FEATURE: Spotlight: Molly Payton — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Molly Payton

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I am jealous of Molly Payton…

as she, I believe, is back in her native New Zealand and is going to do some tour dates this month. Keep abreast of her social media channels (the links are at the bottom). I am not sure when she will be playing in London and the U.K. – she moved to London as a teenager -, but it is heartening to feel that she may be able to perform live very soon! I want to bring in some interviews, as it provides a greater examination of a brilliant musical talent. Payton’s recent E.P., Porcupine, gained some great reviews (I will quote from one later); it signals an artist who is primed for big things. Even if this year looks brighter for her in terms of gigs and exposure, last year was quite disruptive. In this interview with F word. Magazine, Molly Payton spoke with Rachel Edwards about her year - and whether she was yearning to get back on stage:

“Whilst 2020 has most of the world desperately holding onto their last few marbles, 19 year old singer songwriter Molly Payton has kept her head firmly screwed on. It’s already October but for Molly the year is nowhere near over as the indie sensation prepares to release her latest EP ‘Porcupine’.

The singer, who draws inspiration from rock and roll bands of the '60s and '70s, quite literally flew onto the London music scene three years ago when she moved from her hometown in New Zealand with just her mum and a dream of making it as a musician. Two years later and she had her first EP under her belt and had begun to establish a place for herself on the indie scene by supporting alt-rock bands like ‘Palace’.

Her deep, rich tones mean that you’d be forgiven for assuming you’re listening to the voice of someone twice her age but pay attention to the lyrics and you’ll soon be drawn into the world of teenage angst, friendship, love and heartbreak typical of girls her age. In essence, she writes as a type of cathartic release as she navigates the precarious space between adolescence and adulthood.

R.E: I love your raw honesty, it’s refreshing. How did you deal with feeling lonely during lockdown?

M.P: (Laughs) Well I can’t obviously sleep around anymore. That was definitely just a time in my life when I was feeling a bit mad and going out a lot. I now approach everything in a very different way - I’ve calmed down a lot in the last six or seven months. I’ve got really great friends so I spend time with them when I can.

R.E: Did you find that during the intense lockdown period you were still able to be creative?

M.P: God no! I had writers block for the first time in my life. Before lockdown I was writing two or three songs a week and then during lockdown I think I wrote two songs over three months. I was sitting on my second EP and I had six or seven songs from the States so I felt no pressure at the time to be creating a lot and I just let myself sit in my lack of creativity for a while. And now I’m back to it and it feels great...

R.E: Do you miss playing live right now?

M.P: I miss it a lot! I got to the point where I was comfortable with gigging and I was really enjoying it because for a while at the beginning it was the most terrifying thing in the world. But I’d finally started to enjoy it and then of course lockdown started. I just miss that feeling when you finish a set and put your guitar down and everyone’s going crazy...then you walk backstage and it’s quiet and you still have all of the adrenaline.

R.E: Do you have any rituals before you go on stage?

M.P: I usually have exactly two pints and a shot of tequila before I go on stage and I don’t eat dairy. I think I quite like the feeling that every gig’s different. If I had too many rituals it would start to feel like a job.

R.E: I feel like a lot of your songs epitomise different stages of love and heartbreak. What is some advice you give someone who's going through heartbreak?

M.P: Just give it time. There is no cure for heartbreak - I think the only thing you can do is just give things time and try not to drink or smoke too much and look out for yourself. And remember, the best best revenge is being happy - that's the only thing you can do.

R.E: It's so true. The more you focus on yourself the better, after something goes badly wrong.

M.P: The best advice I can give is that when you're with someone, make sure you don't make them your whole life. I'm really lucky. Music makes me so happy. So now when I'm with someone and something goes wrong it’s okay because I'm going to the studio. So it’s finding things that make you feel like you have a purpose when you're separate of someone, you know?

R.E: Yeah, I think that's really good advice. And do you have any big dreams or goals for the future?

M.P: Just to keep doing music. Everything’s a bit uncertain at the moment because I'm kind of in the process of thinking about moving out and trying to find somewhere to live. I've been lucky that I've been able to stay with my mum for so long. She's the most supportive parent ever. I love her very much. I guess my goal is just to earn enough from music to make it my only job, you know, so it can just be all I do. And then there’s the whole I'd love to be famous and go on tour. But bare minimum, you know?”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Hayleigh Longman for NOTION

It must have been quite a shift and change of pace for Payton to move from New Zealand to London! I am not sure whether the two compare – I have never been to New Zealand -, but that sort of change must have been quite a shock to the system. Payton was asked about that move when she was interviewed by Ones to Watch last year:

“The New Zealand-born artist moved to London with her mum when she was sixteen. The plan was to stay for only a short stint, but when Molly's music started taking off that turned into two years (and counting). While Molly had been writing songs and singing for a while at that stage, she hadn't yet considered making it a career. "In New Zealand I just never really thought of it as a possibility," she explains. Back then, the main Kiwi artists she knew that had made it big were a couple of bands her parents liked, and Lorde. And while she notes that's changing, it wasn't until she'd trekked halfway across the world that pursuing music felt like a tangible possibility. "Moving to London," she explains, "I was meeting people who it just happened to."

Those people were the likes of bedroom pop turned breakout rock star beabadoobee, and Oscar Lang, who's signed with The 1975's label Dirty Hit. Alongside Molly, they're part of a crew of talented young London creatives, the kind that make you feel very old and uncool. "They were a really influential group," Molly says. "I definitely wouldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t met them. Just being around young people like that who’ve made what they want to happen was really good for me, to see that it’s possible."

While Molly's mates may have helped nudge her in the right direction, she's clearly got the talent to make on her own strength, as evidenced on her debut EP Mess. Released earlier this year and produced by Oscar, it's a collection of fuzzy acoustic-leaning tracks, inspired by the likes of Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen. They're like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket of nostalgia and show off a voice that could melt steel.

Now Molly's just released her second EP, Porcupine. This time round she's taking notes from the 90s bands she has on repeat, including Nirvana and Pavement. It's aided by the fact after an extensive two-year search, she's finally got a band of her own to flank her on stage and in the studio. The result is a slick collection of fuller, grungier tracks, the kind you can imagine swaying to in a dingy underground club with sweat lining the walls.

PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Sunman

Did moving to London change how you wrote at all?

To be honest I was 16 when I moved here, and in [home country] New Zealand I was quite a shy kid. I hadn’t experienced much, then was suddenly thrust into this crazy world. Because the school I went to here, and the people I was mixing with, were so far away from any kind of world I’d experienced before. It was very different, very intense. Going out all the time, having freedom for the first time in my life - and very suddenly - was a bit scary. I don’t know if it changed my style of writing, I think that happened more through writing heaps and getting better. But my sound would’ve changed if I'd stayed in NZ. I met different people, and that would’ve changed the subject matter. It’s hard to say. I don’t even know if I'd be writing if I’d stayed in NZ. It’s a bit nuts to think about, y'know.

Do you miss New Zealand?

So much. I miss my family, and how fucking pretty it is. London’s beautiful but it’s beautiful in a sad way. Everything about London makes me feel melancholy.

I lived in London for six years, so know what you mean.

Maybe it’s because I've watched too many films. I always feel like I’m in a movie here, whereas in New Zealand I feel like a human being. It’s also that weird feeling of separation here where no one knew me before. When I moved here, I had this freedom to be who I wanted to be, which was really fun for a while. I was like, 'I’m gonna be confident, that’s my thing now.' Which was great, and it’s nice to have that thing of, 'No one knows that embarrassing thing I did when I was a kid.' But after a while you miss having that. I’ve got four siblings, and I’m the baby. So just missed getting teased. And Christmas. I had Christmas on my own. In London. It was so sad. My mum was back in New Zealand”.

I am going to finish up soon but, before I get to a review, I just want to source from an interesting interview I came across. Still Listening went deep with Molly Payton, where we learned about the sonic shift on Porcupine from her first E.P., Mess:

“Eliot Odgers: First I just wanted to say that I really love your new EP. It sounds really good. This new EP seems a bit heavier than your last one. What inspired that change?

Molly Payton: Well, I've always listened to more bands than singer-songwriters. I think when I first moved here I didn't really have access to a band so I wrote songs that I could play live which, at the time, was on my own. So once I met my band, which was when I recorded the second EP, I realised I could transfer myself into a heavier sound.

Eliot Odgers: So do you feel like you're going to stay in this kind of sound or do you think you would change to something else? Say — electronic music?

Molly Payton: I think my sound will probably continue to develop. I mean, every time I think I've got a solid taste in music or figured myself out, I end up changing my entire personality and look and sound. So, yeah, I'm sure it will develop into something new.

Eliot Odgers: So with this new EP, and I think your first EP, you worked with Oli Barton-Wood?

Molly Payton: Yeah, just the second EP. The first one I did with Oscar Lang.

PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Sunman

Eliot Odgers: Speaking of the new EP, what’s the origin behind the name?

Molly Payton: Porcupine! So we've got like two stories for this. The official one that I was saying earlier on was that it's about like defence mechanisms and stuff. When you've been hurt so many times that you start to keep people at arm's length.

Eliot Odgers: Yeah.

Molly Payton: But the other one, which is where I first had the idea, is at the time I was writing the EP so by last summer when I just kind of left high school, I had bleached my hair for probably two years to the point where it was falling out and then I dyed it black and it all broke off — like the top part of it all broke off. So I had a ring of spikes around the back of my head. For a good like six months of my life, everybody used to say I look like a hedgehog. So yeah porcupine!

Eliot Odgers: Nice! Well, yeah, I think they might be doing gigs out that way. Or I might be wrong.

Molly Payton: They already are. They’re already open!

Eliot Odgers: Oh really? That's great.

Molly Payton: Yeah, finally! I miss gigging so much. What was that politician recently who was saying “Oh you're having a hard time? Just get a real job”?

Eliot Odgers: Nice! So do you have plans to release something next year potentially, like a debut?

Molly Payton: Absolutely I am! I think we've built a good amount of momentum from these EPs and I want to move on pretty quickly. I mean, I know why I write constantly.

Eliot Odgers: Are there any plans to release your EPs on vinyl? Do you collect records?

Molly Payton: That's the dream! But financing it doesn't seem justifiable just yet.

Eliot Odgers: Of course. I think one day you could definitely put them both out on like a double EP type thing.

Molly Payton: Yeah, that would be great”.

I will wrap things up soon but, just before, it is worth bringing in a review for the magnificent Porcupine. Check the E.P. out if you have not done so already. When they reviewed the E.P., this is what When the Horn Blows remarked:

“Molly Payton’s second EP ‘Porcupine’ goes bigger and louder, while still retaining some of her previous acoustic flare.

It may be the presence of Francobollo, her new live band, which has added a little more bite at times. Those anthems combine nicely with the acoustic sound of debut EP ‘Mess’, which reappears here, reflecting the different sides Molly offers.

Opener ‘Warm Body’ introduces us to the larger sound this time. “He’s got a problem so he’s just my type,” she sings, turning the tables on the way some men write about women. While this pre-release single may cite ‘shitty poetry’ and ‘a thing for wasting my time’, its anything but.

The 90s influences take a back seat for the Joy Division sound on ‘How To Have Fun’, where Molly criticises ‘cool’ with soaring vocals and a catchy chorus aimed at big venues. It may not be cool to impress others, but this track is definitely exciting.

‘I’m Too Smart’ is a change in pace, an acoustic flavour more like the sound of ‘Mess’. The 19-year-old uses the uncertainty of being a teenager as a recurring theme, like when Molly sings “life’s so good when you know what you want” in ‘Planet Holiday’.

Another great anthem emerges in ‘Going Heavy’, with its moody bedroom-pop sound perfect for beabadoobee fans. Molly sings “everybody wants to be somebody” - on this evidence, she could.

Softer ‘Rodeo’ closes the EP, adding a little more space to the timeless conflict of being a teenager, unsure where life goes, and musing “I know I shouldn’t feel this, but I do”. While Molly might question “Am I wasting my time?”, you won’t be wasting yours hearing what she has to say.

While the title is about the battle to keep people away, ‘Porcupine’ will pull in an audience who acknowledge you sometimes need to ride the bad to get to the good. This EP is an image of where Molly Payton is now, and its somewhere cool – and that’s not a bad thing, this time”.

I am excited to see Molly Payton progress and growth as an artist! She is a really fascinating talent, so do check her out and support her music. I think we will see an album this year but, with two E.P.s under her belt in fairly quick succession – both came out last year -, one can forgive her for taking a bit of time out and resting! If you are in New Zealand, you may be fortunate enough to catch her perform live soon. Molly Payton has achieved so much already, but I think 2021 will be…