Scout Gillett Shares New Single 'Too Fast To Last' To Preview New Album
(Chromatic) Scout Gillett today announced her new album Tough Touch will be released on March 6th, 2026, via her new label home Slouch Records, sharing its driving and irresistible lead single "Too Fast To Last" as an auspicious preview. On her defining sophomore record, the Missouri-born, now LA-based, former Brooklynite emerges from years of relentless motion.
Gillett has lived a lot of life in the time surrounding her acclaimed 2022 debut album no roof no floor (which earned great press from The FADER, Paste, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, and more): 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.
Of "Too Fast To Last," which arrives today alongside a self-directed video, Gillett explains: "This was written right after my first headlining European tour. It felt like I was unable to sustain romantic relationships and like I was always missing friends' birthdays or shows. This song reflects on the feeling of chasing the highs and new experiences, but also feeling lost and trying to identify what's changed and what has stayed the same. The band fleshed it out on our tour down to Austin to record Tough Touch. I remember being in a haunted hotel room in New Orleans during a flash flood. We were all huddled on musky motel beds, going over the song unplugged-truly one of the band's closest moments."
Gillett has also today announced a March 2026 headlining European tour and additional US tour dates, including Los Angeles' Zebulon on February 8th, and New York City's TV Eye on March 8th; a current itinerary is listed below.
Tough Touch began in Gillett's former Bed-Stuy bedroom, on her four-track Tascam portastudio. Away from the computer, she began crafting new songs with special focus on the writing itself. Between 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. Next came an unconventional journey: 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. "I felt really locked in with the band, and the band really was understanding and sensitive to the record."
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.
Now settled in Los Angeles, Gillett has fallen in love with the landscape, her home, her community, and her independence. She's already writing demos for her third album, continuing a journey that feels like purpose. When asked how Tough Touch differs from her previous work, she says: "These songs explore and explode on a deeper level. I've only gotten to know myself, others, and the world more with making music. Specifically with this record, I learned to have more confidence and to never settle for less or give up. I learned how to love myself and others more. When to stand my ground and follow my intuition-though it may be against the grain." 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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