Photo by Ben Shani
Growing up as what she describes as the “black sheep” of her family and Catholic school upbringing, Emily found refuge in performance early on singing beneath trees, scribbling poetry during class, and chasing the feeling of becoming fully alive through art. Rejected from music school and teased for her voice, she spent years believing she was not enough before ultimately finding her way back to herself through music.
Now, with her latest release “Black Cat,” Emily Brooks channels that emotional intensity. Sonically, the track pulls from alternative rock, garage rock, blues, and flashes of PJ Harvey’s raw femininity woven through the song’s sharp edges. The song “Black Cat” built around distorted guitars and smoky vocals leans fully into the symbolism of the black cat itself: feared, misunderstood, sexualized, and demonized. Instead of resisting those projections, Emily transforms them into power.
Photo By Dave Lang
“Black Cat” embraces rebellion, vulnerability, and emotional release.
There is something distinctly cinematic about the way Emily approaches songwriting. Rather than polishing emotions down into something digestible, “Black Cat” allows the emotions to remain messy, impulsive, and alive. Listening to “Black Cat” feels like wandering through downtown Los Angeles at 2 a.m. after making a terrible decision you would probably make again. There is fierceness in every guitar line and vocal delivery, but beneath the persona sits something more vulnerable, its the ache of becoming yourself in a world obsessed with performance and perfection with the strange freedom that comes from having nothing left to prove.
Lyrically, the song thrives in contradiction. It is flirtatious and reckless one moment, emotionally exposed the next.
“Roll me up, tie me in a bow…”
“Turn it up, give it some gasoline…”
“Maybe this life is just the touch I’ve been waiting for…”
The push and pull between seduction and destruction gives the song its pulse. Emily’s writing never fully settles into innocence or chaos. Instead, she exists somewhere in between: seductive, untamed, and completely aware of the fire she is playing with. Her delivery carries both confidence and unraveling at once, making “Black Cat” feel less like a performance and more like a release of everything she has spent years trying to suppress. At its core, “Black Cat” is about embracing the parts of yourself people often want softened, hidden, or controlled. Emily describes the release as an anthem for fully becoming yourself even when that version makes other people uncomfortable.
Photo by Ben Shani
When asked what she hopes listeners take away from the release, Emily keeps it simple:
“I hope people walk away from ‘Black Cat’ feeling more empowered to get messy, get real, and stop caring so much about how things look or what other people think.”
With “Black Cat,” Emily Brooks is creating a world where femininity feels dangerous, vulnerability becomes power, and chaos transforms into liberation.
Emily will be performing “Black Cat” on her release May 15th with a celebration taking over The Viper Room in West Hollywood, California.
