Scout Gillett – Coney Island
Scout Gillett today shared her new single/video “Coney Island,” the latest off her forthcoming new album Tough Touch, due out March 6th, 2026, via Slouch Records.
The heartfelt, melodic rocker was inspired by Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and plays out like a vivid memory: “I wrote this during a prolonged, really difficult breakup. We went to Coney Island even though we both knew we couldn’t be together anymore. It was one of the most visceral experiences of my life,” explains the Missouri-born, now LA-based, former Brooklynite. “It was so beautifully real, raw, and sad. We cried and buried notes for our love in the sand during Firework Friday and played ‘Coney Island Baby’ by Lou Reed on repeat. This song exposes the discovery of one’s self through love and loss.” Coinciding with today’s release, La Blogothèque has shared their “Coney Island” Take Away Show, a live session filmed in March 2024 at a salon in Paris, France called Rock Hair.
“Coney Island” follows the driving, unforgettable lead single “Too Fast To Last,” which earned praise and support from Sound Opinions, Brooklyn Vegan (“punchy, catchy”), The Alternative (“gritty and earnest, Gillett’s artistic vision is fully rendered”), Buzzbands.la, and more. Gillett will perform next at NYC’s TV Eye on March 8th and has confirmed a hometown show at LA’s Non Plus Ultra on May 2nd following a March headline tour throughout Europe and the UK.
On her defining sophomore record, Gillett emerges from years of life in relentless motion: touring and traveling nonstop, enduring two painful breakups and a horrific near-death experience while filming a DIY video, and moving to Los Angeles after calling New York home for eight years. Rendered with the gritty, glittery cosmic twang that makes her sound so singular, Tough Touch encapsulates the profound growth and vulnerability of this period and finds Gillett breaking new ground as a lyricist–each moment energized by her powerhouse vocals.
Between her acclaimed 2022 debut LP no roof no floor and this album, something fundamental shifted in Gillett’s artistic identity. “I connected more with being a writer and not just a musician,” she says. For Tough Touch, Gillett embarked on what she calls her “build-a-band” tour, playing with musicians she’d never performed with before and committing to shows in unfamiliar cities, taking risks on trust and recommendations. That final lineup—longtime collaborator Ted Jamison (bass), Abdon Valdez (drums), and Omar Schambacher (guitar)—brought the chemistry she’d been searching for.
Drawing inspiration from Neil Young, PJ Harvey, Hole, and Lucinda Williams, among others, Gillett and her collaborators recorded largely live with Stuart Sikes (Cat Powers, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse) at his Austin studio, resulting in an album that surprises and mesmerizes at every turn—twangy yet brimming with raw urgency, grungy but soft at times, always expansive in its emotional range. Tough Touch is the sound of an artist who trusted the process even when it was frightening, who stayed vulnerable even when it was painful, and who emerged with something undeniably her own.
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