8 minute read
Payton
Payton: Headlining The Echo on June 14th
Interview by Ken Morton - Photos by Jack Lue
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Payton is a massively talented singer/songwriter on the rise who has gained quite a following over the last few months - 4.8 million and counting within the realm of Instagram land. His latest single and video is entitled All Wrong, now available on all platforms. Highwire Daze recently caught up with Payton to discuss his brand new song All Wrong, his upcoming show at The Echo on June 14th, life with such a staggering amount of social media fans, and more!
First of all, what are you looking forward to the most about playing The Echo?
Probably playing the new songs – the new music. Like the first time I performed live for an audience was on a tour, so I think doing my first stand-alone show – that’s my show that I’m headlining and all that, that we’re putting together will be super exciting. And just the feeling of performing alone – I’m super excited for that again – and to feel the fans and the crowd.
I just heard one of your new songs All Wrong. Tell me about the new song and the inspiration behind it.
I was talking to someone – kind of a relationship situation. You kind of get to the point sometimes where it’s like everything you do feels like wrong in a sense. You can’t do anything right in the situation – and you try, and you give all this effort, and you always get backlash for it. I found myself in that situation, and the song just came naturally. It’s just speaking about that and finding yourself in a place of not doing anything right. But not actually doing everything wrong – it’s just a saying from somebody else – you’re trying, and you can’t get anything right in their eyes. So that’s where it came from.
And tell me about the music video for All Wrong.
I have a music video coming out for that we filmed for All Wrong. I wouldn’t call it Part 1, but it leads to other things. There might be a story line going through them. Each video plays a part into the next. I have three different videos, and this is the first that’s getting dropped, so it’s very exciting – it definitely tells a story – and it’s crazy visual! It’s an exciting video. I’m really excited about it…
Your previous song was Rich Boy, which was a bit different than some of your other songs. Tell me a bit about that song.
It was completely different – and I was completely against giving that song any light for the longest time. So, I made it as a trend on TikTok actually. There was this trend going around two years ago – it was called “Make A Song In 60 Seconds” – I was fresh into production, and I said “I got this! I’m going to do this!” And Rich Boy came out of it – the chorus of it. So, I posted that on TikTok – and then about a year and a half later, someone sends me this sound – it had been edited and chopped up and slowed down – and they were like “This is your song.” And it had like 200,000 users on TikTok – and the label was like “Hey! Maybe this is a thing we should look at.” And we ignored it, and just the fans pushed and pushed and pushed – so we remade the song and released it and gave it to the people who wanted it. So that’s what that was.
Your song 3AM, once you hear it, you just can’t get it out of your freakin’ head! So, tell me about that song and the inspiration behind it.
Thank you. So 3AM, I was actually in a different relationship, and I had brought up some issues or topics that I was concerned about. I’ve talked to other people about this kind of relatable thing – you kind of feel things happening – you get this feeling inside of you like something’s changing – I don’t know what it is, but something’s off. So, I brought this feeling up – and it was a call – it wasn’t exactly 3AM, but it was a call late at night, and it was like “You crazy!” So that’s where that came from, and the rest of the song is just carrying out that vibe of these internal feelings – knowing something is changing. That was a fun song. I really enjoyed it and a lot of people have enjoyed it. It’s a great song.
You have kind of have that stripped down version of 3AM, that you did a video for. Tell me a little about that. It really works!
Yeah, 3AM MP3. That was a really exciting one too, because I had been wanting to do something like that for so long – just like take a song to a different level than where it was already at. 3AM was a perfect song for that as it turned out. So, I brought up the idea of doing an acoustic version – and the two producers I was working with – Riley Urick and Donald Philp – they had known a guy that’s does string stuff. So, they brought him in, did some strings – and we were like “Oh,
this is crazy!” So, we just played piano over it, and it just went to a whole different world. It was crazy, man. So that’s where that came from – just an idea to strip a song back.
Your very first cross-country tour – how did it go and what was the experience like?
It was fun – it was a good experience to get out there and perform these songs that I’d be working on for a while. It did get cut short unfortunately due to Covid and all that related to safety. But it was great. That was my first time getting out. I had done Zoom stuff and live stream performances, but actually feeling the crowd sing back to me the lyrics and just the energy – it was great! Great experience and a great learning experience for me. Definitely got me confident for the June 14th show for sure.
Describe to me that very first live show you did on your very first tour.
That was LA – we were in Los Angeles – and my mom was there and everybody – and it was nerve-wracking! I was very, very nervous. I walked out on the stage – and I was sitting on the side of the stage like ready to go up – I had a person performing before me. So, I was ready to go onstage – ands my Intro started playing and my heart was just boom, boom, boom, pounding! And I walked onstage, and I had this mentality like I could just get onstage, and everything would go away, and I would be fine. And I got up onstage and I was like “not fine!” I was shaking for little bit, but it was fun. I got the hang of it after the first couple of songs – and I kind of settled into it. But dude, it does not – the second show, the third show – every show after that is still the same feeling. Right before you go onstage, you’re like, “Man, so many things could happen! It’s never going to be perfect.”
But there’s no feeling in the world like it…
There really isn’t. Nothing will give you the adrenaline rush like that. That’s crazy!
On Instagram – I just happened to go on your Instagram. 4.8 million followers! Good Lord! How does it feel to have 4.8 million people following you?
It’s crazy! I don’t even know how it happened! I just really kind of got here, but it really doesn’t feel like that. I used to think like before when I was younger – when I just started social media – when I hit 100,000 or a million there would be some significant feeling of “Wow! I made it!” But even now it’s hard to look at it – there’s definitely a lot of people and a lot of support, but it’s super hard to look at it and be like “Wow!” It’s a crazy milestone and a crazy achievement – but 4.8 million people is so hard to wrap your head around. It never feels like there’s that many people there. It’s a crazy feeling and you can never really wrap your head around it ever.
A lot of TikTokkers and YouTubers recently did a boxing max. Is that something you would ever do?
(Laughs) On different standards, yeah, I would do it for sure. Now I’ve been on a huge workout kick, so now I would do it. If someone was like my size, yeah.
You don’t want to go into the ring with some fat sumo dude…
(Laughs) Yeah, I would be destroyed! Probably. You never know…
And do you have any messages for your fans who are reading this right now?
Keep listening, keep streaming, keep supporting. I appreciate everything that you guys have done for me so far and I have a lot of stuff on the way – a lot of different stuff – and I’m super excited about it – so yeah, just stay tuned…
