Originally from Florida, Karley Scott Collins started out acting in shows such as Private Practice and Once Upon A Time before picking up a guitar as a teenager.
After playing in local bands she moved to Nashville in 2019, and has since worked with the likes of Liz Rose and Nathan Chapman. Now she’s making her UK debut as part of the Introducing Nashville series at C2C, alongside Conner Smith and Lauren Watkins.
Ahead of her shows here, I spoke to Karley about her latest single ‘Marlboro Reds’, how she approaches her songwriting and what’s on the cards for the rest of 2024.
For people who haven’t heard you before, how would you describe your music?
Well, I think it has a little bit of a gritty sound. Because I grew up with a little bit of a rock background. So I think that comes out a little bit. And I guess, the other thing is probably that I’d like for people to perceive it as really honest, I try to write a lot about my actual experiences or experiences of the people that are close to me. And so yeah, I try to be as honest as possible in it too.
You’re over in the UK to make your debut at C2C. What can people seeing you here expect?
Well, we are playing in a writer’s round – me, Lauren [Watkins] and Conner [Smith]. So I will be there with my guitar, me and my acoustic guitar, and I’m gonna play probably my most recent song ‘Marlboro Reds’, that’s out. And then I think I might play some things that no one’s heard before, some things that I’m working on recording right now. So hopefully, yeah, people can expect to hear something new, which will be really cool.
I was going to ask you about ‘Marlboro Reds’ – tell us a little bit more about that song…
Yeah, so that song is about my grandmother, who I call my Nana [laughs]. And so my childhood was a lot of, whenever she would go and take her smoke breaks, she would ask me if I wanted to come sit with her. So we’d go sit on the steps, and she would talk to me about her life, and all three of her ex husbands [laughs] and all of the things the crazy things that she’s been through. And my Nana is one of my favourite people on the planet. And I wanted to write a song about her. So that’s what it’s about.
I saw the video on your social media of you interviewing her – that was so good!
[laughs] Yeah, she is such a mess.
The other song I wanted to ask you about was ‘Heavy Metal’ that you put out at the end of last year – can you tell us more about that? I know you got to sing it with Larry Fleet when you were on tour with him as well…
So yeah, ‘Heavy Metal’ is about one of my closest friends. So where I grew up, it’s a little small town in Florida, which is in the south, and we’re all raised relatively religiously. And so with that, it’s like, you get married once and when you get married, you don’t get a divorce. Like that’s kind of the rules, you know. And so she kind of rushed into something. And she was really very unhappy in her marriage. But because of the way that we were raised, she just couldn’t convince herself to leave it. So she was like, “I’m just going to be unhappy”. And so I had had that title ‘Heavy Metal’ for a long time. And then I it just clicked in my head one day after a phone call with her of it being the ring that was weighing her down. That was the heavy metal and so I wrote that song the day after we talked on the phone. And it’s really been kind of amazing to me how many people have related to it. There have been so many people that are like, “Thank you for making me feel seen”, which is like all I can ever ask for when I write a song, is that someone relates to it. So that song really has a special place in my heart.
This is like the longest answer ever. I’m sorry. But anyways, and so the Larry Fleet part [laughs]. So yeah, that was like on tour with Larry was the first time I’ve really ever gotten to play it live. Actually, the night of the song release was our last show of tour, I think. And it was really cool playing live for people because there were a lot of people that would come up to the merch booth after and talk about how much they loved it. And Larry’s amazing, he’s been very kind to me.
We’ve talked about this a bit already but do you have a way you typically approach your songwriting?
I think it’s always a little bit different. The one thing I don’t usually do is start with the music. If it’s an experience that I’ve had or something my friend’s having I think it usually it would start with the lyrics because I’m writing about something specific, but there’s also probably 500 voice memos on my phone of melodies that popped into my head that I just randomly sing into it and come back to later. So it’s a little bit of everything.
Do you ever get writer’s block? And if so how do you deal with it?
I don’t know if I really ever get writer’s block, because I’m always putting ideas in my phone, I’m always adding something new. So there’s something to write a lot of times, but often, if I come to a place when I’m writing, and I’m like, “I just don’t feel great about this, I’m not getting what I want out of it,” I think the best thing to do always is to just step away for a little while. I mean, yesterday, I was in the studio recording, and we kind of got to a point where you just get a little frustrated with it. And you’re like, “I’m not making the progress I want to make”, so we went and sat outside for 10 minutes in the sun and came back and it was better.
You released your first EP ‘Hands On The Wheel’ last year. What did you learn from that?
I think one of my favourite things about putting together a full project, what I really enjoyed is thinking about how the songs all go together, like how do they tell a story together. And so I think that was something that was really a lot of fun for me, thinking about them all kind of, “Okay, we start here. And here’s how the story ends.” Being in a project is something that you can’t really do when you just release a single so that was different. It was cool.
We talked about touring with Larry but you also toured with Willie Nelson recently – how was that?
Oh, it was amazing. Honestly. He and his whole crew are really, really good people. We had a lot of fun. And he was really nice to me. It was very welcoming. I got to sing with him during his set every night, which was like, I mean, just really, really crazy to walk out on stage. And, you know, “Oh, my God, look at Willie Nelson”, you know [laughs]. So that was amazing. And then, I think it was the third night we were out together. His wife Annie, who’s amazing, went and surprised me by getting one of my merch T shirts. And Willie wore it on stage. And she goes, “Did you see what he’s wearing?” and I was like, “No, what’s he wearing?” And she was like, “It’s your shirt.” And I was like, “Oh. My. God.”
You also recently worked with Roman Alexander on ‘Downtime’. Tell us more about how that came about
Actually he and I didn’t know each other before we we did the song. But his team sent the song to my team. And I listened to it. And I just heard his voice. And I thought his voice has the most relaxing, bluesy quality to it. I just love the smoothness and the way he sings, I could feel the emotions. And I just was like, “Yeah, I definitely want to sing with him”. And so when we were in the studio, we really hit it off and started to become friends. And it’s a song that I’m really proud of. I’m really glad that that I did it.
You also did some co-producing on your EP. How did you find that and is it something you’d like to do more of?
Well, I am right now actually, I’m co-producing what I’m working on right now. Honestly, it wasn’t something that I did on purpose, actually. So what the way that I’m working right now is that Nathan [Chapman], my co-producer and I are playing all of the instruments ourselves on the tracks, we don’t have a band in the studio or anything, we just want to take our time with songs. And so that was the process that we did for ‘Hands On The Wheel’, which was when I did that for the first time. And so there was just a lot of collaboration that happened naturally with us just doing everything together. And so the co-producing thing kind of just happened, more than me saying like, “Alright, I’m gonna co -produce this”. But that experience was my favourite one that I’d had working on music and that’s what I want to do going forward.
I also wanted to asked about being named as one of CMT’s Next Women of Country – tell us more about that…
Yeah, so the Next Women of Country programme is actually one that I’ve admired for years. When I first moved to Nashville, really watching that programme, and how supportive they are of women and their music, I’ve always thought it was really cool. It’s always something that I was like, “I’d really love to be a part of that one day”. And so this year, when I found out that I was gonna get to be a part of it, I was so excited. It’s really an honour that they believed in me enough to let me be a part of the programme. So I’m very excited.
You were also an actress before you went into music. What drew you to make the switch? And is there anything from acting that you’ve brough into your music?
Yeah, so I only did acting until I was like, 11. So that I did when I was very young, and I had started already playing guitar by that point, and picked to get to nine, and I just really, really loved that. And that I figured out that that was really what I’d rather be doing. So I spent more time doing that after the fact. But as far as bringing something from acting into music, I think absolutely. When you start acting, there’s a lot of figuring out how to express emotion, and so I think that when you’re on stage, when you’re in the studio, it’s very important that people feel the emotion of what you’re singing. And I mean, I think that sometimes someone sings a song, and it hits you in your heart, and then someone else sings it, and you’re just like [shrugs] but it’s because of the emotion. And I think that’s really important. That’s something I really try to focus on. When I’m in the studio even it’s like, “Okay, sure this line sounds good. But do I feel it?” Yeah, so I think that’s probably the thing that I’d bring to it the most.
Is there anything you’re looking forward to doing whilst you’re in the UK – any sightseeing or foods you want to try or anything like that?
Well, hopefully, I’ll have a little bit of time. My schedule is pretty back to back for the most part, but if I get some time, my favourite thing in the world to do is read. I read all the time. So I know there’s some great bookstores in London. If I have a second, I have free time, my goal is to go to a really cool bookstore and a coffee shop [laughs]. But I want to see the tourist stuff, too. But that would be my first thing I’d do.
What’s still on the bucket list for you in terms of places you’d want to play or people you’d want to work with?
I mean, I think that singing with Chris Stapleton would be really cool. He’s on the list for me for sure. But places I want to play, I’d really love to play the Opry sometime soon. That’s a huge goal of mine. Red Rocks in Colorado. I’ll be honest, I’m not even saying this just because I’m going there but playing at the O2 was one that’s on a bucket list. It’ll be the most people I’ve ever played for. And I know it’s like a legendary venue. So that’ll be one off the list for sure.
Is there one song that you wish you could have written?
Oh, man, probably some of the Fleetwood Mac songs. There’s some Stevie Nicks songs that are just so beautiful. The melodies and everything. I really like ‘Silver Springs’ a lot. That’s one that that I would have loved to have written. And ‘Edge Of Seventeen’ probably, I mean, there’s too many, that’s probably enough. I could literally just go on and on and on.
What does the rest of the year look like for you? You’ve mentioned you’re recording at the moment – is new music your main focus?
Yes, there’s gonna be a good amount of new music that I’m very excited about. So that for sure, but I’m also really focused on being on the road a lot more this year. That is my favourite thing in the world to do is play for people. So the more I can be doing that, the happier I am [laughs]. So those are both of my focuses I think for this year.
And lastly – have you got plans to come back to the UK after this trip?
I don’t have any concrete plans yet but I mean I would love to for sure. So I’m sure it’ll happen in the near future.
Karley Scott Collins’ latest single, ‘Marlboro Reds’, is out now on Sony Music Entertainment.
See Karley live at C2C: Country to Country 2024 this weekend in London, Glasgow and Belfast as part of Introducing Nashville:
Friday 8th March – Main Stage, The O2, London (with Conner Smith and Lauren Watkins)
Saturday 9th March – SSE Arena, Belfast (with Conner Smith and Lauren Watkins)
Sunday 10th March – Ovo Hydro, Glasgow (with Conner Smith, Lauren Watkins and Greylan James)
