After her October 2022 LP no roof no floor contemplated the concept of home, Brooklyn-via-Kansas-City songwriter Scout Gillett returns today with news of another new release taking these ideas further. Slated to arrive on September 5, the Imagination, MO. EP suggests a lighter approach to such heavy subject matter while keeping its focus on the importance of one’s upbringing. Gillett cites The Cars and Pat Benetar as primary influences, while also enlisting her father to contribute vocals to the EP’s closer, a cover of Deftones’ “Change (In the House of Flies).”
“People who don’t know my background and upbringing may not understand me,” Gillett shares as she explains the deeply personal roots behind the new project. “I have to let them in and show them who [I am] and what I’m about. People might think it’s cute or feel sorry that I had to work so hard to get here. I think my upbringing and its surroundings were remarkable and irreplaceable and I wouldn’t take any of it back. It completely shaped me to be independent and experimental.”
Arriving today with the news is the EP’s first single, a breezy pop-rock nostalgia track that focuses on turning heartache into something that’ll chart. “I never had the guts to tell them,” she notes of the song’s subject matter, a crush she never pursued. “So I just wrote a song about it and I never got a kiss—so I figured I’d try to make a hit.”
Below, check out the video Gillett created for the track, which was inspired by more of her early musical heroes: MTV royalty such as No Doubt, Amy Winehouse, and Lily Allen. You can also catch her at Ridgewood, New York’s Cassette in September surrounding the EP release. Find more info about the new music and the release shows on her website.
