Karley Scott Collins is carving out her own lane in country music, blending the grit of rock with the heart of Nashville storytelling. Raised in Lake City, Florida, she grew up on a soundtrack of her father’s rock records—think Guns N’ Roses and Alice in Chains—balanced by her grandmother’s love of country classics. That mix of influences shaped her early songwriting, which began in childhood and deepened through her teens before she moved to Nashville in 2019 to pursue music full-time.
Since then, Collins has signed with Sony Music Nashville, released two acclaimed EPs, Hands on the Wheel in 2023 and Write One in 2024, and stepped onto the Grand Ole Opry stage for the first time. She has collaborated with artists like Keith Urban and Charles Kelley and been recognised by CMT’s Next Women of Country, further solidifying her rising profile. Now, with the release of her debut full-length album Flight Risk, Collins is pushing her artistry even further—co-writing every song, learning new instruments and taking on greater production roles to create a raw, vulnerable and deeply personal record. We caught up with her recently to talk all about it.
Thanks for your time Karley – it's lovely to talk to you today, thank you for your time.
Yeah, of course! Thank you for doing it too.
I'm so excited, on your behalf, for ‘Flight Risk' to be out in the world – it's going to be such an important album for you. How excited are you?
Oh,I'm so excited. I've been dreaming about putting out a full album my entire life. It's been 25 leading up to this moment!
The phrase itself, ‘Flight Risk,' can mean different things to different people. What does it mean to you in the context of this album title?
That's a big part of why we called the album that – it meaning different things because it has meant different things to me over periods of my life. At the beginning of writing the record, ‘Flight Risk,' to me, was songs like ‘Runner' which was me afraid of being hurt and letting someone get close to you.
Writing is like a healing process and I closed a lot of chapters during the making of the album and now the definition is much more healthy. I'm not running anymore out of fear but if I find myself in a situation that I know is not right for me I won't stay. There's more independence to the ‘Flight Risk' these days! (laughing)
It sounds like you've learned a lot about yourself making this album and you even learned to play instruments like the bass guitar for it too! You co-produced the album with Nathan Chapman too. What was it like wearing all these hats?
Oh, it was so much fun. I've always been someone who loves to learn – I was a weird kid because I loved taking tests! (laughing) I looked forward to them! This record was such a learning process that it has been such fun. Nathan is a natural teacher and in the studio it was just the two of us – we didn't hire any studio musicians or anything. We had time to experiment with things and I said I'd like to play bass and so he taught me and I ended up playing bass across the record.
Nathan also taught me how to engineer also so I did my own vocals and some of his guitar playing also. I'll have that knowledge for the rest of my life. We've been working together since I was 19 years old and I'm 25 now so we've got such a great working relationship – we even wrote some of the songs together also. We're so in synch and locked in – he's my musical soul mate.
The album has been five years in the making. How did your vision for it and the concept evolve over that time? There's songs of yours that I like, like ‘Marlboro Reds' and ‘How Do You Do That?' that haven't even made in onto the album?
When I was picking the songs for the record there were a lot of songs that didn't make it! When I started writing for this record five years ago I didn't even know I was writing for this record, if that makes sense? I wasn't filling slots, I was just writing and when the label said it was time for a record, a story started to take shape and I chose the rest of the songs that I knew needed to be there to tell the story that I wanted to tell.
You can certainly group the songs on the album into different themes. Am I right in thinking you wrote ‘Easy to Leave' on the very same day a relationship ended?
Honestly, that one was so much fun to write. I was so fed up at the time that I couldn't care less if I never talked to that person ever again! I went through that break up actually in the write! I walked into it knowing that the relationship was almost over and then he did something crazy as I was walking in to the room and I walked back out, called him and said it was over and then I called my mom!
We had fun writing that one and washing my hands of crazy at the same time!
You're only 25 years old. A song like ‘Runner' is quite a bitter and cynical song – who is the person that wrote that song and what happened to them!!
Oh man. ‘Runner' is probably the most personal song I've ever put out. It was who I was a year or so ago and that song was probably seven years in the making. One of my first relationships left me with a lot of scars and a lot of baggage. It turned me into a person who didn't trust anyone and I spent a lot of years running from people.
My best friend, who is also my co-writer on the song, Sam Backoff, had gone through a really similar situation and there was something beautiful about the two of us writing that song together. It was a really safe space to let those feelings out and I think it kinda healed a little piece of us in writing that song.
I've been gravitating towards all the really dark songs to be honest………..
So do I! (laughing) I'm ready to be in love again but I won't write love songs, I promise! (laughing)
‘Heavy Metal' is one of those darker songs. It has some gut-punch lines like ‘She'll probably get old and grey in that heavy metal.' Where did the inspiration for that song come from?
It's specifically about one of my oldest friends from back home. My hometown is a very small town in the south and we are all kinda raised to follow our parents – be married by around 24 at latest, you know? I was raised christian but my parents were a little bit more open minded but a lot of people where we come from are not so much and there's this idea that if you get married you do not divorce, under any circumstances.
My friend was raised that way and she got married too soon, to the wrong person and she facetimed me one night with a bottle of wine, crying on the couch. You can't tell someone on the phone that you think they should get a divorce, it's not your place, but you can write a song about it! (laughing)
She knows the song is about her, though, right?
I think she has an idea but I certainly haven't told her! (laughing)
Talking of heavy metal – you could give a song like ‘Girlfriend' to a rock producer and it could easily be tweaked into a big rock song. You reference Nirvana in the song and I can hear a Nirvana-esque bass line playing in it.
I played the bass on that song! Nirvana were definitely an influence on that song, for sure. I tried really hard when we were recording the album, not to fall into a mindset of thinking that some songs needed to be more Country, some songs needed to be more rock, some songs needed this or needed that.
We kinda tried to have creative freedom all the way through and when we wrote ‘Girlfriend' I wanted it to have a 90s grunge feel and we leaned into that. 90s grunge is one of my favourite genres of music to listen to – I'm a massive Alice in Chains fan!
You wrote ‘Straight for the Heart' for Alexandra Kay and that's another song that could have been a huge 80s rock song with a few more production tweaks.
I'm thrilled that you pick up on that because 70s, 80s, 90s rock is the majority of what I was raised on and it influences my writing a lot. That was an original idea for my record but I didn't think it fitted the project as well but I loved the song so much. I'm so glad that it found a home with Alexandra, she did a great a job with it.
Having songs cut by other artists was something I'd always wanted to happen, a real goal of mine and it's so special to me that it's happened now.
Are you looking to get more outside cuts with artists or are you still focused on your own career and songs for you at this stage of the writing / recording / releasing schedule?
It's a lucky position to be in because I write constantly. I don't have to write specifically for other artists, I just write songs. I only got to put 16 songs on this record and I've written hundreds in the process of it so the songs that didn't end up on this album can be pitched to other artists. If they land, great, if not, I'll keep them for my next project.
Which of the songs that you haven't released yet are you most excited for people to hear?
Oh man, probably ‘Denim,' that one is really special. I'm excited for people to hear it but I'm more excited for the person that it's about to hear it! (laughing) It's a very specific diss track and I hope it hurts his feelings!
‘Daddy's Habits' is an intriguing title……..
My middle name was originally supposed to be Faith. That would have made my initials ‘KFC,' right? (laughing) My mom needed to change my middle name last minute at the hospital and so she gave me my dad's first name as a middle name, so that's where the Scott comes from. She's told me me my entire life that she should never have named me after me dad because I am just like him and that's what that song is about, it's a fun one!
You've been opening for Keith Urban on his current tour, which is awesome. Tell me how you felt about that when you found out it was happening.
I was in my bedroom and I was getting ready for a write. My agent texted me to call him and he asked what I was doing and I said that I was just getting ready for the day. I asked what he was doing and he said, ‘Oh, not much, just making people's dreams come true!' I actaully physically jumped up and down in my bedroom and there was a lot of cuss words said.
It's the biggest opportunity that me and the band have ever had. I called everyone I knew in the 10 minutes after I found out! (laughing)
We saw you in London at C2C last year in a sitting down / songwriter kind of way. Have you had to learn how to work an arena stage in preparation for Keith's tour?
It's been a big learning process! They've got that thrust / catwalk that goes out from the middle into the crowd and there's a lot more space that you need to cover. I've had so much fun learning how to work those spaces and being able to go out into the crowd and interact with the fans, it's been a blast!
As well as the music you've done a fair bit of acting and screen work over the years, particularly when you were younger. Would you ever consider going back to acting if a good chance came along?
(thinking) I'm not actively seeking anything like that but if a Yellowstone show came knocking or there was an opportunity to star in a Stevie Nicks biopic then, yes, absolutely!! (laughing)
Check out our review of Karley Scott Collins' debut album ‘Flight Risk' here and listen to it in all the usual places.
