Triple Threat: RedHook’s Emmy Mack on balancing music, radio & media

Emmy Mack has only just arrived back in Australia from her first overseas tour with RedHook, but she’s already thrown herself back into her dual media gigs.

As well as being a key part of the rising nu-metal act, Mack is a freelance journalist, writer and interviewer for music news site Music Feeds, and works full-time in the newsroom at 101.3 Sea FM on the Central Coast.

“It was only the second time I’d ever been overseas ever. It was the first time that I’ve personally ever played any shows outside of Australia and RedHook’s maiden international tour, so it was a lot of firsts, a lot of milestones and it was insane,” she tells TMN.

“Back to the grind now. I Got back on Sunday last week, and then I was up at 3:30am on Monday to get back to my radio job.”

So what does a day in the life look like for Emmy Mack?

Well, she’s is trying to simplify things after struggling to juggle it all before she jetted off overseas with RedHook.

“I was balancing doing casual work at my radio news job with writing shifts for Music Feeds, MTV, and then I was also doing a bit of freelance editing for Good Intent, as well as balancing the band stuff.

“So, it was a lot of juggling and it just kind of got a bit too much.

“I was just placing a lot of unrealistic expectations on myself with just getting everything done and really putting in the effort that was required for all of those commitments, and found myself stretched really thin.”

When a full-time gig at Sea FM came up, Mack jumped at the chance.

“Shortly before RedHook went overseas I made the decision to go full-time at Southern Cross Austero.

“I’m still doing the band stuff obviously, and also a few Music Feeds shifts here and there because I just didn’t want to give that up.”

RedHook’s rise appears pretty swift from the outside, but the band’s success has come after years of hustling on Mack’s part.

“When things were really crazy, I was living in Sydney and I’d catch the train to the Central Coast to work my radio job, and I’d be on the train at 1:45am filling out media Q&A’s and stuff, and doing publicity, answering interviews for the band and then working that job.

“Then I’d duck out during my break and be on a conference call with our manager who’s in the US, and try not to get in trouble at work.”

You’d think that being part of the music industry for so long would be helpful for launching a music career, but it wasn’t quite that simple.

“Networks are such a huge thing, so in a lot of ways having that background in the industry and building up a knowledge of the way things work was helpful,” says Mack.

“Seeing what things were working for certain artists in terms of PR and stuff like that really did help inform the launch strategy with RedHook when we were just completely independent and just doing everything ourselves.

“There’s also on the other side of things, there’s a lot of ethical conundrums as well. When you do have a network of friends and peers in your industry that you have a good relationship with, there’s always an awkwardness.

“You don’t want to ask anybody for favours when it comes to your own music. So, I guess there’s that double-edged sword there.”

RedHook isn’t slowing down either, with the band having just released their fourth single ‘Only Bones’, and announced a headline tour of Australia.

“We’ve got the new single that’s just out, we’ve just announced our first-ever headlining tour which we’re super excited about, that’s another really big milestone for us.

“Right now we’re having conversations with a bunch of labels and stuff which is really exciting, but I think the outcome of that will determine whether we just keep on dropping singles or whether there’s an EP coming or an album coming.”