Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Mercy Kelly

Mercy Kelly - Breathe For Her

Released on 03rd Oct 2025, "Breathe For Her" is a statement piece from Mercy Kelly, signaling their readiness to step onto bigger stages. Recorded at the legendary Kempston Street Studios with producer Alex Quinn at the helm, the track exudes boldness and emotional depth. Following on from their well-received single "Speak Too Soon," this release solidifies the band's reputation for heartfelt storytelling. With upcoming releases like "Out in the Night," Mercy Kelly continues to expand their versatile and ambitious sound, poised for success on both radio and festival stages.

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Interview with Mercy Kelly

How does Breathe For Her reflect Mercy Kelly’s growth since Speak Too Soon?

A song like Breath For Her shows a real variation not only in our songwriting, but also our influences. Speak Too Soon was very much in keeping with its theme and style both lyrically and musically to previous releases such as Anymore and The Fall, whereas Breath For Her hints at a series of influences without pinpointing one.

What was it like recording at Kempston Street Studios with Alex Quinn again?

Recording with Alex Quinn is always an exciting experience for us, to hear a song we’ve wrote develop and come to life in ways we couldn’t have imagined is always thrilling. All these little intricate parts that add so much to a song, he puts in and utilises them at the right moments. We’ve always been fascinated by the tones that he can create with the studio hardware and plugins, and they just sound and feel right.

Why do you consider Breathe For Her a statement piece for the band?

Speak Too Soon had a brilliant impact for us as a band and to follow it up with Breath For Her is a statement because it shows that we’re not just influenced by a specific group of bands, the music we listen to and write vary. This is definitely a statement that we mean business and that we are capable of writing outside the boundaries of what we’ve done already.

How do your influences, like The Chameleons, shape the sound of this track?

The main influence of bands like The Chameleons is found in the music behind the lyrics, the chorus tones and the chord progressions are very much influenced by the gothic 1980s period.

What role does emotional storytelling play in your songwriting process?

It plays a huge role because we write from our experiences not only as individuals but as a band. Those stories are what connect with people, and they are stories of heartbreak and emotion, we are very honest with our songwriting because it’s a way of expressing how we feel.

How did Mercy Kelly evolve from an acoustic duo into a five piece with a stadium sized sound?

We set out from the beginning to identify a sound that was rooted in our influences, which are bands like The Smiths, The Cure and U2 just to name a few. That sound developed into a full band who completed the sound that we were looking for, in ways it’s still a sound we’re developing with each song that we write, but at the heart of it! It is still the essence of Mercy Kelly.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned since forming in 2019?

That's a good question, the biggest lesson since we started is to keep going. There's going to be ups and downs in anything but if you really believe in what your doing then you find a way to keep pushing forward whether that's a song or a moment in a rehearsal room.

How do you balance your gothic, jangly roots with more radio-ready anthems?

Its about who influences you, we grew up on the indie scene of the early 2000s with bands such as The Killers and The Strokes but through our musical journey we’ve found inspiration from those gothic bands such as The Smiths. We’re not confined to a specific genre, we’re very much influenced by a lot of different music.

With two singles and an EP on the horizon, what excites you most about the next chapter?

What excites us most is the fact that it is the next chapter, it’s the next stage of our career as a band. And what that brings is unpredictable but no matter what we feel it will be positive and exciting.

What do you hope fans feel when they hear Breathe For Her for the first time?

We hope that they feel a sense of connection, a stop and stare moment and they feel that it’s amongst our best work yet. And hopefully they hear a real surprise in the sound, one that isn’t what is normally characterized as a Mercy Kelly track but they can still recognize it as one of our songs.

(•)> That's all Folks! Check out Mercy Kelly on the Pigeon Spins Playlist