yourself) and starting fresh. I hope everyone who vibed with ‘Bad Decisions’ will also be shaking their hips in the moshpit to this one.”
Emmy also conceptualised the music video, which features a cavalcade of superstars from Pro Wrestling Australia.
“Last year, I was lucky enough to live out my WWE Attitude Era dreams at Sydney’s PWA Colosseum event, so I figured – why not throw the party inside a wrestling ring and get a bunch of my PWA superstar mates involved?” she said. “The shoot was bloody insane. I got to bust a hurricanrana on myself in the perfect visual metaphor for laying the smackdown on all of my toxic traits once and for all – RedHook 3:16 says I just whooped my own ass!”
“Breaking Up With” gives us a taste of a larger release set to be announced in the coming months. Watch this space!
If you’re catching RedHook this month, make sure you get there early enough for Belle Haven’s set. If their nostalgic new single “Grimace” is an indicator, you won’t want to miss it. The song explores the insecurity and uncertainty that comes from working in the music industry.
“It is a brutal yet brilliant world to work in, and it takes a certain amount of resilience to be a part of sometimes which is something I think we’ve struggled with over the years.” explained vocalist David De La Hoz. “There’s a sort of irony to this song; we are more excited than ever to be releasing this music.”
If you haven’t got tickets for the Postcard From a Living Hell tour yet, what are you waiting for? Here are all the remaining dates for these massive shows featuring RedHook, Belle Haven, Bad Love, and Grenade Jumper.
11 May 2023 – Prince of Wales Hotel, Goomburrup/Bunbury
12 May 2023 – Amplifier, Boorloo/Perth
13 May 2023 – Enigma Bar, Tandanya/Adelaide
19 May 2023 – UC Hub, Ngunnawal/Canberra
20 May 2023 – The Corner Hotel, Naarm/Melbourne
25 May 2023 – La La La’s, Dharawal/Wollongong
26 May 2023 – The Cambridge, Mulumbinba/Newcastle
27 May 2023 – Crowbar, Eora/Sydney
Image used with permission from Bigmouth PR; credit: Oversimplified Complications
Magic was always going to happen when two of the greatest female voices in Australia’s heavy music scene collaborated. “Imposter,” the latest single from RedHook (fronted by Emmy Mack) and Yours Truly (fronted by Mikaila Delgado) is an epic break-up anthem. If you’ve been wronged my sisters, you’re going to want to turn the volume up on this one.
“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,” Emmy confirmed of the song’s inspiration. “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.
“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 clip is the perfect accompaniment. If you love cult sci fi flicks like Species and Jennifer’s Body, you’re going to be all about this.
There are plenty of opportunities to see RedHook in the coming months, with the band joining Smashing Pumpkins’ The World is a Vampire Tour, headlining their own shows to support the recent release of their EP, Postcard From a Living Hell, and playing a couple of extra festivals. Get onto it fans!
RedHook have teamed up with Sly Withers for “Soju”, one of the best pop-punk tracks I’ve heard in some time. The message about setting boundaries for yourself is right on point and the song has got such a great energy thanks to the hundreds of RedHook fans from Yerrowah/Shellharbour who also lend their voices. And that’s even before the sax solo kicks in. Saxophone on a pop-punk number? It’s wild, but it works!
“I wrote ‘Soju’ about the perils of being a ‘people pleaser’ and the feelings of frustration and resentment that can boil up when you don’t set healthy boundaries, and allow more assertive personalities to push you around,” explained frontwoman Emmy Mack. “It’s a ‘fuck you’ song, but it’s also simultaneously a ‘fuck me’ song because at the end of the day, it’s up to each of us to prioritise our own needs and not compromise our values to keep the peace. Some people like me just struggle with it a bit harder than others.”
In the wake of the recently released Raising Their Voices report into sexual harassment and discrimination across the Australian music industry, RedHook have dropped their powerful new single “SAY.” Lead singer Emmy Mack wrote the song to share her own experiences of sexism before and after the birth of the #MeToo movement. That’s right, if you thought #MeToo solved everything, Emmy is here to burst your bubble.
“When I was first starting out, I was told in no uncertain terms that I had a ‘use-by date’, I was pressured to dumb down my ‘image’ and conform to a more palatable ‘female rock artist’ stereotype; and I was repeatedly made to feel like my opinion didn’t matter when it came to my own music and career,” Emmy said. “And even though it does feel like things are starting to shift in a more positive direction, with the #MeToo movement and now this Raising Their Voices report helping to bring these issues out of the shadows, we clearly still have a long way to go. I hope my little trauma dump on ‘SAY’ helps empower people who’ve copped similar bullshit in any aspect of life. My vision for the song is to be a loud and impetuous ‘fuck you’ to anyone who’s ever tried to make anyone else in this world feel voiceless or small.”
Fuck yes. RedHook have a bunch of upcoming dates playing festivals and supporting In Hearts Wake. Catch them anywhere you can.
22 September 2022 – Drifters Wharf, Darkinjung Country/Gosford (supporting In Hearts Wake)
23 September 2022 – Cambridge Hotel, Mulubinba/Newcastle (supporting In Hearts Wake)
24 September 2022 – Manning Bar, Eora/Sydney (early show – supporting In Hearts Wake)
24 September 2022 – Manning Bar, Eora/Sydney (late show – supporting In Hearts Wake)
29 September 2022 – Uni Bar, Tharawal/Wollongong (supporting In Hearts Wake)
30 September 2022 – UC Hub, Ngunnawal/Canberra (supporting In Hearts Wake)
1 October 2022 – Beer Deluxe, Wiradjuri/Albury (supporting In Hearts Wake)
5 October 2022 – Volta, Wathaurong/Ballarat (supporting In Hearts Wake)
6 October 2022 – Sooki Lounge, Wurundjeri/Belgrave (supporting In Hearts Wake)
7 October 2022 – The Wool Exchange, Djilang/Geelong (supporting In Hearts Wake)
8 October 2022 – Pier Bandroom, Boonwurrung/Frankston (supporting In Hearts Wake)
14 October 2022 – Altar, Nipaluna/Hobart (supporting In Hearts Wake)
15 October 2022 – Lion Arts Factory, Tarndanya/Adelaide (supporting In Hearts Wake)
16 October 2022 – North Sound System, Kaurna/Elizabeth (Licensed-All Ages supporting In Hearts Wake)
21 October 2022 – Vinnie’s Dive, Yugambeh/Cold Coast (supporting In Hearts Wake)
22 October 2022 – The Northern, Cavanbah, Byron Bay (supporting In Hearts Wake)
29 October 2022 – Scorched Festival, Meeanjin/Brisbane
2 December 2022 – Good Things Festival, Naarm/Melbourne
3 December 2022 – Good Things Festival, Eora/Sydney
4 December 2022 – Good Things Festival, Meeanjin/Brisbane
10 December 2022 – Rolling Sets Festival, Darkinjung Country/The Entrance
If you need something to get you going this Monday morning, take a listen to RedHook’s new single “Sentimental Surgery.” With elements of rock, punk, and pop, this track from the Sydney act demands to be played loud.
“’Sentimental Surgery’ is a punk party anthem inspired by the shared woes of lockdown (and feeling like a total cliche for writing a song about the shared woes of lockdown),” explained lead singer Emmy Mack. “Given what we’ve all been going through these past 18 months, I found it really difficult to write a song about any other topic. So instead of trying to, I decided to embrace the cliche and create a piece of music that expressed those sad feels, but also flipped them in a way that hopefully cheers people up, puts a smile on their face and makes them want to dance.”
Now that NSW’s lockdown has lifted, RedHook are looking forward to getting back on stage. Catch them at the following shows next year:
20-23 January 2022 – UNIFY Gathering 2022 @ Tarwin Meadows, Gippsland
28 January 2022 – Max Watt’s House of Music, Melbourne
4 February 2022 – The Zoo, Brisbane
5 February 2022 – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
11 February 2022 – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
12 February 2022 – Jack Rabbit Slim’s, Perth
26 February 2022 – Full Tilt @ Bella Vista Farm, Sydney
2 April 2022 – Halloween Hysteria III @ Mansfield Tavern, Brisbane
