Welcoming Molly Payton

Growing up in New Zealand music was always a huge part of my life – my parents started me off on the piano when I was 3 – but I never really considered seriously pursuing it. When I moved to London from New Zealand two years ago I met my friend Oscar Lang at school, he was kinda the first person who encouraged me to try. He helped me record a demo of an old song of mine and put it up on Soundcloud. My manager found me through that and he helped me start doing gigs here and there and then at the end of 2018 Oscar and I managed to get into a few studios and record this first EP.

My sound in this first EP is all about comfort and nostalgic. Nice and raw and personal.

Well if we’re talking performing I remember my first ever piano recital when I was about 5, I insisted on wearing this wedding veil because I was convinced it would make me look like a Serious Musician. Bridal rocknroll. I also remember that me and my brother Will used to fucking BANG out the Shrek soundtrack on a loop on long car journeys. I’m pretty sure I can still play that entire soundtrack from memory.

I mean the music’s always been the thing I enjoy the most in the world. It makes me happy. Being able to do your favourite thing as a job is very exciting. I’m still a pretty small artist so I can honestly say there aren’t really any cons to it at the moment, but I think if I do well there are things I might find hard. For example, I have mates that are doing well and are away from the people they love for like over 6 months of the year which is nuts.

I have two nasty scars on my right thigh that look like I got attacked by something big so sometimes I convince drunk people at parties that I got bitten by a shark. Works way too often.

When I’m playing with the band I wanna take people on the emotional ride of their lives haha. We usually throw in a couple of songs from the second EP which is a lot heavier so hopefully, if we play well we have people crying and dancing and generally having a mad old time.

I’m looking forward to the coronavirus stuff to calm down so I can get back into the studio and start doing gigs again. I’ve been very lucky to be able to be isolating with the people I care about and we have it a lot easier than a lot of people do but I have found it hard putting my entire life on hold.

I mean, I’m young and haven’t experienced a lot of life yet so love for me now is probably very different from what it will be in a few years time. I guess so far being in love is just being willing to put up with all the weird and unpleasant stuff that you find out about a person when they come into your life because something about them makes it worth it. It’s the pros outweighing the cons until they don’t anymore.

As a musician, I think the best advice I’ve ever gotten is from my manager. I wrote this first EP when I was about 16 so I’ve had times where I’ve gotten sick of the songs and wanted to just move on to the second EP. Ferdy sat me down one time and told me that people are always going to be at least a year behind where I am with my songs because of how long it takes to put things out, but there’s no rush and allowing people to watch you grow as an artist is what helps them connect with and understand you and feel like they’re involved.

My first single no one else is one of my favourites because it was the first time that I said exactly what I wanted to without worrying about hurting someone’s feelings. “If there was no one else around I’d be the one for you, but at this point, girls and cocaine are all you want to do. When I’m with him you go out of your mind – if I say I don’t want you would that make us alright?”

Stop being an asshole about going to piano lessons the wiggles will still be there when you get home.

I’m always a little homesick for New Zealand. It’s the best place in the world.