Singer, songwriter, and free spirit Eddy Lee Ryder creates haunting songs that tell dramatic stories through a slightly warped lens. Eddy’s unconventional, theatrical approach to songwriting explodes and sparkles with ‘70s good-time rock riffs, spiced with complex poetry. Proclaimed “demented pop,” her music is propelled by her charismatic voice and lyrics inspired by an intense bizarre world. “My songs are about a quest for utopia on the open road. Wandering through the world, writing and singing songs about the people I meet.” Her uproarious performances invite audiences to dance with her through the apocalypse. Self-confessed demented-pop artist Eddy Lee Ryder has been writing songs and performing them in quite the nomadic way since she was a teenager, but her new single “Smoke and Mirrors” ended up in a place even she could not have imagined; a hardcore slasher horror film. (Eddy Lee Ryder, 2022)

Through a series of informal introductions to Ryder’s music through mutual friends, Damien Leone—creator, director, and writer of Terrifier 2—ended up using “Smoke and Mirrors” in his film after a search for something that sounded like Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush. “It was actually my friend Jeff Harris, who also was brought into the Terrifier family as a photographer, who messaged me one morning. ‘Can you email Damien? I don’t know why but they are looking for music in your genre, I don’t know how it fits with a slasher flick but that’s what they want!’” remembers Ryder. 

The upbeat song itself has a much different backstory. “It’s about friends of mine, amazing independent awesome women, who started doubting themselves or losing themselves after getting married to men who didn’t treat them very well,” says Ryder. “One of the husbands I reference in this song would text other girls but the messages would pop up on my friend’s synced iPad. He once said, ‘Sometimes I wait for her plane to burn in flames.’ That line made it into the song. And this was coming from a guy who would judge me for not being married!”

Fans can hear “Smoke and Mirrors” here. Terrifier 2 is out in theaters and on streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.