The Lore Behind "Red Light"
UTurn's Canadian single
This is my latest article of my weekly series on Substack, “The Lore Behind…” This week’s article is UTurn’s Canadian single from the Second Album Era, Red Light. This article will show both the real life lore and the canonical lore. This was originally a still on Instagram, so now we’re starting to catch up!
Don’t worry, we’ll get to UTurn’s current PRESSZERO lore soon, but if you want to check out the current lore, make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok for all things UTurn and The One Series.
For some context, there are three One Series eras based on drafts. The Original Draft Era, which spans from 2011 to 2014. The Second Draft Era spans from 2017 to 2023. And the Final Version Era, originally called the Amazon Era, starting in 2020 and onward. This version is the published version.
Real Life Lore
I had been wanting to write and produce a song about being overworked in the music industry. Yet for this song in particular, that wasn’t the case initially.
(Anniversary cover of the Second Draft Era version of “Addictive Lies”. 2020)
During the Second Draft Era, the original idea was that UTurn had another party disco pop song that they released in select countries. When it came time to produce the song, I was inspired by both Steps and The Veronicas. I wanted to produce something that sounded like a combination of both bands.
The end result was a spooky S Club Juniors-style song. Still disco-pop in nature, but now I can implement the dark lyrics about being in the music industry.
(Steps, The Veronicas, and S Club Juniors being the end result of “Red Light”.)
The demo was released on SoundCloud in 2022. The official UTurn version came out in 2024.
(Album cover of the demo version of UTurn’s second album, “Red Light”. 2022)
The One Series Lore
There’s not much backstory within the canon regarding the song Red Light. It was written by two UTurn members, Amanda and Derrick. This song was released by itself in Canada, and double-A-sided in the UK, Europe, and Australia with No/Yes.
Stream Red Light and all of UTurn’s music today.
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