For New Zealand singer-songwriter Molly Payton, one of the great things about moving to London as a 16-year-old was the opportunity to completely reinvent herself. “I’ve always dealt with a lot of social anxiety, and moving to London I was suddenly a lot better at controlling it because no one knew who I was, and I could be whoever I wanted to be,” she explains to Apple Music. With the move came a degree of freedom she’d never before experienced, which led to some regrettable situations. “I made a lot of bad choices,” she says. “I was meeting people all the time and I was going out to make friends, because the only way I could meet people was by going out constantly. I made a lot of bad decisions, and that’s where most of the relationships I talk about in the songs came out of.” It’s for that reason Payton called her debut Mess, its five songs of noir alt-pop cataloging her experiences in London. “It was just the perfect description of that year in my life,” she says. “It’s been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had moving here.”
1972
“‘1972’ is probably the angriest song on the EP. When I wrote it, I was just pissed off at some guy, because I thought our relationship was more deep and meaningful than he thought it was. Why is it called ‘1972’? He was obsessed with the ’70s and old-school culture. He was one of those guys who likes to emphasize how different he is from everyone else.”
Stickers on Your Skateboard
“I wrote that song just after I moved over and I’d just settled into a nice group of friends. I settled in here a lot faster than I thought I would. I met a boy and it was a very fun time in my life. ‘Stickers’ is just about that: having fun. And making bad decisions, but knowing you can make bad decisions because you’re young and there aren’t many serious repercussions.”
Corduroy
“It’s about the first time I met my first-ever boyfriend. Things didn’t end well with that, but ‘Corduroy’ is about looking back and not regretting the relationship. I’d rather experience something bad and get the good parts out of it as well than not experience it at all.”
Want Me
“I hated that song for a while. Out of all the songs, it’s the least meaningful to me. It’s just about going out and having fun. I wrote it at a time where there was nothing really going on in my life, except I was partying a lot, and that’s what that song is about. But I actually really like it now.”
No One Else
“It’s a proper, tried-and-true breakup song. It’s very honest, and every word in that song I mean. It’s about that moment when you realize something’s over. I think at the end of a relationship, as things are drawing to a close, you get that feeling of, are we going to finish or are we not going to finish? Is it something I can fix? The song is about that moment when you’re like, ‘This has to stop, this is the end.’”