Jacob Alon's nails are another matter.

Their left hands were neatly trimmed in sparkling purple and royal blue. The nail on the right is like a claw, sharp to a sinister point.

The Scottish singer-songwriter, teenage claws, raised the claws after finding a dusty nylon-string guitar in the cupboard at her grandmother’s house.

“I’m always clumsy,” they said. “Growing my nails completely changed the way I play guitar.”

“It might have started with trying to copy Nick Drake from YouTube. I suddenly felt very relevant to the instrument.

"It feels like the guitar isn't stopping - it extends into my anatomy. That inner connection is special to me."

If you haven't heard of Jacob, it won't be long.

When they sing, time ceases.

The trembling vocals curled around the music like smoke, just like the 24-year-old, who identified it as non-binary and used their/their pronouns, romantic exploration of traces and heartbroken poetic stories.

As a writer, Jacob can be just as gentle and ruthless. On Liquid Gold 25, named after the poppers brand, they addressed the soul performance experience of queer dating apps like Grindr, singing and so on: "This is the place to die of love.“

Meanwhile, the fragile confession melody captures Jacob's chaos, with the current boyfriend denied that their relationship had ever happened.

"It was a profound rejection," they recalled. "I was so confused that (they) could not feel about their feelings, how the world felt about you under the miserable, tragic shame imposed in the world."

The theme of Jacob’s debut album is that this feeling of being trapped is trapped, controlled by a bewildered dreamlike logic.

Its titled Stucco refers to the romantic obsession state that singers often try to escape.

“As a prison for fantasy, dreams may have a darker side, especially in relationships,” they explained.

“Sometimes, you stick to your dreams so hard that you ignore the magic of the real world.”

Jacob embodies this idea as a warning in their debut single, Fairy.

When you worship your partner, you really don't know them, "because you trap them in your own version of mythology," they explain.

“You’ve gotten rid of all their flaws because it never works.”

This song is the realization of that truth. “It's not your fault, it's my disease/I have to learn to keep you free.“

Musicians have learned these lessons in a difficult way - it seems to be a lifelong model.

Growing up in Fife, with a faint beach and a sleepy fishing village, engaging in a music career is a distant dream.

"I remember a family member telling me that when I was a kid, I would be a fool for a musician. It kept bothering me."

Instead, they took the academic route and participated in the admission to the University of Edinburgh to study theoretical physics and medicine.

The progress is not going well.

"I was in such a pain," they recalled. "I always found the school really fulfilling and satisfying, but the university really suffocated. I realized that life in academia did not promote my curiosity about the universe, and I felt my consciousness."

It all surfaced when they crashed on the floor of the university library, while desperately trying to stuff the exams.

“I remember sleeping between bookshelfs and security guards kept awakening me, ‘You can’t sleep here, go home’.

"So I'll move to another room and they'll find me there too. I remember thinking, 'What am I doing?'"

On a whim, they dropped out of school and moved to London to make music.

They said: “It’s very confusing.

“I broke down and called my mom from the middle of the street outside John Lewis and cried because I didn’t know where I was or where I was.

“But even if London didn’t work, I realized I would be going to be music because it was the only thing that always brought meaning to my life.”

So they packed up, returned to Scotland, and started living in a van while visiting the Edinburgh Folk Tour.

“I had to sneak into the pool to take a shower, but it was really pregnancy and found my voice,” they recalled.

In the beginning, they mainly played covers - from Leonard Cohen to traditional Gaelic songs. But one night, in the chaotic and narrow Captain’s bar in Edinburgh, a friend encouraged Jacob to play the original song they wrote for their sister Stella.

"It was a really noisy bar, but people just stopped and listened silently," Jacob recalled.

"Usually, when everyone is looking at me, I don't like it - but it's such a powerful moment. It gives me a sense of self-confidence that I've never felt before."

Soon, Jacob was written new materials, pouring their feelings onto the page while making a living at a local coffee shop.

Strong and heartfelt songs draw bumps to adulthood – forged a queer identity and figured out what they figured out from life and relationships while navigating the period when they were excluded by their family.

Jacob carefully chose their words, "This is a very difficult time for my biological family." "I escaped a lot of pain. Fortunately, we are in a better place now."

The nude vulnerability of these songs sets Jacob apart. Within a few months, they obtained a manager and signed the island record. Last November, their name was only one single and was booked to appear on Jools Holland.

On the screen, they have charming stillness, performing barefootly in a pair of golden feather pants, such as some kind of music iCarus.

But, beneath the surface, they are a bunch of nerves.

They explained: “I’ve been playing a series of shows the other few days and my voice has gone away – but for the moment, something has taken over.”

This is the moment that brings them back to their childhood.

“I used to be a competitive swimmer when I was a kid, but I also had Tourette swimmers.

“Sometimes, until the moment they say ‘on your mark’, my twitch can’t shake.

"I'm really worried that it will surface on the Jools - because sometimes, when I perform live, my hands start ticking. But, this meditation comes again."

It's hard to imagine Jacob's music soothing and healing better. It has a magic that takes them along with folk nymphs like Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell and Sandy Denny.

Positive reviews are already coming in, and soon, but Jacob learns the lesson of their own lyrics: It's a dream they won't get stuck.

They explained: "For billions of years from now, the sun will expand and swallow the earth, and maybe we are gone forever - but there is a beautiful, optimistic nihilism."

“What’s going on right now is happening so I just want to appreciate it and I can feel the sunshine on my skin, I can meet lovely people, talk and connect.”