JSF caught up with London’s Coupdekat. Back in September 2021, she smashed her set at a festival we curated in Islington. Now she’s preparing to release new music next month. Have a read…
Hello Coupdekat! Thanks for chatting with us today. We were drawn to your singles last year, then you blew the roof off our September festival. Can you tell the readers a little about your musical journey so far?
Firstly thank you for making me your featured artist this month, that’s soo cool! so I started Coupdekat in 2020 lockdown, kinda just a project to fill the time when I couldn’t see my former band, but after writing a few songs I realised it could turn into something serious, so since then I’ve been writing, recording and releasing solo and it’s been so much fun. My first solo gig was only in August 2021 because of covid and it was one of the best night of my life! So im just going to keep pushing at it and see what happens!
There seems to be a running theme of technology’s involvement in how we live life through the 2020s. Can you discuss with us a little more the topics/things you try to highlight in your song writing?
i generally write about personal experiences and it’s kinda sad to say but my age group are the ‘online generation’ especially with covid. So much is possible through a phone and its all we really had to connect when we were in lockdown. Its become such a big part of my life that it only makes sense to talk about these online experiences in my music. I found that at school the education of life online was so bad, like ‘how to not get bullied online’ or ‘DONT SEND NUDES OR YOU WILL REGRET IT FOREVER’. My school completely failed to teach us about how to protect yourself, and how our data is used, so that’s where the idea of FYEO and Love Online came from: to try and push the conversation of online relationships to the younger generation.
Growing up, who were your main musical inspirations? And what have you taken from them and twisted into your own project?
In my teens I absolutely adored the smiths, and I even though I despise Morrissey now, his storytelling has had a huge effect on me. I realised I could speak about anything in my songs, even the most mundane things, so I think I’ve taken that style and mixed it up with bedroom pop and hyperpop. My recent favourite artists who have had a huge effect on me include Lava La Rue, Masterpeace and Pinkpatheress.
Coupdekat – why the name?
My mum made it up actually aha. I was trying to think of a new Instagram handle and she was talking about ‘Coup d’état’. She realised Kat kinda rhymed, and so I went with it. I liked the subtle political connotations and I ended up living in France for the year shortly after, so it all kinda made sense.
A little birdy tells us you have a new single called ‘F.Y.E.O.’ coming next month (which we’ve heard and sounds wicked). Tell us a little about it, when it’s out, and if you have any gig plans around the release?
i do indeed and im glad you like it ! F.Y.E.O is coming out on 14th February and is all about online love, and starting a positive conversation about sending nudes, because it’s pretty much my generation’s love language and the eduction (or lack of) around it is super harmful to adolescents. I remember so many horrible slut-shaming incidents when I was younger when someone’s nudes would be ‘leaked’ and suddenly they were the most hated person it the year, it was an awful toxic environment and I’d like to help to change the representation of it all.
Follow Coupdekat on IG (https://www.instagram.com/coupdekat/), on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/7dkxCFHMMu1kwCdmCA15i0) and stay tuned for her upcoming 2022 tunes. Her latest single F.Y.E.O is out on 14th February, and she’ll be celebrating the launch with a show at Venue MOT in South East London.
