merci, mercy is an artist that has pretty much emerged out of nowhere. Releasing the now iconic ‘Fucked Myself Up’ and wasting no time following it up with a slew of cutting edge pop singles and debut EP no thank you, no thanks, merci, mercy has shown up and pretty much instantly established herself as one of the more exciting upcoming talents in contemporary pop.
There is a recklessness and a real sense of edge and danger to the artists sound, tackling rough topics and themes with a kind of indifferent nonchalance, while icy, infectiously catchy pop beats and melodies provide a layer of sheen and excitement that feels decisively modern and captivating. The end result is a run of tracks that feel both sensationally larger than life and soberingly real. mercy, merci immediately seems to have honed in on a sound that feels dynamic and incendiary, and release after release after release seems to showcase another layer to the artist’s edgy pop mastery.
At 19 years of age merci, mercy has encountered her portion of ups and downs. Subsequent to living in the midst of the controlled confusion of Beijing and Thailand as a youthful high schooler, merci, kindness presently invests her energy in Australia among Sydney and Jindabyne in the disengaged Blanketed Mountains… however surprisingly, the estrangement that occasionally accompanies living abroad happened when merci, leniency moved back to Australia.
Her unique upbringing plus being surrounded by musical siblings instilled in her a deep love of a diverse array of musical genres. “I never had one favorite artist or type of music,” merci, mercy explains. “I think my music reflects that too. I’ve always listened to everything, r’n’b, indie, pop, whatever.”
Taking her name and doubling it (after a friend bemoaned her ‘i’ or ‘y’ indecisiveness), she put a song, “Be”, online, calling it “the scariest thing I’d ever done”. Overcoming those nerves paid off though, as highly respected label Liberation Records (Vance Joy, Temper Trap, DD Dumbo) got in touch.
Next came her brutally honest and beguilingly intimate debut single, “Fucked Myself Up”, toting an icy-all-enveloping beat punctuated by line after memorable line delivered by merci, mercy in her dreamily-biting purr.It’s a song that deals with “my state of mind, about the way I coped with being in situations that I found socially scary,” explains merci, mercy. “I couldn’t be around people and fucking myself up was the way I dealt with it.”
Her latest, “Into You”, takes what, in most hands, would be a slow, dramatic ballad into an earworm. It’s deceptively warm, as she’s singing about heartbreak and an inability to connect, but she makes it sound just like the sort of song you’d like playing at your next get together.The song itself builds along with mercy’s story, gradually adding electric guitar and synths as extra layers behind her addictive voice. “I told my friends that you were bad for me / and all they could do was agree,” she sizzles, yet at the same time, she’s feeling sorry for her onetime lover, imagining that they may well spend forever alone.