Emily Mac Unleashes Seductive New Single “Animal” From Debut EP ‘ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL’ Out Now
Toronto rocker Emily Mac releases her new single “Animal,” the closing statement on her debut EP, ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL, out now. Where the earlier songs on the EP dig through heartbreak and hard truths, “Animal” arrives as something looser and more playful, a song about choosing fun over hurt and going after exactly what she wants.
Mac wrote “Animal” after an ex resurfaced in her life at an emotionally confusing moment. She retreated to her mother’s remote cottage on an island in Northern Ontario, and from there, wrote the song over the internet with co-writer Jay Stolar, who was in Los Angeles at the time. Rather than dwelling on the heartbreak, the two leaned into something more mischievous, crafting a song about the kind of lover who actually knows how to show up. That spirit runs through the opening line, “Heard you say you think you love me, heard you said it in your sleep,” and carries into the song’s central demand, “Late at night I wanna man who’s an animal.”
The track does not hold back when it comes to calling out a partner who takes more than he gives. “Taking everything you want, never doing a lick of work, buddy you’re a lazy lover, getting what you deserve,” Mac sings, a line she says came easily.
“It’s a hell of a zinger,” Mac says. “I find it super unattractive when a man is lazy and expects all your love and affection in return. People who show up and care and put effort in, those are the sexy people.”
“Animal” was recorded at Toronto’s Noble Street Studios and at producer Dajaun Martineau’s home studio, with Martineau also handling mixing duties. The track was engineered by Theresa Gemma and mastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel Mastering, with a full band bringing the arrangement to life: Ben Healey on guitar, Stacey Shopsowitz on bass, and Robert Sibony on drums. One studio touch stands out to Mac in particular.
“When recording the guitar part in the studio with my producer Dajaun Martineau and guitar player Ben Healey, I thought it would be cool to add a guitar part that sounded like a cat,” she says, a nod to her well-known love of cats. “I’m so happy with how it turned out. Makes the song sound even wilder.”
The song’s classic rock backbone comes from Mac’s lifelong influences. The guitar licks draw from “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses and “Foxy Lady” by Jimi Hendrix, while the vocal riff in the bridge takes its cue from Aretha Franklin’s “Dr. Feelgood.”
“I used to cover this song and thought it would be really cool to add some sexy soul music to a rock song,” Mac says. She credits the writing process with Stolar as a big part of what makes the track feel so alive. “We’d come up with a line, and I’d start giggling, like, can we do that in this song? And that’s what makes it so rock n roll, we were rebelling, pushing buttons and having fun. A song is always more fun when it feels a little dangerous.”
The accompanying music video, shot with Hamilton based photographer and director Andrea Hunter, brings the song’s wild energy into full view, with outdoor scenes filmed at Surface Farm Studios, a property Hunter recommended for its funky signage and laid-back creative atmosphere, including its resident cats. The video also features real snakes on set, handled throughout by a professional wrangler.
“I grew up never really having a fear of snakes,” Mac says. “I knew I wanted real live snakes in the music video and photos for the song.” Mac says still inspires her creative choices today.
Mac rounded out the look with a spiked cat mask sourced from Toronto costume shop Candy’s Costumes, paired with the animal print and rock and roll fashion she has long gravitated toward.
ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL is Emily Mac’s debut EP, a raw and rebellious collection of songs that echo classic rock with a modern feminist edge, moving through toxic relationships and end of the world anxieties with a performer who refuses to be buried under any of it. With over 100,000 collective streams and listeners across 103 countries, Mac has built a growing following that stretches from Toronto stages including the Opera House, the El Mocambo, and the Horseshoe Tavern, to international rooms like New York City’s The Bitter End and the Rockwood Music Hall. 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 only getting louder from here.
Hi, Emily! Good to see you again! Care to introduce yourself to the readers for those not familiar with your music?
Good to talk with you again too! My name is Emily Mac and I’m a Toronto based rock singer. I just released my debut EP “ROCK N ROLL ANIMAL” it’s a raw, raunchy & rebellious collection of songs the echo back to classic rock with a modern feminist edge.
“Animal” closes an EP that otherwise digs through heartbreak and hard truths. Was it always going to be the last track, or did the sequencing change once you knew how playful this song was going to be?
“Animal” wasn’t always going to be the last track of the EP. I did several solo listening sessions where I closed my eyes lite some candles and really thought deeply about the journey I wanted to take my listeners on. I love how having “Animal” as the last song on the EP leaves you on a high note like the song is reminding you to have fun with your life no matter what curve balls get thrown your way.
You wrote this over the internet with Jay Stolar while you were at your mom’s cottage and he was in L.A. Did writing it apart, rather than in the same room, change how honest or how silly you were willing to get with the lyrics?
I’ve done quite a few bi-costal co-writes online and once I got used to this way of writing I found that I really loved working from the comfort of my home (or cottage) and collaborating with someone in a different country. For me it doesn’t change the writing process – if anything it brings the energy of two different places together. I love both in person and online co-writes and I like to collaborate with different people.
You wanted real snakes in the video and on set. What is it about that image specifically, the snakes, the cat mask, that felt essential to how “Animal” needed to look, not just sound?
It’s always gonna press buttons to express sensuality as a woman. Often the animals that are associated with feminine sensuality like snakes and cats can be vilified like the serpent with Eve in the garden of Eden. I see these animals as a representation of female empowerment. It was important for me to show my “character” in the music video going on a journey from trapped in a dead end relationship to exploring her fantasies to finding her power to move on to a whole new life.
You’re drawing comparisons to Stevie Nicks, Janis Joplin, and Ann Wilson, artists who built careers on refusing to shrink themselves. Do those comparisons feel like pressure, or do they feel like permission?
It’s such an honour to be compared to these legendary artists who I’ve been looking up to since I was a kid and still to this day I just play their music and feel in awe. It’s because of their willingness to stand up for themselves and be bold women who rock that I’m making the music I’m making today so yah I’d say it’s permission.