Heartbreak, Hard Rock & Flight Risks: Karley Scott Collins on Her Debut Album, Touring with Keith Urban & More

When you hear the term "flight risk," most people picture a runner, a leaver, a quitter, someone who can't quite stand up to the tasks ahead of them.

If you ask Karley Scott Collins, she would say the same.

Yet, over the course of the last five years, which saw her putting pen to paper as she unravelled her own life story, she'd explain that the meaning of "flight risk" has also changed for her, going from a negatively charged personality trait to a time-worn badge of honor.

"I think writing, in general, is a really healing and cathartic experience, whether it's poetry, songwriting, novels or anything," Collins tells Holler as she sets up camp in the Sony Music Nashville office on a picture perfect September afternoon. "When I started writing the record, I don't think I even realized how much healing, growing and changing that I had to do."

Collins' debut album, Flight Risk, perfectly exemplifies this healing journey. Starting all the way back in 2020 when the Florida native penned the song that would eventually bookend her introductory album, 'Madman,' the very first lyric written for the album brandished its namesake.

"[This album] really is the story of my growth and change over the last few years. I think it's the story of the change in my definition of 'flight risk,'" Collins explains. "For a long time, it was running out of fear of getting hurt or not letting anyone close. I don't think I truly let myself love anyone for a long time for that reason."

She continues, "Through the process of writing the record, though, 'flight risk' now means something totally different. I look at it as more of an empowering thing or coming from a place of confidence. If I choose to leave a situation now, I don't leave it because I'm scared. I leave it because it isn't right for me. I know what I want and I know what I'm working towards, and that's how I look at it now."

At the center of her growth, both as an artist and an individual, lies the gut-wrenching, poignant ballad, 'Runner.' Written alongside Sam Backoff, Zane Callister and Ashley Ray, it's the sad but true tale of why Collins took on the role of flight risk for so long.

"I had a really traumatic relationship. It was my first one when I was a teenager and it ended when I was 18. It kind of destroyed me," Collins shares. "I think it changed me for the worst for a long time. It made me not trust anyone for a long time. It was something that I just was not ready to work through. It ended up being seven years before we wrote that song."

Noting her close friendship with Backoff, she continues, "When Sam and I started to get really close, I had opened up to her about some of that stuff, and she had gone through a very similar thing. There was something about having that camaraderie with someone who I really trusted, both creatively and personally, that made that song easier to write. We cried through that whole write, but it's really special to take something that took so many years of my life in a negative way and turn it into something that people relate to and that you're proud of.

"It felt like we had let it go. We got it out, it's out in the world and now we can grow, heal and change from it," Collins reflects. "There were so many songs on this album like that where I wrote them, and then it felt like I could take a deep breath."

From Flight Risk's origins in 2020 to now, nearly everything has changed for the burgeoning singer-songwriter, who in just the last 18 months made her coveted Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium debuts, as well as tour the world alongside country stalwart Keith Urban on his High And Alive Tour.

Patching together everything from her life up to this point, the highs, the lows, the wins, the losses, the heartbreaks and the healing, Karley Scott Collins has bared her soul on Flight Risk, and she can't imagine it any other way.

"When people listen to this record, I want them to leave it eventually feeling like they're healed and that they feel more empowered and confident to make decisions from the right places." With a smile, Collins adds, "I'm a completely different person from the time that I started writing the record to now, and it’s all on there... It's something I've been working towards for my entire life."

Additionally, Karley Scott Collins reflects on her connection to hard rock, co-producing her debut album, touring with Keith Urban and more.

"That comes from my dad. My entire childhood, he would play Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, Pantera and those bands. My entire childhood was hard rock and heavy metal.

My first crush wasn't Justin Bieber, it was Axl Rose.

That's what I was raised on and then my Nana had the country influences. She loved Willie Nelson, George Jones and stuff like that. Most of what was playing in my house growing up, though, was rock music. The first song I ever learned on guitar was by Queens of the Stone Age. That's still my favorite, and that's what I get in the car and listen to most of the time. I guess it just kind of comes out naturally."

"I love having my hand on as many aspects of it as I can. I love learning and I love trying new things. The way that my producer, Nathan Chapman, and I have put together our process of working leaves a lot of room for that.

We don't hire a studio band, it's just the two of us. When you hire a studio band, you're on a really strict time schedule, you're recording four songs in a day and you don't get to separate out all the different parts. Everyone's just playing at once so it can be really difficult when you're a control freak, like I am, to hear everything and make sure you love every single part.

Nathan and I play everything one at a time, but it also gives us a lot more freedom and free time to be creative. There were so many times where I was just like, 'Well, what would it sound like if I played violin here?' Or he was playing bass and I said, 'Man, I'd really like to learn bass.' He was like, 'Well, I'll just teach you.' I played it on the record an hour later on 'Girlfriend' and a few others. We had so much time to just learn and try things, and I think it comes out in the record that we had so much fun doing it. It was like being at summer camp and having fun the whole time.

The engineering stuff was something that I also wanted to learn. I don't like sitting in the studio and watching someone else work. I want to be a part of it and know what's going on. Nathan also loves to teach so we had the best time.

I played piano, 808s on the drum pad, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, violin, banjo, bass and sang background vocals on Flight Risk."

"Stevie Nicks, as cliche as that sounds, is a big one. I love Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen's songwriting, too. I read Leonard Cohen's lyrics like poetry, they're just so beautiful.

I get a lot of inspiration from Queens of the Stone Age. He does something really interesting, which I admire a lot, because it's really heavy music sometimes but he has a really sweet voice. That juxtaposition is something that I try to have in some of my music, where there's this edgy element but there's still a beautiful part to it also. I think that's really inspiring.

Obviously, there's a lot of great country artists that I love, too. I love Willie Nelson's writing. He's got some beautiful songs. I have an entire playlist on my phone that's just called 'Willie.' I love Chris Stapleton and Tyler Childers are some of my favorites, too."

I don't choose my co-writers because they're women, I choose them because they're badasses and they're really, really talented.

I absolutely believe in giving women opportunities; I'm a woman and I want opportunities. However, I think that if you're going to get an opportunity, it should be because you deserve it. Those women are the most talented people I've ever been in a room with, and that's comparing them to all the men and women I know. They're just forces of nature, so I don't know if it's feminine energy as much as it is just badass energy.

It's also really special to have some of my best friends on the album, like Alex Kline and Sam Backoff. It's a really special thing being so comfortable with people that they know everything about my life. It makes it very easy to write about your life when they know what's going on."

"Keith was the first country artist I really ever remember really liking because my aunt was in love with him. She would play it all the time when I was growing up, like my cousin and I were forced to sing background vocals to 'Jeans On.' I have loved him for forever so being on tour with him wasn't just a really great opportunity. It was really freaking exciting because I actually love his music.

It's been an insane learning experience. Watching him play every night is crazy because he is a born entertainer. His stage presence is incredible and his guitar playing is mind blowing. Everything about his show is so perfect. My band and I watch his set every single night and we always talk about it after the show and what we can incorporate into our show.

I've learned a lot from him, but it has also been the best year of my life unequivocally.

For the full track list to Karley Scott Collins' Flight Risk, see below:
1. Denim
2. Easy to Leave
3. Quit You
4. Cowboy Sh!t
5. Music to Cry To
6. Left Me Alone
7. Shoot Out All the Lights
8. Bad Bad
9. Runner
10. Girlfriend
11. I Used to Love Him
12. American Boy
13. Heavy Metal
14. Daddy’s Habits
15. Only Child
16. Madman

––

Karley Scott Collins' debut album, Flight Risk, is available everywhere on September 26 via Sony Music Nashville.