FEATURE: Spotlight: Naomi Scott — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Jérémie Levy

Naomi Scott

__________

THERE have been cases of…

PHOTO CREDIT: Horst Diekgerdes

actors singing and playing artists in films that you could compare to a modern artist. If they are playing a Pop artist, you can sort of see where the inspiration is and who they are modelled on. Starring in Smile 2 (2024), Naomi Scott played Skye Riley. In terms of her energy, sound, persona, looks and fashion, one could compare that character to Lady Gaga. Maybe Britney Spears. However, more Gaga. Rather than it being a tribute or caricature, Naomi Scott actually came across as this unique and genuinely talented singer. That may sound condescending, as she released her first songs back in 2014. So she has been in music for over a decade! However, I was not aware she was a musician, so I was genuinely blown away by her performance in Smile 2! There is actually the Smile 2: The Skye Riley EP with five original songs (and a sixth song which is a piano version of Just My Name). I will drop one of the songs in this feature soon. However, this is not about Skye Riley. I have featured actors like Asha Banks and Áine Rose Daly, who are also amazing artists putting out their own stuff. I have tried to manifest a Florence Pugh album but, to this point, we have nothing – though I am hopeful for 2026! Naomi Scott is someone who could launch new music that is pretty much that of Skye Riley. Instead, she has her own voice and a distinct talent. I want to bring in some interviews with someone I know that we will hear even more music from very soon. Singles like Cut Me Loose, Cherry and Rhythm are incredible. The Sweet Nausea single/E.P. is a must-hear. I know that many would associate Naomi Scott with acting but, like so many actors who are artists, you feel music is her true passion. I can’t wait to hear a Naomi Scott album in 2026. I think that Cut Me Loose is among my favourite singles from this year. As I said, I will drop a Skye Riley track below but, as I source interviews, we are going to get to some Naomi Scott tunes.

This incredible British-born actor is someone who can play the most dramatic and nerve-shredding parts, but she also has this incredible gift for comedy and playfulness. An extraordinary range that was channelled into Smile 2, Naomi Scott has this incredible career that I think will see her collect Oscars and so many awards. Such a mega-talented person, her musical side is one that particularly intrigues me. I wanted to bring in some recent interviews where she discusses her music and plans for the future. It does seem like a debut L.P. is coming from Naomi Scott shortly, as she has revealed as much in recent interviews. I wanted to start out with Billboard and their interview with Naomi Scott. She revealed how there will be a U.S. tour next year. A debut album taking shape. Inevitably, many will ask whether Naomi Scott’s debut album will have anything in common with Skye Riley and the music she performed for Smile 2:

“Over two decades in the making, Scott’s debut began to take shape in 2021. She struck gold during a trip to Norway when she DM’d producer Lido — who ended up being just five minutes away — on a whim. A FaceTime chat led to Lido (who’s also worked with Ariana Grande, Halsey and Jaden Smith) eventually becoming the album’s primary producer.

Homecooked meals with Lido’s parents and dips into the nearby fjord filled the gaps during recording breaks. The serenity of the small Norwegian town’s countryside brought a clarity to Scott and her team of collaborators throughout the creative process.

One of the songs that came about from the Norwegian sessions was “Sweet Nausea” — and the self-reflective track, which she describes as a “carousel of regret,” arrived on Friday (Nov. 7). “It could be a really big thing or a really tiny thing, but when that thing gets lodged in my mind that I said or I did, it’s like a scab that you have to keep picking, and you replay it over and over in your mind,” Scott explains of the single that was crafted in about 15 minutes. “Because you think that if you replay it enough times, it will change.”

Scott’s already set the table for the album with a trio of singles this year: “Rhythm,” “Cut Me Loose” and the alt-pop bop “Cherry.” She also made her festival debut with a performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago over the summer.

The multi-hyphenate entertainer will return to the stage on Friday for a show at London’s Moth Club, and then she’ll serve as an opener for Blood Orange, who’s a close friend and collaborator, on Sunday (Nov. 9) for his Alexandra Palace tour stop.

So how did we get here?

I’ve been making music for 15 years and kind of exploring and figuring things out. But that was at 27 — which, again, I think so many people go through a bit of an identity crisis [at that age]. Which sounds very dramatic, but it’s some sort of shift. It was kind of going back to basics. So before that point, I had been, you know, I was in L.A., I was working, I was in the studio. I was in kind of different pop rooms in that ecosystem. And I think it was very clear to me that I had to go back to basics. And to me, that is getting on a piano and writing like you’re 15 years old.

I started to build out what I felt like was subconsciously a bit of a theme in terms of the things that I was writing into. And so I basically wrote a bunch of demos, and I was like, “Oh, this feels cohesive in terms of what I’m tapping into.” Which is like an exploration into different versions of myself — not what we were talking about — which allowed me to kind of dip into something that felt intimate and have proximity to me, but also have a bit of world building aspect to it, and a little bit surreal. It’s a sweet spot.

The backdrop of this album sonically is things that I was listening to on my dad’s Windows Media Player growing up. It’s the music that brings me joy. I grew up in church. I grew up in gospel music, like pop gospel music. So you know, Mary Mary, Kirk Franklin, Kim Burrell, those voices. [Michael Jackson] and Janet [Jackson] are probably the biggest sonic influences. A little Phil Collins — Kate Bush, to me, represents an artist who remains in such a childlike [state of] play, even in terms of what she writes about.

When did the album start to take shape?

I started writing into this concept, subconsciously, probably in 2021. I can’t say it was like, “I’m gonna do this, and it’s gonna be this.” It was very much like, “Oh, I’m beginning to find that this process for me in writing is feeling more successful to me.” I like this seed, or the idea of it always being from me first — whether it’s a demo, whether it’s a fully written song on the piano, whether it’s just a chorus. So, for example, when I’d done a couple of these demos, I got seeds of ideas, and then I had a session with two people who would become my main collaborators on the project, Daphne Gale and Goldwash… I came in with the chorus for “Losing You.” I came in with like, the first two lines of the verse and the sounds about a long-distance relationship — but also just the idea of the inevitability of feeling like something is slipping through your fingers and there’s nothing you can do about it. And we wrote that song, and I was just a bit like, “Oh, this feels like a cornerstone sound of something that doesn’t feel derivative, that doesn’t feel like I’m just kind of painting by numbers.” I think that’s what really excites me.

Was there anything you took from playing Skye Riley in Smile 2 for your own album?

So I’ve been working on the album for so long that it was probably the opposite way around. I mean, Smile happened. It came about so quickly, and I think I kind of purposefully ran in the other direction in terms of creating that character, and going, “Let me put on a voice and sing in an American accent.” I also think it’s because the things that I poured into Skye Riley that I would take with me were things that I already had before — because it was just me — and the things that I left behind are things that I wouldn’t”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Swales for Vogue Hong Kong

It is not new news that Naomi Scott has an album coming out. A treat for next year, when speaking with Vogue Hong Kong at the start of this year, we learn even more about what I think will be among the best albums of next year. I am excited to see what a Naomi Scott debut album offers:

“Did you always want to be in entertainment growing up?

I actually wanted to be an archeologist. I used to go into the garden and bury things, and then pretend to discover them again. I just thought it was the coolest thing. Maybe it all comes back to acting, because I was going into the garden and pretending to have made this incredible discovery, although I was all by myself.

Tell me more about your album coming out this year.
I just love writing and making music so much. To make music with people that I think are incredible is such a privilege. I wanted to create a soundscape, as opposed to just writing songs with just a guitar and a voice. It’s a little bit more of a world building which came from the music I grew up listening to, and the things that are nostalgic to me. I started this project three and a half years ago. I was around 27 years old and had a bit of a quarter life crisis. Mine was around this idea of getting married very young. There wasn’t anything intrinsically wrong in my life. It was more that life had just happened, and I hadn’t mourned the other versions of where my life could have gone.

I was watching “Master of None”, and the character started reading Sylvia Plath. It’s about a fig tree and how all of these different figs represent different versions of her life and how her life could have gone. She’s so fearful of making a choice that she starves to death. I just thought it was such a poignant and very apt description of our generation and decision paralysis. There’s just so many things we want to do and so many potential versions of ourselves that we find it hard to be content with our life. That’s what I started to write into. And then I met a few of my collaborators and was able to actually build out the sound that I wanted. And my executive producer, Lido, is incredible. I just love him.

Sound-wise, it’s what I listened to on my dad’s Windows Media Player growing up. There’s a kind of soulful ‘80s vibe, and then you’ve got everything from a little bit of Phil Collins, Kate Bush, Whitney, MJ and so many others. It’s definitely nostalgic, but it’s soulful, spooky and a little bit ethereal. I haven’t actually spoken about it yet, but I’m very excited about it, and I just can’t wait to start sharing”.

As a fan of Kate Bush, it adds weight to my theory that all the best, coolest, most talented and interesting Pop artists can be traced back to Bush in some way. I wonder which Bush albums Naomi Scott loves especially. I am going to end things with an interview from Rolling Stone UK from last month. I do think that, alongside some terrific acting roles, we are going to see Naomi Scott touring and playing festivals around the world. So many eyes will be on her debut album:

“Inspired by the pop, R&B and soul music that raised her – artists like Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush – Scott’s debut album finds her shaping the language of love and relationships into sumptuous, ‘90s-inspired melodies that transport you back to the nostalgic days of landline phone calls, dimly-lit disco dance floors and drizzly windowpane yearning.

Outlining those thematic intentions with passionate hand gestures that occupy her entire Zoom frame, Scott says she related to the symbolism in Sylvia Plath’s seminal novel The Bell Jar, in which a fig tree represents individual life paths not chosen. “This idea of being a woman and choice, it’s a lot,” she says with an exasperated sigh. “I found myself realising that making a big decision at a very young age, being in a relationship from a very young age, [it was] almost like I hadn’t mourned other figs and other versions of my life.”

It was those thought-provoking contemplations that inspired her to inhabit different versions of herself on these songs. “This album is not autobiographical, but it very much stems from a personal place,” she shares. Granting herself permission to step outside her reality, she blurs the lines between her own diaristic revelations and high-concept pop. There’s the flirty, summer-drunk grooves of the Janet Jackson-indebted ‘Cherry’ and the caressing beats of ‘Rhythm’, which simmer alongside the restless thoughts of ‘Cut Me Loose’ and slow-jam beats of ‘Sweet Nausea’, all slipping breezily in and out of character.

The process of making the album was much like bringing a movie to life, where finding the right collaborators to honour Scott’s vision was key. That team included Norwegian producer Lido, who’s worked with the likes of Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande, complete with some special touches from Scott’s musical hero Dev Hynes, AKA the multi-hyphenate Blood Orange, who she’ll be supporting at Alexandra Palace in November. “I am a Blood Orange superfan,” she shares with a giddy laugh. “He’s the most generous collaborator. He is pure in his music process, and he’s so fantastic in protecting his creative space.”

The process of making the album was much like bringing a movie to life, where finding the right collaborators to honour Scott’s vision was key. That team included Norwegian producer Lido, who’s worked with the likes of Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande, complete with some special touches from Scott’s musical hero Dev Hynes, AKA the multi-hyphenate Blood Orange, who she’ll be supporting at Alexandra Palace in November. “I am a Blood Orange superfan,” she shares with a giddy laugh. “He’s the most generous collaborator. He is pure in his music process, and he’s so fantastic in protecting his creative space”.

If you only know Naomi Scott as an actor, then go and check out her music. This is someone who is going to have a very long and varied music career ahead. I have asked whether an actor adds something extra to music because of the disciplines and skills that they pick up. If they can naturally step into music because they are performers and inhabit roles. Naomi Scott is an incredible and unique artist who has released so much stunning music this year. Next year will be an even bigger and better one. Someone who every music fan…