When you’re an actor who’s as booked and busy as Naomi Scott, it turns out there’s still time to muse over what kind of pop star you’d like to be. “I really was able to have the space to figure out, ‘Who am I as an artist? What do I want to say?’” she tells Rolling Stone UK from her home in east London.
Having spent the better part of a decade starring in a string of blockbusters including Power Rangers, Charlie’s Angels, the live-action remake of Aladdin and Smile 2, the 32-year-old Londoner has firmly established herself as a force to reckon with in Hollywood. But Scott’s latest project is one that takes her right back to her roots, reconnecting with her humble upbringing as the Hounslow-born daughter of two pastors who would sing in church and write songs at the piano as a teenager. “I knew that I was always going to make music,” she explains of the journey to this point. “I wasn’t aware of what those paths were”.
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.
Scott proved she was a double threat back in 2011 when she starred in the Disney teen musical Lemonade Mouth, one of her earliest credits after being discovered in church as a 14-year-old by Kéllé Bryan of the British girl group Eternal, who set her on a path that kickstarted a career in entertainment. A pair of early EPs followed as more acting roles came her way, but it wasn’t until Scott went through a “quarter-life crisis” at age 27 that she considered what the next chapter of her music career would look like. “I really wanted [this album] to be intentional and feel more honed, feel more like a body of work,” she explains.
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.”
As she redirects her focus back to the passion that started it all, Scott can now say she deeper understands her own process. “With any creative endeavour that I go on, it’s usually pushing me towards trusting myself more. I actually think it’s subtraction rather than addition,” she explains. “It feels like I’m loosening a chain of relying on somewhere else, or thinking someone else has got the answer.”
While she might not be able to experience every life path she once envisioned for herself, an exciting new road no doubt lies ahead. “I’m so happy that now this is the time in my life, at this age and what I’ve gone through, that I am actually excited about sharing this first album,” she says. “It’s just a blessing to be able to do that exactly the way you want to do it.”
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