If TikTok made you cry this month, it’s probably because of Katie Gregson-MacLeod.
On August 4th, the 21-year-old Scottish singer-songwriter posted a one-minute chorus to an unreleased song she wrote. “complicated” — an elegiac capture of the hollow, zombie-like experience of being able to love someone, or loving them much more than they love. Her voice is lovely and touching, and when she sings about ongoing but already ended relationships, she’s somewhere between wistfulness and determination.
i’m wearing his boxers
I’m a good wife
we will not be together
But maybe in the next life
Gregson-MacLeod had just written the song and had no plans to release it. But by the next morning, TikTok had supersized the app and found the eyes and ears of successful young female singer-songwriters on the app, including Gracie Abrams, Lennon Stella, and Maisie Peters.
Suddenly, Gregson-MacLeod became a meme and embodied the app’s potential to amplify melancholy. In just a few days, “Complex” has become the global group’s trigger that feels like his hug.
TikTok suits this particular stripe of intimacy. Because, “People seem to like to dig as deep into someone’s life as possible and listen,” Gregson-MacLeod said last week in a video chat from his family’s home in Inverness, Scotland. “It’s a very online thing, but it’s also the same essence that people like Elliott Smith and Joni Mitchell like. They are cool, emotional, and very stripped down people.
Vulnerability is contagious, and TikTok, which allows users to absorb and amplify at the same time, is the perfect facilitator. Complex’s success reflects TikTok’s evolving priorities. TikTok, best known in its early years as a catalyst for dance trends, novelty songs, and meme-able comedy, is now home to grief in equal measure. This shift reflects a partial maturation of the medium somewhere beyond pure escapism.
Her song is quickly gaining traction, with her original post now having 6.9 million views. Gregson-MacLeod did what any experienced young musician would do. She made it her TikTok, posting duets with singers covering her, answering her fan questions, and creating new memes. , noting her interest from people she respected (“Fletcher and Olivia O’Brien now know I have an insecure attachment style.). On Friday, Gregson-MacLeod officially released the full song (now titled “Complex (Demo)”) to his platform for streaming. This was just days after she signed with the UK division of Columbia Records.
The entire song is identical to what she already wrote before TikTok exploded, save for one small tweak. “When the chorus went so well, I swore to myself, I haven’t changed a single word in the rest of the song,” she said. It was a real, raw moment, and if I changed something too much, I was going to write reactively and try to think of what other people wanted. It happened in , so it worked.”
She didn’t elaborate on the specific scenario that inspired the song, but said, “For the most part, I’m completely autobiographical and I write almost 100%.” She continues: It’s literally the moment everything pours out. “
Gregson MacLeod has so far split his time between home and university, studying history at the University of Edinburgh. She’s seen her bubbly indie from her last year, her pop EP ‘Games I Play’ and her recent songs, “second single bed” It’s as emotionally laser-like as “Complex.” Last year, she found a cozy home in Edinburgh’s folk music her scene, which gathers around The Captain’s bar. She is also a student of classic folk singers such as Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and younger singers such as Laura Marling, Lucy Dacus and of course Phoebe Bridgers.
Gregson-MacLeod started posting on TikTok in 2020, months after the pandemic. She naturally incorporates humor into her posts. Before “Complex” took off, she was a barista at her Perk Coffee & Donuts (“the first donut shop in Inverness,” she says) and posted on the shop’s social media. was processing. Perk was also where all of her A&R reps, who traveled to Inverness to meet her this month, ended up hanging out at another table.
“Complex” allowed Gregson-MacLeod to join an impressive lineage of female singer-songwriters who have used TikTok as their engine over the past two years. Lauren Spencer-Smith (“I wish you success”), Sadie Jean (“WYD Now?”), Lizzie McAlpine (“You ruined 1975”), Jensen McRae, pop singers like Gale and Tate McRae. (Mr. and Mrs. McRae are irrelevant.) And, of course, the alpha of the phenomenon is Olivia Rodrigo, who has a “driver’s license.” Started as an acoustic snippet on TikTok before it becomes the defining pop song of 2021.
One of the peculiar quirks of putting vulnerable feelings into a song is that when it becomes popular, it no longer belongs to you. It was a bit of a head-turner for Gregson-MacLeod to do it so quickly with “Complex.”
Most of the time she finds it humorous.”I always comment ‘real me'” when someone covers it with a slightly different sentiment in the caption, she said. “The trend now is to rewrite it. It’s a little insulting,” she said with a laugh. Do you tend to appreciate what people write?’” She joined TikTok duet chain With Gail and Katie Turner, she screamed absurdist ad-libs on her gentle tunes.
There are also several versions written from a male perspective. “Every time I hear, ‘She’s wearing my boxers,’ I think, ‘No,'” she joked. “Read the room, man.”
Gregson-MacLeod added “(Demo)” to the title of the finished song. “I knew this version had to be the first. It had to be a raw emotional moment in the video,” she said. It leaves room for weeks, months, or whatever you want to do, because I think it’s going to be a long life.” Emotions belong to everyone, but songs belong to her.