Singled Out: Staytus' How To Be A Serial Killer

05-29-2025

Industrial-electronic artist Staytus just revealed the final track in her genre-bending Twisted Frames series with the release of "How To Be A Serial Killer", and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

I write songs like horror vignettes, and "How To Be a Serial Killer" is my most unflinching one yet. Inspired by Matthew Gray Gubler's jet-black cult comedy, the track plunges listeners into a killer's manic inner monologue-fetishizing flesh, reveling in violence, and daring you to confront the ugliness we usually bury. It's the final, blood-spattered curtain call of my Twisted Frames series that also includes "68 Kill," "Suburban Gothic," and "King Knight."

Lyrically, I flip through an imaginary self-help manual-page after page of rules about how to smile, how to shrink, how to survive-until the narrator finally snaps the book shut and writes her own ending. Each line is a knife-stroke at the façade we're coached to maintain.

Musically, I wanted that tension to feel physical. The verses pulse like a restrained heartbeat, then the choruses break into serrated synths and drop-D guitars. Producer Matt McJunkins (A Perfect Circle, Puscifer) and I chased sonics that sound as perilous as the thoughts behind them-every frequency pushes against the red, but never quite tips into chaos.

Ultimately, "How To Be a Serial Killer" isn't a how-to guide; it's an exorcism. It's me reclaiming every intrusive thought, every bottled-up scream, and forging them into something melodic. If it lets someone else vent their own chaos for three minutes, mission accomplished.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here