AC Scott

When broadcaster and novelist AC Scott received a life-changing diagnosis that ended her on-air career, it could have marked the closing of one chapter. Instead, it became the beginning of another. Writing alone at her late father’s desk, she began to pour her emotions into songs, a quiet act of survival that would eventually lead to her debut album, 'Out Of The Blue', due next spring.

Her first single, ‘Sometimes’, captures that moment of reckoning with rare honesty. It’s a song about exhaustion and endurance, but also about the spark that remains when everything else feels lost. For Scott, music became more than expression, it became therapy, a way of finding herself again after illness, grief, and reinvention.

In this deeply personal conversation, she reflects on creativity as a lifeline, the connection between music and mental health, and the late-blooming joy of finally answering her own inner calling.

You’ve just unveiled your moving debut single, ‘Sometimes’ - the first glimpse of your forthcoming debut album, set to arrive in early 2026.The track chronicles your journey through loss and resilience. In your own words, what led to the song’s creation?

I was on my own driving, and I just said out loud ‘Sometimes I just feel so tired I barely lift my head, I just have to close my eyes’. It felt like the release of a deep seated truth. When you receive a diagnosis such as I did it’s always with you no matter how hard you try to dampen it down. I recorded the words on my phone. When I sat at the piano it just spilled out of me and the relief of speaking my truth was extraordinary. 

The song has drawn comparisons to the emotional resonance of legends like Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Was this influence intentional, or do you feel your own distinct style naturally shaped that timeless quality?

I have listened to so much music in my life I think it’s a distillation of all that. I didn’t try and emulate anyone, it just came out of me this way. Those comparisons are hugely flattering but I am just me. 

You only began composing music two years ago, following a high-profile broadcasting career. Written at your father’s desk, the creative process began after being diagnosed with a degenerative lung condition - a moment that marked the end of one chapter and the start of another. How did music provide both a new challenge and a pathway toward self-acceptance for you?

I played the piano since I was 5 and couldn’t play for 2 years after Dad died. That was when I acknowledged my visceral connection between music and emotion. Years later I retreated into myself when diagnosed with LAM and immersed myself in the piano as a form of escapism. All the stuff that was going round in my head began to emerge as songs. It was, and still is, therapy. When I confessed to a friend she suggested I went on a Secret Coast Songwriters weekend in Scotland which really lit the fire….

You returned to your musical roots in Scotland, where much of the songwriting began. Did being back home seep into the sound or storytelling of the album?

I have lived in Scotland most of my life,  Out Of The Blue, my debut album reflects all of that. My family were great storytellers so that dna continues but in song. There is a blend of optimism and joy balanced with a sense of loss and  acceptance a true reflection of the human condition, warts and all.  

‘Sometimes’ feels like a haunting reflection on change and survival. Did writing this particular song help in your own healing and realisation - and in turn, how do you hope it resonates with listeners?

It was the start of my recovery not physically but emotionally. When I acknowledged that inner voice, it is so easy to ignore, the floodgates opened and songs have been flooding through me since then. It has been a life lesson,  discovering my true self.  I hope anyone else facing their own challenges might take comfort in the fact everything will change, we change and you will find a way through – just hang on in there. 

Do you feel music was always a distant dream waiting to surface, or does it feel more like the perfect soundtrack for this chapter of your life?

I always worked in the music industry but as the conduit for others to tell their story, as a radio DJ, a TV presenter never considering I would dare to do what they did. I try not to have regrets that it has taken this long to find my thing. I really believe had I done this when I was young I likely wouldn’t have survived, I was wild back then. It may take a long time but I am living proof of the old adage, what’s for you doesn’t go past you. 

Your lyrics carry a raw honesty. How do you decide what to share publicly versus what remains personal?

I just sing what comes out of me, often I write the melody, record it and just play it back and sing over it without writing anything down, that seems to work and so whatever fugue state I am in it just spills out. Reading that back I sound slightly deranged. But it’s the truth. I explain to my husband it is just what’s in there and he rolls his eyes. We both had a life before we met. 

You’ve faced immense change in a short space of time. What have you learned about yourself through creating this album?

There is no part of this creative process that I don’t love. Working with other people as obsessed with music as I am is a joy,  finally I have found my tribe. It’s not a way to feed yourself due to the way the music industry has changed but that doesn’t stop me and others like me doing it. It is a compulsion, a passion, I can’t not do it. 

Sonically, the track balances vulnerability with strength. How did you approach the arrangement and production to reflect that emotional duality?

It was the first song that I ever had produced so the credit goes to Andrew Rollins. Despite it being a rough recording of me and my piano he just got it. Andrew is an Emmy award winning songwriter too so has a complete understanding of where it came from and what it was about. I cried when I heard it. Andrew has produced my debut album. I cant fly because of my lungs so I took a ship to the US and drove over to the West Coast last summer 10k miles to work with him in his studio. The contrast from being so weak I couldn’t walk to driving into LA down those famous palm tree lined streets was a dream come true. 

Looking ahead to the full album, what can listeners expect both musically and emotionally? 

Musically it crosses genres, there are songs which reflect all aspects of the human condition from being young and wild to the nostalgia of looking back at a life well lived and the many we have loved and lost.  Sometimes was the admission of being banjaxed by life and the second single Never Too Late is very uplifting and optimistic - follow your heart no matter what anyone says – if this extraordinary thing can happen to me believe it can happen to you.