When we last checked in with the then-LA-based songwriter Johanna Warren, she was on the verge of dropping her record Chaotic Good—meanwhile, not to diminish the impact of that record, there were some much bigger things going on globally. While early 2020 saw the beginning of some severe changes for most of us, for Warren that meant holing up in rural Wales where she wound up sticking around to record the follow-up to that LP, and where she still remains today.
That record, she’s now revealing, is titled Lessons for Mutants. Like her previous album, it covers a wide range of influences, though this one maintains a technological throughline that sets these songs apart from those of many of her peers. “There’s this unspoken rule in modern music—modern life, really—that everything needs to be Auto-Tuned and ‘on the grid,’” she shared in a press statement for the new project, with “grid” seemingly taking on more than one meaning. “This record is an act of resistance against that. There’s beauty and power in our aberrations, if we can embrace them.”
Along with the news, Warren is sharing a sprinkles-filled music video for the first single “I'd Be Orange,” which she co-directed with Richey Beckett. The visual tells the all-too-familiar Hollywood tale of a talented artist being launched to stardom while working a shit job—only with a bit more realism to its conclusion. “The only thing we love more than building up an icon is watching them fall,” she shares. “And yet, as an aspiring icon, even when you know that, there’s still this perverse desire to be one of the chosen ones who gets pinned to the cross and set ablaze.”
Watch the video below, and pre-order the album here.
