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Scout Willis may be a singer-songwriter, but she feels like she moonlights as a sex and relationship coach.
“I’m so fascinated by human sexuality and relationships and the way people fit with themselves in these spaces,” the Americana singer-songwriter tells PEOPLE.
That innate curiosity is what fueled Willis’ new single “It Ain’t Nothing,” which was a collaboration between producers and songwriters JT Daly (Benson Boone), Daniel Tashian (Kacey Musgraves), and Steph Jones (Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato).
“[What] feels really exciting for me about this music and this record is that it’s almost these embedded mantras,” she says.
According to Willis, 34, the song encapsulates “that moment when you meet someone at a party or you’ve been involved in a flirtation but nothing’s happened yet, and there’s all this coiled energy and power between you.”
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She adds, “That moment of tension, that’s a very powerful moment to live in, and I think a lot of people rush through it in my experience.”
After hearing “It Ain’t Nothing” back in April, Thomas Doherty — who she stepped out with in Los Angeles in August — asked to sing on the track.
“I was obviously blown away by that idea, and I knew he could sing, but I didn’t even really know how well he could sing, so we were just messing around on it together,” she recalls.
At the time, the Gossip Girl alum, 30, also asked to be in the music video. “I hadn’t even conceptualized it yet,” she says. “I closed my eyes and the image I saw was him watching me at a party in a crowded room.”
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The track’s spicy music video, which was released on Monday, Nov. 17, echoes that sentiment — what it’s like when a person sees someone they’re interested in and they’re suddenly the only ones in the room.
“The whole video came from that idea,” says Willis, “and then we really wanted to lean all of the canon romance movies that all of the fantasy-loving yearner BookTok girlies, especially are into.”
In it, there are homages to Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, Saltburn and even Atonement (with a certain sensual library scene) in the music video, as well as a touch of Kenneth Anger’s 1959 book Hollywood Babylon and the provocative British TV series Skins.
Despite the sexual tension in the music video, Willis and Doherty never actually kiss. “It’s really honing in on that moment of intensity and tension right before something happens,” says the “Over and Over” artist.
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When asked if the steaminess of the music video translated to off-screen, Willis says, “Thomas is very, very special to me, and I’ll leave it at that.”
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Willis, who released “Blame Me” earlier this fall, is also working on a full-length record. After the L.A. wildfires, she traveled to Nashville in March 2025 where she began doing co-writes for the first time with songwriters Daly enlisted.
“It felt like I was on these musical blind dates every day, and I wrote about two records worth of music,” she recalls.
While making the album, Willis was listening to Sabrina Carpenter, Daft Punk, ABBA, and Fleetwood Mac.
“There’s some sort of Karen Carpenter, Carole King ’70s coded energy on it, but you also can definitely tell that I grew up listening to The Strokes,” she says of the album.
For now, Willis is thumbing through the rest of the material she plans to release.
“I’ve just of been feeling it out,” she says. “It’s definitely in a bit of a new direction that has felt really fun to explore.”
