AC Scott (2026)

After decades spent telling other people’s stories across radio, television and fiction, 2025 marked the year AC Scott finally began telling her own through music. Following a life-altering diagnosis and a forced step away from broadcasting, Scott’s late-blooming creative chapter has unfolded with quiet power, resilience, and an outpouring of songs long waiting to be heard. Writing and recording between the Highlands, London and Los Angeles, she has channelled a lifetime of experience into her forthcoming debut album 'Out Of The Blue'. Arriving in March 2026, the record captures a profound artistic rebirth: candid, genre-defying, and rooted in the belief that it is never too late to find what you were meant to do.

In 2025, you began releasing music for the first time after a successful broadcasting career. What was it like to achieve something you had always wanted to do?

Surreal. I spent years talking to musicians about their songs and process so to be on the other side of it now is fascinating. 

You’ve been writing and recording across the Highlands, London and LA - what was your most memorable moment during that time?

Sailing across the Atlantic to the US and driving to LA and back to work with Andrew Rollins. 10k miles. I cant fly as I have a rare lung condition but I was compelled to take the journey as I was determined to meet him and say thank you face to face. Andrew Rollins heard my very first song called Kate Hyman and said listen to this and they have been my team since that day to this. I would do it again in a heartbeat. 

With your debut album “Out of the Blue” coming out next  March, how did your experiences over the past year shape the final direction or emotional tone of the record?

All my songs come from that intangible place deep down inside and they have waited a long time to be born so it was very much an organic process which is why the album is not genre specific. It is a lifetime of music distilled in my brain and coming out in its own sweet, and sometimes not so sweet way. 

There's a wide range of influences on the album - from revisiting the nostalgia of punk and New Wave to early hip-hop, disco and funk. Do you hope to continue songwriting and exploring different styles in the new year? 

I have got over 80 songs in my dropbox and already have my second album sketched out and even made a start on a third. I am just letting the songs lead me so there is no planned direction. There is no kind of music I don’t love, I embrace it all. 

You’ve described this chapter of your life as a kind of rebirth. When you reflect on the past year, what part of your old life feels most distant -  and what part feels newly reclaimed?

Newly claimed is singing and writing songs. I had no idea I could do it. All the jobs I have done on reflection I believe were leading  me indirectly to this, DJ, novelist, presenter it just took me a near death experience to realise it. 

What was the biggest challenge you had to navigate, and how did it influence your writing or mindset as you moved toward the album’s release?

Imposter syndrome. I am a talker but I am a very private person so it has surprised my friends and family that I write so candidly. But for me it’s therapy to let go of all these things that have been buried for years. Some of them are alarmed and others amused that they have known me for 30 years and didn’t know I played the piano. And of course I didn’t know I could sing so the whole thing is a bloody revelation to me and them.

You’ve had multiple semi-finalist placements in the UK Songwriter of the Year competition. How have those recognitions shaped your confidence as you head into album release year?

I was shocked that the first 2 songs I wrote, Sometimes and Highlands both got semi final spots but it was wonderful to have an endorsement like that. I work with living legends and they have been right behind me from day 1 but you know it’s really hard to believe your own press, a Calvinistic upbringing keeps my feet on the ground and the ever present voice of my dad, ‘don’t get too big for your boots’ running round in a loop. 

As a storyteller across radio, novels and now music, which aspect of your creativity do you feel grew the most?

I believe story is the heart of all those things. Songwriting for me is a new and different way of doing it. Music is infinite so that is desperately exciting and a little overwhelming. I just wish there were 48 hours in every day. I feel I have a lot to do and not enough time to do it all.  But now I found this new path it feels like a gigantic sigh….ah so this is what it was all about.

If you could give 2025 a personal theme song, what would it be? 

Never Too Late is my second single and is my story. It is about finally finding the thing you love, no matter what age and stage, ignoring the people and inner voices which are telling you, you are not good enough. But that’s cheating really so  the song I have loved since the second I heard it and I have told my husband I want played at my funeral is ‘ Enjoy Yourself It’s Later Than You Think’ My motto for life.

With “Out Of The Blue” arriving in March 2026, what are you most excited - or nervous - about? 

The vinyl. Then it will all feel real. Sliding it out of the sleeve, putting it on my turntable and putting the needle down on track one. I may pass out. 
Out Of The Blue  is a record of an extraordinary and unexpected journey at this stage in my life.  Of course I would love it to be well received but either way I honestly couldn’t love it more. 

And finally: after a year of resilience, music, and rebirth, what’s your hope for the year to come?

Take the songs out to play live, keep writing, recording and meeting and playing music with people. It is a joyful thing to do, for me the elixir of life.