AFTER chatting to Mercedes Thorne - best known as Merci, Mercy - for 15 minutes, it's difficult to reconcile that she's the same artist who wrote singles like F--ked Myself Up and her latest track, Angel . Login or signup to continue reading The slick indie-pop Angel is topped off with the hyper-infectious hook of " I'm a sad bad bitch/ Take out the sad take out the bad/ I'm the angel you don't need to fix ." It's the chorus of a confident pop star.
But it's obvious the moniker Merci, Mercy is very much a mask for Thorne to express herself. "I think everyone loves the mentality of being a sad bad bitch, not just a sad bitch, but a bad one as well," Thorne says over Zoom. "I thought I'm not technically a bad bitch because I'm always sad.
I thought it sounded funny, so I put it in there." In person Thorne is sweet and endearingly shy. A quality not usually found in the modern music scene.
"I'm still learning, as I'm a shy person, and I'm finding out who I wanna be onstage and interacting with the audience," Thorne says. "I didn't think music was going to actually work out for me. It was like, 'I really wanna do it, but will it happen?' Then it did happen and it was, 'Oh my god, this is crazy'.
" Thorne's journey into becoming Merci, Mercy began in 2018 when she uploaded her song Be onto triple j Unearthed. At the time Thorne was still at high school in the small town of Jindabyne in the NSW Snowy Mountains. "I was someone who was really passionate about it [music] and my music teacher was so lovely and a big part of it," she says.
"She wanted to pay for me to get my first song done, which was pretty beautiful of her. "So I feel like if I didn't move to Jindabyne I probably wouldn't have been encouraged to pursue music, because it is a bit of a wild dream." Be piqued the interest of record labels and just weeks into the COVID pandemic Merci, Mercy's debut single F--ked Myself Up was released with the ear worm chorus of " F-ked myself up on purpose/ cause too much is never enough ".
For a generation of young music fans who had just been shut off physically from their friends and unable to go out clubbing or attend live gigs, the then 19-year-old's sugar-coated gloominess resonated. For Thorne it was a bizarre period. Merci, Mercy was kicking off and gathering an audience, but there were no live shows to take advantage of the momentum.
"It was bit of a confusing time for me," she says. "I ended up moving back in with my mum as she was alone. "It was exciting, but also very boring as I was just sitting at home waiting patiently.
" I feel like music and being an artist made me feel more confident wearing clothes I actually wanted to wear and bright colours and some out-there stuff.I've always liked wearing colourful things and wearing weird stuff that people look at twice. In October 2020 Merci, Mercy's debut EP No Thank You, No Thanks was released, and then in December she was thrown straight into the deep end by performing at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena supporting Bernard Fanning and Matt Corby.
Since that crazy first year, Thorne has keep the momentum building with the EPs Is It Me, Or Is It You? (2022) and Like An Orchid (2023) and has racked up 27 million streams globally. Angel and her earlier single The World Love are likely to appear on Merci, Mercy's yet-to-be-announced debut album. Besides the intelligently-written pop songs and the sweetly-delivered dark lyrics, the other eye-catching feature of Merci, Mercy is her aesthetic.
Thorne's constantly-changing hair colour and bright '80s-inspired outfits were a feature of her personality long before music. "My sister likes to dress me up a bit because she's 16 years older than me," she says. "So she would always treat me like a Barbie doll.
Any time I look cool it's because my sister has dressed me up. "I feel like music and being an artist made me feel more confident wearing clothes I actually wanted to wear and bright colours and some out-there stuff. "I've always liked wearing colourful things and wearing weird stuff that people look at twice.
" Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league. Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald.
He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league. DAILY DURING PARALYMPICS Get the best news and analysis from the Paris Paralympic Games in a daily update. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team.
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