Press launch –
Toronto rocker Emily Mac releases her new single “Animal,” the closing assertion on her debut EP ‘ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL,’ out now. The place the sooner songs on the EP dig via heartbreak and exhausting truths, “Animal” arrives as one thing looser and extra playful, a tune about selecting enjoyable over harm and going after precisely what she desires.
Mac wrote “Animal” after an ex resurfaced in her life at an emotionally complicated second. She retreated to her mom’s distant cottage on an island in Northern Ontario, and from there, wrote the tune over the web with co-writer Jay Stolar, who was in Los Angeles on the time. Relatively than dwelling on the heartbreak, the 2 leaned into one thing extra mischievous, crafting a tune in regards to the sort of lover who truly is aware of learn how to present up. That spirit runs via the opening line, “Heard you say you suppose you like me, heard you mentioned it in your sleep,” and carries into the tune’s central demand, “Late at night time I wanna man who’s an animal.”
The observe doesn’t maintain again in terms of calling out a accomplice who takes greater than he provides. “Taking every little thing you need, by no means doing a lick of labor, buddy you’re a lazy lover, getting what you deserve,” Mac sings, a line she says got here simply. “It’s a hell of a zinger,” Mac says. “I discover it tremendous unattractive when a person is lazy and expects all of your love and affection in return. Individuals who present up and care and put effort in, these are the attractive individuals.”
“Animal” was recorded at Toronto’s Noble Avenue Studios and at producer Dajaun Martineau’s residence studio, with Martineau additionally dealing with mixing duties. The observe was engineered by Theresa Gemma and mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering, with a full band bringing the association to life: Ben Healey on guitar, Stacey Shopsowitz on bass, and Robert Sibony on drums. One studio contact stands out to Mac specifically. “When recording the guitar half within the studio with my producer Dajaun Martineau and guitar participant Ben Healey, I assumed it might be cool so as to add a guitar half that seemed like a cat,” she says, a nod to her well-known love of cats. “I’m so pleased with the way it turned out. Makes the tune sound even wilder.”
The tune’s traditional rock spine comes from Mac’s lifelong influences. The guitar licks draw from “Candy Youngster O’ Mine” by Weapons N’ Roses and “Cunning Girl” by Jimi Hendrix, whereas the vocal riff within the bridge takes its cue from Aretha Franklin’s “Dr. Feelgood.” “I used to cowl this tune and thought it might be actually cool so as to add some attractive soul music to a rock tune,” Mac says. She credit the writing course of with Stolar as an enormous a part of what makes the observe really feel so alive. “We’d give you a line, and I’d begin laughing, like, can we do this on this tune? And that’s what makes it so rock n roll, we had been rebelling, pushing buttons and having enjoyable. A tune is at all times extra enjoyable when it feels a little bit harmful.”
The accompanying music video, shot with Hamilton based mostly photographer and director Andrea Hunter, brings the tune’s wild power into full view, with outside scenes filmed at Floor Farm Studios, a property Hunter really useful for its funky signage and laid-back inventive environment, together with its resident cats. The video additionally options actual snakes on set, dealt with all through by knowledgeable wrangler. “I grew up by no means actually having a concern of snakes,” Mac says. “I knew I wished actual stay snakes within the music video and images for the tune.” Mac says nonetheless conjures up her inventive decisions as we speak. Mac rounded out the look with a spiked cat masks sourced from Toronto costume store Sweet’s Costumes, paired with the animal print and rock and roll style she has lengthy gravitated towards.
‘ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL’ is Emily Mac’s debut EP, a uncooked and rebellious assortment of songs that echo traditional rock with a contemporary feminist edge, shifting via poisonous relationships and finish of the world anxieties with a performer who refuses to be buried beneath any of it. With over 100,000 collective streams and listeners throughout 103 international locations, Mac has constructed a rising following that stretches from Toronto levels together with the Opera Home, the El Mocambo, and the Horseshoe Tavern, to worldwide rooms like New York Metropolis’s The Bitter Finish and the Rockwood Music Corridor. Her sound has earned her comparisons to Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin, and Ann Wilson, and with “Animal” closing the EP, Emily Mac makes clear that her rock and roll swagger is simply getting louder from right here.
