Q&A: Infusing Vulnerability and Childhood into her New Album, Peyton Continues to Command Ears all While Paying Homage to the Things that Make Her
SHOWCASING HER STRENGTH AND SENSITIVITY — Peyton is super cool to say the least. These traits in her debut album, PSA, are certain to make you want to cry, dance, and sing. Her singles from earlier this year, “Let it Flow,” “Don’t U Wanna Fly,” and “What Did I Do” have showcased her musical ability and self-reflection. As her emotions and imagination walk hand in hand throughout PSA, the tracks provide an introduction of herself to the listener on how she views the world.
Her love of music and her hometown, Houston, is evident as she melds these worlds into 31 minutes to remind you of who you are and who you want to be. PSA begins and ends with the reminder of life and how it treats us. From there we can choose how we accept it, with pure imagination. Her soulful creative process is clear as you listen and accessorize your summer listening with.
Take a self-reflective journey by listening to PSA and read below to learn more about Peyton’s debut album and what the process meant for her.
LUNA: Thank you for meeting with me and congrats on the new album! What have you been enjoying listening to lately? Anything that's been bringing you joy musically?
PEYTON: Thank you, I’m super excited! That's a great question. Let's see. I'm always checking out new music or listening to the same music. I’m enjoying Tyler the Creator's new album. I also have been diving deeper into the other artists' discographies where I know their music already but I want to learn more about their stuff. I've been enjoying artists like Paris, Texas and Coco O myself and I recently listened to the new Vince Staples album. I really enjoy it! It's awesome!
LUNA: What was your intention when you started to make the album? And do you think that the intention has shifted to what people are going to hear?
PEYTON: I would say with any project that I've made, I haven't been like, “Okay, I'm about to make my next album and it's going to have this theme and it's going to be this song.” I don't do that whole thing. I just create freely and then once I start to see there's a general theme going on, I place the songs together and just go about it that way. And part of the process for this one was very much like that. I started to see there were some songs that I felt very connected with, and I felt like they went together and then I just began working on it organically with other artists and musicians that I met along the way. And then once I started getting into the groove of it all, then things became more solidified and more cohesive. So I try not to put too much pressure on the creative process.
LUNA: A theme that I saw in the music videos and in some of the things I was reading about your previous singles is that child-like creativity is important. What made you realize that is something that you wanted to lean on in this album?
PEYTON: It was more so a thing that's always been important to me, and I'm finally being able to showcase that or find the words for it and have the vision for it.
LUNA: In the beginning of the “Don’t U Wanna Fly” music video, your younger self was playing the violin. Were there any other symbolic representations of you as a child within the album that I may have missed?
PEYTON: I would say, when it comes to the song “Pure Imagination,” that was definitely a song that's always been so meaningful to me besides the song “Tomorrow” from Annie. Those two songs have always been very important to me, and “Pure Imagination” just brings out this feeling within me. It’s one of those songs that is just purely beautiful and has such an amazing simplistic but very heavy and inspiring message. It’s always been a song that's meant so much to me since I was young and still rings true to this day. I feel like that song is a representation of who I am as an artist and what I believe in because I believe the song is minimal yet very powerful. And that's very much my creative approach. I want to inspire in that way without being so wordy all the time, but just the feeling of it all, you know, the experience of it all, if that makes any sense (laughs).
LUNA: It definitely does! I picked up on that feeling that you were talking about when I was listening to “Pure Imagination” — I found myself getting lost in all the things that you did to it, and I loved it! You also grew up singing, knowing it was something that you wanted to do for the rest of your life. Is that something that has placed a value inside of you throughout your music career?
PEYTON: Thank you so much! And yes, definitely.
LUNA: And do you think that being from Texas plays a role in this? I struggle with this idea around how much where I'm from gets to be part of my identity or whether it gets to be in part of the work I do. So has Texas and the values that you get from that identity been pivotal in the music that you make?
PEYTON: Yeah, I would say it is! It's very interesting. I would say that with all Houston artists, we all have very different sounds. But we have some elements that definitely sound like, “Oh yeah, you're from the south. The groove of this sounds like you're from Houston, the way you're experimenting with your vocals — this is very much so Houston.” But the thing is, it's kind of hard for me to pinpoint and say, “We all have the same sound,” because Houston is such a cultural melting pot. There's a lot of fusion of cultures, a lot that everyone is exposed to and [have] their different experiences in different areas of Houston. So we're not sounding like one thing — we're sounding like many things, if not transcending.
LUNA: With the opening track of the album, “What Did I Do,” what was the significance of using that song and why did you want it to be the first one?
PEYTON: With “What Did I Do” this also goes into the themes of my childhood. When I was creating the song, I wanted to pay homage to Aaliyah. She was a great inspiration to me growing up and up until this day. I wanted to make a song that was just as powerful as “More Than A Woman,” because I remember being so young and hearing it and I felt like a superhero whenever I heard it. It was so powerful, and I wanted to make this song with a message that was just as strong and had that same power that made me feel like a superhero (laughs)!
With “What Did I Do,” it's very much an abrupt, “Hey, okay, now pay attention to me” (laughs)! It just sounds like that and was definitely a great intro. And it's very honest and I'm vulnerable from the start and I felt like that was very important for a good understanding or feeling of what I'm trying to be, which is transparent: an observant person and someone who's very thoughtful. I wanted that to read throughout the album where I'm very vulnerable from the start.
LUNA: I related to the lyrics of “Ppl Say,” and with you mentioning being vulnerable and transparent, have you found it difficult to find your own voice amongst the noise of others? Either musically or in everyday life?
PEYTON: I would say my whole life I have dealt with having my voice not being heard or dealing with internal feelings that made it difficult for me to let my voice be heard. Whether that'd be fear, anxiousness, self-doubt, or something external where I'm being doubted or not taken seriously. Loving myself and being cool with who I am has never been a problem, but at this point in my life, I'm definitely living more fearlessly.
LUNA: This year there's been a lot of new music, and I feel the pandemic has changed what art-making means once it's delivered to the person who views it or listens to it. Even if it's something that wasn't made in quarantine, when music has been released this summer, I feel this energy of resurgence. How do you think your album fits in amongst this chaos and how would you like it to fit in amongst the whole of this year?
PEYTON: Well, that's pretty loaded (laughs). I know that my album is very unique and I feel like it will stick out and it will stand the test of time and it will be a marker in time for this explosive time of art. There’s a lot of great work being made right now or had been made and everyone's excited to just put a lot of things out and put out their best work! So I'm just happy to be putting my work out during this time!
LUNA: What would you hope that people take away from or learn about you as they listen to this album?
PEYTON: I want people to take from this that I am definitely a very observant and thoughtful person, and that I'm very loving and wanting to connect and wanting to understand others and want to be understood. And just someone who although can be not so open, I am open.
LUNA: Just to add that I loved the horns in “Big Flexer”! I love when people put horns in songs, so thank you.
PEYTON: Thank you! That was my friend, Adam Diwal, I've known him — Oh my gosh, that's so crazy. Maybe that's a part of the theme (laughs), but he is someone I've known since I was in kindergarten. And we went to most of all of the same art schools together where we learn most of our fundamentals And it was just really awesome to have a friend of mine on that.
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