It’s her first new song since total pop titan ‘Glitter & Gloss’, and dials down the beats for a beautiful electro-ballad. But we shouldn’t be surprised. Skott has been hinting at this immense creativity in all her previous videos, single artwork and music – it’s no wonder Katy Perry and Lorde are fans.

As she releases the cinematic video for ‘Mermaid’, we caught up with the Swedish pop star to get the essential deets.

Read More: Skott talks ‘Glitter & Gloss’, songwriting and a potential Lorde and Katy Perry collaboration

How did you come up with the idea for the video?

Often my songs at a very early stage give me images and associations so usually the idea for a video develops more or less unconsciously. With ‘Mermaid’ it was very natural that the most important element would be water. It is also a love song about the risk of letting someone in completely and the courage to make yourself vulnerable and you might find something that is worth drowning for.

What was the hardest part of making the video?

To shoot the underwater scenes was the biggest challenge on set. Even though the sequences in the video are short we still had to spend hours in the pool filming them. To hold my breath as long as I could while looking as relaxed as possible was harder than I had imagined but I found the challenge very fun.

Talk us through the story of ‘Mermaid’

‘Mermaid’ was actually the first song that I decided that I had to keep entirely for myself, to perform and release under my own name Skott and that was the beginning of my artistry. ‘Mermaid’ is actually my oldest song and before writing the early piano version almost three years ago I thought I wanted to work behind the scenes only, making songs for other artists. But with the early sketch of Mermaid in my hands I decided to take the song the whole way from the piano at home to a stage and present it to the audience myself.

The post New Music Of The Day: Skott – ‘Mermaid’ appeared first on NME.