Emily Mac

“Kills Me To Love You” is the ultimate female rage song with the smashing drums, driving electric guitar riffs, and Emily Mac’s gnarlingly good voice and thick timbre. If that wasn’t laudable enough, she decided to get her music produced in the most high-profile cinematic way possible. We wonder if she’s a perfectionist—everything’s spot on!

From the music to the music video, she left little to the imagination. But it couldn’t be possible without her team. So shout-outs to the video director and editor, Paul Maxwell, and stills photographer, Andrea Hunter. Our girl, Emily, being a multi-talented star, sang, wrote, and directed her music video art.

And coming back to the music, “Kills Me To Love You” by Emily Mac is a true rock anthem. Emily hits every note with a piercing emphasis on each syllable. The music production came out sounding so immaculate and smooth, with every verse easily flowing to the next as her huge range hits the crescendo with mellifluous belting and swings back again with the infectious guitar riff. And there’s a good reason for that other than her dire efforts: a gold-certified producer. We are talking about Dajaun Martineau, whose work on the song gets told through the ingenious production.

So, looking back at the music video, you can see Emily’s vivid expressions and body language over a vampire-themed landscape. It’s dark, to say the least. But most importantly, it’s art—a masterpiece. Being an aspiring star, she’s already hitting the charts. So don’t wait and listen to “Kills Me To Love You” now! - Illustrate Magazine by Naomi Joan

Emily Mac pulls the hard punches in “Kills Me To Love You,” loaded (pun intended) and fire. With darkly satisfying explosive-sensitive percussion and hard-hitting lyrics, “Kills Me To Love You” is wickedly empowering with sinister guitars crawling in the background, not without a hint from Mac’s haunting blues phantom.

Her words are sharp, like swords piercing through pages of lies. “Kills Me To Love You” is disillusioned, channeling the inner bad girl, pointing a middle finger at the ex. From punchy beats, dirty guitar licks, to sexy sassy punk allure, “Kills Me To Love You” unleashes two mountains of burden. Though flamboyant and black in color, the vulnerable lines in the track hit harder than ever: “I died in your arms,” “It kills me to love you.”

The imagery of dying is fully accompanied by gunfire in the sounds. There’s violence and darkness in “Kills Me To Love You,” but it’s not there on its own. Instead, it originated from a trauma that one seeks to put behind. In a way, “Kills Me To Love You” is bleak, much like the way how early blues documented the truth in the barebones of a song. Perhaps there’s no proper way to vocalize the dark places that one journeys to after having endured something traumatizing, but “Kills Me To Love You” understands it. The track gets there through vivid sonic symbolism that hits where it hurts, so that it may heal.

Mac offers a much-needed catharsis and closure to an unfortunate end. Sometimes, when the hurt is deep, forgiveness isn’t enough. There’s a need for resolution, a need for justice and fairness, a need to tell one’s story. “Kills Me To Love You” punches through the anger and hurt. And with Mac’s eerily haunting blues in the mix of hard rock, she gives listeners a moment alone, punching a hole through these dark thoughts.

Punk Head: I love how you explored darker themes such as toxic relationships and heartbreak in "Kills Me to Love You." The intimacy and the lyrics hit me quite hard. What was the creative progress like?

Emily Mac: It means a lot to me that my lyrics connected with you. Writing and recording “Kills Me To Love You” was intense, I was working through the trauma that past relationships had left on me and realizing that my desire for love had led me down some dark paths. Being a very empathic person it’s easy for me to take other people’s energies on as my own. So with this song, I gave that darkness back and took my power back. I feel like no matter what hard stuff you go through in life you can always walk away and start over.
PH: Hitting 50K stream with your first 2 singles is quite an achievement. How do you feel about this initial success?

Mac: It makes me so happy to see that so many people around the world are listening to and connecting with my music. It’s wild ‘cause when I was recording this album we were still in a partial pandemic lockdown and the world felt super small. I look forward to reaching even more people with my music and getting to meet them at my live shows.

PH: Can you tell us more about you as an artist?

Mac: When I’m the best version of myself, I’m channeling my experiences into art. The world is both beautiful and broken and a lot of things don’t make sense to me… but what does is music, connection: humanity. Sometimes I find it hard to express everything I want to say in my day-to-day life so I put it in a song. Rock is the perfect outlet for my emotions because it's raw and rebellious at its heart.

PH: Who are your biggest inspirations?

Mac: There are many. Some of my classic rock inspirations are Heart, The Rolling Stones and Stevie Nicks. I’m also really inspired by Dorothy, The Rival Sons and Beware of Darkness.

PH: What would like to say to your fans out there?

Mac: You are not alone, everything about you is ok; the dark parts, the weird parts and the sassy sexy parts. Be your free wild self and on the days that life feels hard turn up the volume on your rock music and let it lift you up. - Punk Head written by Katrina Yang

Emily Mac serves up a straight shot of 100-proof blues-rock with a side of attitude in her new single Whiskey Like Me — showcasing today on Tinnitist.

A fiery anthem laced with sassy vocals and dirty guitar, Whiskey Like Me hits right where it hurts when Mac sings, “I’m a top-shelf queen / And you keep staring at me / But you can’t drink me tonight / I ain’t your trophy wife.”
Like all the best songs, it’s inspired by a true story. “When I was writing Whiskey Like Me, I was coming out of a bad relationship and I didn’t understand why I was so heartbroken over a guy who treated me like I was worthless,” the Toronto singer-songwriter divulges. “I made a joke to my co-writer about how I was this strong, whiskey-drinking woman who could drink this guy under the table while he preferred milk, and out of this conversation, Whiskey Like Me was born.”

Co-written with Jay Stolar (Demi Lovato, Daryl Hall & John Oates), Whiskey Like Me features Ben Healey on guitar, Stacey Shopsowitz on bass, and Robert Sibony on drums. It was engineered by Theresa Gemma and produced by Dajaun Martineau (Moist, Big Sugar)“I love that popular quote, ‘I’d rather be someone’s shot of whiskey than everyone’s cup of tea,’ ” Mac says. “As someone who has a problem with being a people pleaser, this was a very important lesson for me to learn. I hope that when people hear Whiskey Like Me, they’ll embrace their inner badass and walk away from anyone who doesn’t value them.”

Mac’s sultry vocals are something to be both savoured and enjoyed in abundance. Before she could legally order a drink, she was singing in cover bands in bars, honing her craft in real time in front of an audience. Over the course of her career, Emily has performed at numerous festivals such as Canadian Music Week, Indie Week, Toronto Jazz Festival, Beaches International Jazz Festival and Niagara Wine Festival. Additionally, Emily has become an asset of empowerment to the Toronto music community through her support of other female artists with her Queens Of Rock ’n’ Roll showcase series, which has brought like-minded indie artists together both online and in person. - Tinnitist by Darryl Sterdan

Blues music has been making something of a resurgence recently, particularly when mixed with the hard rock genre. Because of this, I decided it would be a good time to reinvigorate my blues music series, with this being the second version of the review. There are a whole host of different artists and bands listed below that should take your fancy if you’re into the genre!

Emily Mac – Whiskey Like Me

Kicking this list off in style is Emily Mac with her new belter of a song, Whiskey Like Me. The track starts out with a killer of a guitar riff, making this more of a rock song than just a straight-up blues tune. The rhythm fits the guitars perfectly, seeing Emily belting the lyrics out over the music. You can really feel the passion and attitude in her voice as her vocals carry through the track, oozing cool throughout! - York Calling - review by Jane Howkins