Vancouver’s Jade LeMac was just 17 years old when, in 2021, she took Rihanna’s “Stay” as her template and flipped it into a riveting piano ballad of her own: “Constellations.” That debut single not only introduced a singer with a powerfully vulnerable voice, but an imaginative writing sensibility as well, with the song’s stargazing title doubling as a vivid metaphor for the freckles on a lover’s skin. Two years and several million streams later, LeMac is emerging from the pandemic fog with her first EP, also named Constellations—though in this case, the title reflects the many styles that make up her musical universe. While LeMac can still be the soulful balladeer who blew up on social media (“Same Place,” “Let Me”), she can also step out with tough, rock-tinged R&B (“Meet You in Hell,” “Aimed to Kill”), euphoric disco-pop (“There’s People Watching”), and cinematic set pieces loaded with gripping narrative detail (“Car Accident”). “I see this EP as the first chapter to my story,” she tells Apple Music. “The songs don’t exactly fit together—except in my mind!—but they show my growth as a writer and how I’ve opened doors to new ideas and concepts. I wanted to be able to show every side of me.” Here, LeMac provides us with her track-by-track guide to navigating Constellations. “Car Accident” “This song is completely fictional. I just thought of the concept of crashing a car and thought, ‘That’s cool, that’s different!’ And then I started to imagine a whole story in my head. It’s about a couple where one partner gets cheated on and the other person cheats, and I challenged myself to see if I could switch perspectives in the second half of the song and write from the cheater’s point of view.” “Constellations” “This song means so much to me, just because it’s what got me where I am today. I’ve always had a thing for the sky, the moon, the sun, the stars, and constellations—I think that’s where the ‘constellations’ idea came from in my head, and that led to a whole metaphor with freckles on a body. It’s definitely a PG-13-rated song!” “Meet You in Hell” “I’ve always loved hard-hitting drums and hard-hitting choruses, and that had a big influence on this song. This one started with the title, and I kind of just went from there and imagined the story. I’m the type of person who never wants to be stuck in one genre. If something feels right with a song, then that’s what I’m gonna go with, and that’s what happened here.” “Same Place” “I wrote this song about somebody I love very much. She and I were in a relationship at the time, and I was just very grateful for her, and I wanted to show my appreciation to her, and writing songs is my way of doing so.” “Aimed to Kill” “I had the lyric ‘diamond hands’ in my pocket for a while—I didn’t know where to go with it, but I knew I wanted to use it in some way. I hopped on the piano one day, and usually I just jam out with random chords and let things come out of my mouth naturally. And ‘Aimed to Kill’ came out right after I mentioned ‘diamond hands,’ and it all fit together really well. That’s when the door opened to writing about different things other than just classic lovey/heartbreak kind of things.” “There’s People Watching” “When I was writing this, I was thinking about being hidden in general, but that idea could be applied to LGBTQ people as well because it can be hard to come out sometimes. There’s definitely a contrast between the lyrics and the production, but I think that’s what makes the song unique and cool.” “Let Me” “This song holds a special place in my heart—there’s something about when the beat hits in the chorus that I love so much. I think the message is very special, too. I wrote it about the same person that I wrote ‘Same Place’ about. I think anybody can relate to it because everybody has struggles, and it’s OK to know that you’re not alone.”