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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.
