Welcome to The Drop, Refinery29's home for exclusive music video premieres. We want to shine the spotlight on women artists whose music inspires, excites, and (literally) moves us. This is where we'll champion their voices.
Meg Mac has that certain thing that you associate with Australia. It's not her accent or her features, but that confidence and ease that seems to emanate from down under. The singer/songwriter has been writing songs since she was a teenager and just one listen makes it easy to understand why her native country has loaded her down with "one to watch" and "best new talent" awards.
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One song, "Something Tells Me," particularly stands out. Mac co-wrote it with the heavily Grammy-nominated Australian songwriter Sarah Aarons, who penned "The Middle" and became Zedd's vocal inspiration. Like "The Middle," "Something Tells Me" has that same sense of wanting that turns a song into a hit.
What will charm you while watching the new video for "Something Tells Me," debuting exclusively on Refinery29, is her wild abandon while she plays piano and sings. Watching Mac perform is seeing someone lost in their own world, and their own talent. And, given the subject of the song, that is exactly as it should be.
We spoke with Mac about writing the song and the unexpected weirdness of filming the video.
Refinery29: What was the inspiration for this song?
Meg Mac: "Meeting and working with co-writer Sarah Aarons was the catalyst. When we met we connected immediately and wrote this sitting at an upright piano together. This song is about the decisions and choices you make based on what other people tell you should or shouldn't do. It's about not doing that anymore, not to listening to the people around you but trying to work out what you really want to do."
So when you saw the heard the idea for this video, what made it feel like the right visual pairing?
"I wanted this video to be simple and capture my performance of the song and a sense of the push and pull that surrounds you when you’re trying to make decisions in your life. Claudia Sangiorgi directed the video. She captured my last single 'Give Me My Name Back' beautifully and was wonderful to work with and bounce ideas off. "
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Was filming a simple process, where everything went according to plan?
"I was playing this big old piano, some of the keys were stuck and not working and it was out of tune."
Is your white suit symbolic in any way?
"No, but I knew I wanted to wear a white suit!"