NME: Katie Merjos returns to the world of music with electronic Undercover
This is Katie's first single for more than a year and her first as a Merjos.


Time after time, Katie has grown as an artist and a person.

When she first came onto the music scene as a naive and somewhat disturbed 17-year old, Katie Coyle was the darling of the people. Her generation's answer to some sort of national treasure, but on a world scale. Her music was easy on the ear and her songs were emotive and truthful, and despite her tender age and even more tender mind, Katie won the hearts of everyone she came into contact with. With her debut album, the London native would go on to spend more than two months atop the album charts, seemingly immoveable from her lofty perch at the very top end of music stardom. However, despite the fame, the stardom, the millions of pounds and countless awards that followed, Katie Coyle would never have been described by anyone as remotely "cool". With a musical outlook far beyond her tender years, it would have been unthinkable back then, despite the majesty of her rise to fame, to see Katie Coyle pushed in the pages of the likes of NME or other more modern style magazines.

However, times change, and the gradual move for Katie Coyle came throughout 2012, when she would start a metamorphosis from acoustic folk caterpillar into avant garde acoustic pop butterfly. It's the reason many of her follow up singles were greeted with such high praise for a singer that had never previously been on the radar of the likes of Pitchfork, for example, throughout 2012. Into 2013, Coyle would continue the transition from music everyone your kids to your mum loves, to tracks that get teenagers and people in their 20s excitedly chattering away in the corners of coffee shops and trendy bars. Her lo-fi punk sound which came out of nowhere at the tail end of last year, when she knocked everyone out of their comfort zone with a track that was so beautiful and atmospheric, yet so far from her original work, looked set to send her back into the stratosphere of fame again. The truth is, Katie Coyle was always on the cusp of regaining that spot at the very pinnacle of the industry, and this was what was set to send her back there. The disappointment which followed in 2014 with the news of her wedding and the announcement of her pregnancy, both of which would keep her away from music for some time, spoke volumes. Magazines such as this one were suddenly noticeably annoyed that there would be no follow on from an artist who offered up the hope of so so much.

This alone is the reason we were so surprised and excited to be approached for the press work for Katie's first single in Merjos colours. Over a year since we last heard anything from her, and with her pregnancy bump seemingly both literally and metaphorically in the way of her coming back any time soon, this was a shock to everyone to hear that her plans for a comeback were on. So what would we hear from Katie this time out? As the time drew closer to our first listen to her new track, which was tentatively titled Undercover, speculation rose. Hands clasped in hope and prayer that the track would be similar to what we had heard the year before, and as the days were crossed off our metaphorical calendar (our Macs have taken away the need for actual calendars, obvs), excitement was at fever pitch. We were the first people to hear about the comeback, charged with keeping the existence of the single a closely guarded secret, and now we were going to be the very first to hear it in a secret location where we would also have the chance to interview Katie. We all hoped it would give us something similar to what we heard last...and then it delivered so much more.

Undercover is the sort of track that we never thought we would hear from someone like Katie Coyle, but something that now introduces us wonderfully to Katie Merjos - the new age of Katie - and it couldn't be better. Gone are the guitars, she warned us from the off, and despite a few grumbles of worry, we were soon glad that she had swapped her gentle strumming for the more sultry tickling of the electronic ivories. What strikes the listener from the off is the fact this is clearly a project rooted firmly in passion, a labour of love if you will. That's the sort of emotion and belief in your own work that can't be artificially produced in any studio, and something that sets the very best apart from those who are in this for fame and money alone. This is music built around love, music built for music, and it's constructed just perfectly.

How can one describe Undercover best? Apart from a shock and a surprise, it's probably best described as an electronic pop ballad split masterfully into two courses and delivered with the sort of execution, style and grace that one would expect from a Katie Coyle (sorry....Merjos) song. This is the world of New Wave brought brilliantly into the 21st century. The first half of the track consists mostly of some breathy haunting lyrics delivered in a beautiful, echoing fashion, over the sound of electronic string sections, and it's wonderful, especially as an appetiser (let's keep the cuisine analogy going here). But then, when the second half of the track kicks in, it feels like we've been lifted into something different altogether. as slowly meandering and transitional (this part's important) of the first half of the song is, with one foot in the future and one merely pointed towards the past as a poignant reminder, the second half bursts to life, as if from nowhere, with synths and keyboard sounds no one would ever have dreamed of hearing in a Katie Merjos song until now bringing an all new burst of colour into her music. From echoing ballad to perfectly delivered modern electro pop, both of which are garnished just right with a brilliantly balanced chorus, this truly is a mind blowing experience to hear. As the final chorus, which is the same as those which came before, are backed by the amazingly catchy electronic music, you will literally feel yourself transported into an all new age of Katie Merjos, and we for one are absolutely willing captives to what is the perfect movement.

Often someone can be a wonderful lyricist without the sort of music that you want them to put it to, and vice versa, but every now and again, an artist will blend their perfect imagery and wordplay with the most majestic, angelic music, and the result is heavenly. It's easy to overhype a return of a superstar like Katie Merjos to the fold, but in this case, every superlative is justified entirely. This is the return from the cold of someone who has for so long been on the cusp of being a mega star, an icon, and now she's poised perfectly to take that final step into the light.

Scroll down to listen to our interview with Katie Merjos and hear the world premiere of her new single UNDERCOVER

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Katie says: "This is actually something that I've been working on for a little while now, and it came about because of my pregnancy. Given how infrequently I actually release music, people will probably find this hard to believe, but I'm always writing music. I'm lucky that I got to do this as a job given that it is basically my hobby, and always has been. Anyway, with the little one on the way, it became basically impossible for me to hold my guitar or sit close enough to the piano to actually play it properly. So I had to get out my keyboard out. I can slip a chair far enough under it to be able to play while heavily pregnant. So, yeah, I was just messing around for a few days with different songs on my keyboard and I suddenly came across this new sound that I really loved. I say new, we'll get to that in a minute though. But yeah, I started writing these songs that were totally different to anything I had ever done before, and I was just having fun. I think at this point in my life, having fun and enjoying doing music is the most important thing to me, so it was nice to be able to do that.

"The funny thing is that while I was composing this song, without even any intention of doing anything with it, I realised that it had been basically exactly a year since I released my last single last November. Even for me, that's a long time to go between releases. So, yeah, I decided to answer the prayers of the hundreds of Twitter messages I get every day asking for new music, and I thought what could be better than this fun little song I was working on? I felt it was quite indicative of my musical mindset at the moment. It was what I was just organically doing in my own studio and my own home anyway, so it felt like I should put this out rather than forcing something that sounds more "me". Moving forward, who knows, this might be what becomes my signature sound. I think you've seen before that I don't like to stick with one sound for too long. I get bored of doing the same thing, and I always fear that people would pigeonhole me. Plus writing and playing this sort of music is such fun.

"In terms of the sound of this...I think I would say I was influenced by the modern 80s culture, if that makes sense? I'm too young to remember the 80s, but a lot of the electronic music that came out in that decade was just so good. I remember when I first started to hear music that came from that era. Things like Joy Division, Frankie, Depeche Mode, The Pet Shop Boys, it all just blew me away from the very first time I heard it, and it still does. I don't know if popular music has ever reached that sort of level of pure originality again since that moment in time. For me, synthpop is absolutely stunning in style and sound and so I just started messing around with sounds like that. I came up with some nice little beats and riffs, and this song was the result of that. I think most of my newer stuff, since the first album, has come about through this sort of process. There's less pressure when you're writing songs naturally rather than out of necessity or obligation, and for me it always just sounds so much more real that way. It's so much fun to play as well. Obviously I wrote this and I've played it a million times already, but it never gets old. I'm a few months away from being able to play any live shows, thanks to the baby, but I can't wait to get up there and really let go with this track, it should be amazing.

"I feel like people will probably question me again over the whole genre slide. When I ventured towards the lo-fi punky sound on the singles I released in 2013, people were a bit like "wow is that the same person?" But I don't think the genre of any given artist has to be anything but fluid. When I first started, I was a folk singer, and that was some of the best times of my life. But everyone grows. I'm not 17 anymore, and in the years since then I've managed to grow as a musician and even as a music fan. No one likes the same things they did when they were a teenager. You discover new things, and for musicians that creates an exciting opportunity to use that in the creation of new things as well. I'll always be thankful for the folk pop stuff though. The success of my first album gave me the chance to be able to try things like this, and I'm grateful for that opportunity. Not a lot of artists would get the chance to experiment so much.

"I'm always a little nervous when it comes time to bring out a new single. There's always that little bit of worry that people will be bored of you, or even worse, will have forgotten about you. I think that's added to for me this year, because we're into December and this will be the first anyone has heard from me in 2014, over a year in fact. Add on to that the pressure of my first release under the Merjos name - which is about as prestigious as it gets - and it means I'm really qute excited but nervous all at once.

"On the Merjos front, it really is such an honor for me to be able to be representing this amazingly talented family. I've grown up around Hannah, Izzy and of course my husband Hayden, and they've always produced pure gold when it comes to their music. I don't think there's a single family that's done as much for music as this family has. When the time came for releasing this track, there was a dilemma, with my label saying that marketing works so much better with consistency, which was basically them insisting that I be Katie Coyle on my music. But that was never an option for me. To have married Hayden and be a part of this most wonderful of families is something I'm so immensely proud of, so I was always going to be releasing music as Katie Merjos. It has a nice ring to it, and I think it perhaps gives me a bit of freedom to reinvent my music when I'm reinventing my name as well. I'm sure people will be able to work out who I am still.

"In the immediate future, unfortunately this is the only song I'll be able to release. We managed to record this over the space of the last month, but since then, I've got closer and closer to the due date for our daughter, and I don't think Hayden wants me rushing about and trying to have a career while I'm ready to pop. Into the new year, I'll be spending the first few months off, just enjoying being a new mother again, and getting to know our amazing daughter and also just spending time with my husband. He's been gone for a lot of this year, and I've missed him a lot while he's been touring. However, I think later in the year I'll be ready to do more music again. This has given me a real appetite for getting more music out there, and I really feel like this might be the time when I finally get around to bringing out that new album. Maybe we'll even see a new tour. Fingers crossed. But for now, I hope people enjoy this track. I'll see you all again soon. I promise."

Artist: Katie Merjos
Title: Undercover
Album: TBA
Genre: Synthpop, New Wave
Label: Studio60
Produced: Katie Merjos
All lyrics and music by: Katie Merjos
Additional guitars: Matt Benjamin
Drums: Stuart Watkins
Synth: Katie Merjos

Sounds Similar To:


We left our love on a crowded table
Like lost keys left behind in a fable
No use to finder, no home with a keeper
You only drowned as I swam deeper
I've treaded water all this time
But as I waited you just felt entwined

Black and white films that are forced into colour
Giving you one thing when you want the other
A merciful bullet when you might recover
Living in sunshine but you hide undercover

I'm a nice guy because I finish last
A fire in your eyes won't extinguish your past
I don't want you now you're mine
I'm the victim but you're the crime
I'm a secret flame that you try to blow out
Tell yourself what you need to turn the light out

I'm that name carved on your bullet
Heat seeking even when you said to cool it
Ask me the truth and I'll tell no lie
My lipstick on your collar like dye
Giving you a choice but you want neither
Selling lies to make a true believer

Black and white films that are forced into colour
Giving you one thing when you want the other
A merciful bullet when you might recover
Living in sunshine but you hide undercover

We're chasing what I know we should run
From, our blood boils but we still burn
Glasses are useless when you won't open
Your eyes to see the last ray of hope and
I'm the chart, read me and learn to live
You only take because you're afraid to give

You can see but you won't ever trust
That look in your eye is nothing but lust
Looking ahead, I see we've got a chance
To be strong, but you refuse to do this dance
If you believe then why are you scared
Trust in something but you never cared

Black and white films that are forced into colour
Giving you one thing when you want the other
A merciful bullet when you might recover
Living in sunshine but you hide undercover

Our heads are below water as we go down
Too afraid to surface, too dead to drown
I'm dead, I'm dead, can you hear the silence
Walking alone along busy streets filled with violence
Standing in a darkened room, is it crowded?
I can't see, in the darkness I'm shrouded

Pull me inside lock me up, close the door
String me up high til I can't reach the floor
We left our love on a crowded table
Now we're a tale of caution, no fable
In a place where there's no use for prayer
No light can penetrate, I'm locked in there

Black and white films that are forced into colour
Giving you one thing when you want the other
A merciful bullet when you might recover
Living in sunshine but you hide undercover

Black and white films that are forced into colour
Giving you one thing when you want the other
A merciful bullet when you might recover
Living in sunshine but you hide undercover