FAST-RISING Scottish songwriter Katie Gregson-MacLeod has returned with a brand-new offering called ‘Your Ex’.
Raised in Inverness, the singer has had a life-changing 12 months – all sparked by the TikTok success of her single ‘complex’. Launching her into the spotlight, the song quickly became a phenomenon – securing her a deal with Sony and even gaining her an Ivor Novello nomination.
After all the excitement, the singer is back with ‘Your Ex’ – a track that’s driven by the same honesty and vulnerability that proved so relatable to many, while expanding her sonic palette with rippling synths and upbeat pop melodies.
She said of the song: “Your Ex’ began as an attempt to make light of the discomfort and insecurity that arose from starting to date someone who had a lingering and complicated friendship with their ex. I wrote the lyrics initially as a bit of a pisstake, focusing in the first verse upon a night where I saw the two of them interacting and noticed we shared some likeness, whilst also wondering if there was a grey area there that I didn’t know about.
“The purpose of the song’s chorus was initially to reflect my surprising lack of insecurity about it, to make light of it all. Kind of saying, ‘If I were to spiral about this, these are the things I’d imagine were happening’, but acknowledging that in reality, I was in a totally secure position where my feelings weren’t yet at risk of being hurt. It was also the end of a session and I mainly just wanted to write a pop song referencing getting head to a relatively obscure contemporary americana song.
“I left the song alone for a while and wrote the rest of the lyrics when the relationship was coming to an end. Suddenly, the intention behind the chorus changed for me and instead the anxieties it centred upon were genuine. As in a lot of what I love to write and listen to, I felt to properly serve this song, the sonics had to be in a more pop and upbeat space. Both timbre and lyric are an attempt to impound and dismiss the insecurity underwriting the song.”
Tune in below.