Rising Stars: Meet Phoebe Scott of All over!

Today we’d like to introduce you to Phoebe Scott.

Hi Phoebe, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Although I can’t remember a time before I was singing and writing, I like to mark the beginning of my professional career in 2014, when I joined Coopertheband—an indie/folk rock band made up of some great friends from my hometown. I was 15 when I started, and we played every bar, club, coffee shop, backyard, and county fair within 200 miles of Jackson, TN.

In 2017, I finished high school and wrote and recorded our album Kingdoms, which remains one of my proudest creative achievements. After I graduated, I moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University’s songwriting program. I like to say that, more than teaching me how to write songs, Belmont taught me how to be a songwriter. I’m so grateful for my time there.

During my time at Belmont, I signed an artist development deal with Centricity Music and released my first solo project, a three-song project called “This Isn’t Fun.” At this point, I was convinced that the only way to have a music career was to be an artist. During my time at Centricity, I was introduced to the role of “topliner.” It felt like I finally had a word for what I wanted to do—tell stories without having to be in the spotlight.

Eventually, I started growing into myself as a topliner and wrote some songs I’m proud of – namely, my work with artists like Annie DiRusso, Natalie Layne, Selah, and Rachael Nemiroff. In 2022, I signed a publishing deal with Amplo Records and started writing songs full-time.

Now, I’m easing back into the role of the artist, working on a completely autobiographical EP. It feels like a gift to tell my stories with my voice, and that the music industry has evolved to make room for people like me who may want to do things a little differently.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s always a struggle to believe that you have something unique or interesting to add to the 120,000+ songs that are released every day. It has been consistently difficult for me to embrace my unique voice, even if it doesn’t sound like what’s popular at the moment. Authenticity is something that really attracts me to an artist – it makes me feel like I’m witnessing something special. I want to provide that to anyone who may listen to my music.

Additionally, as songwriting is a male-dominated industry, there have been many instances where I was undermined, overruled, and ignored in writing sessions. It always helps me to remember that I’m not alone and that my feminine perspective is important, but I’m also convinced that – regardless of the gender of the writer – the best song will always win.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am proud to call myself a multi-genre songwriter. I’ve had multiple cuts in the country, Christian, pop, and rock spaces.
My speciality is toplining.

I’m most proud of my work with Natalie Layne, my best friend of many years and one of the best creative collaborators ever. Her EP Castles and her single “Love Me Back to Life” are still some of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.

I think what sets me apart from other writers is my obsessiveness. I love songs. I love this industry. I feel an incredibly weighty responsibility to honor the songs I end up in the room with. I tend to think of songs as metaphysical things that we, the writers, are trying to uncover; that every song that has ever been written has existed since the beginning of time, and my job is not to create it from scratch, but to discover it.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Because I love my job and I want to continue to love my job, I’ve had to be very intentional with my thoughts about our current landscape.

All the rumors are true: social media is often a bottomless cesspool of negativity that leads us away from a healthy self-concept and toward envy and comparison. What is also true is that social media is the primary place for music discovery. Listeners don’t just want to hear songs, they want to be fans of the people who write them.

The upside to the social media landscape is that indie artists don’t need to wait until a record label decides to believe in them to garner an audience. The power has been placed almost completely in the artists’ hands. The only limit is their grit and willingness to try newer and more creative marketing methods.

Because of this, I feel like the modern record label could become obsolete within the next decade. There are fewer and fewer things that artists can get from labels that they cannot get from management companies (who are mostly all doing label services now) or that they can’t generate themselves using the power of social media.

There are some truly incredible people working on the label side of things – some of whom I know personally and greatly respect. I can’t wait to see how they and people like them grow and evolve with the times. It will be terrifying and exciting, like most music industry shifts tend to be!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoebeisloud/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@phoebeisloud