At just 16, Molly Payton got a lucky break. At the time, she was unhappy at her Auckland school, describing herself as a “troubled teen”.
When her mother Mary suggested they move to London for a few years, Molly leapt at the opportunity. Mary had been regularly travelling between New Zealand and the UK for the healthcare software company she co-founded, and the move offered Molly a much-needed fresh start.
And as luck would have it, Molly found herself attending the prestigious Hampstead Fine Arts College, rubbing shoulders with the kids of A-list actors and football stars.
“It was nuts,” the now-23-year-old London-based muso laughs. “Here I was getting by on my 20 quid pocket money from Mum and these kids were off to Paris for the weekend to party!”
The school’s laid-back atmosphere and creative mix of students was a tonic for Molly. She went from feeling unsettled and sullen to thriving.
“School was pretty relaxed – we had just three classes, wore mufti and had smoke breaks between classes,” she recalls. “It felt more like a university. I really loved it.”
It was in this environment that Molly’s music career began to take shape. She teamed up with classmate Oscar Lang, who was already gaining recognition in the music scene. Together, they recorded her debut EP, 1972. Collaborating with Oscar and close friend Beabadoobee (whose track Death Bed, Coffee For Your Head has more than one billion streams), Molly quickly attracted attention and landed a record deal. At 16, she was balancing school with touring and performing.
“Whenever I think about that time, I just had no idea how lucky I was,” she admits. “I’m really grateful for that. Things aligned perfectly to get me into this job that I now love. I had a really good booking agent early on who got me into these big events without me having much experience playing live.”
Molly’s career was taking off. However, it came to a screaming halt when police arrested her father and then sent him to prison when Molly was 18.
“It was too much for me to deal with, so I blocked the situation from my mind and partied heaps to forget,” shares Molly. “I went down that road before realising partying away my problems wasn’t going to help.”
Out of respect for her four siblings, and her father now being out of prison and starting a new life, Molly doesn’t want to go into details about her dad’s conviction, but the impact on her is obvious.
Molly struggled with writer’s block, unable to tap into the creativity that had once come so easily. She was overthinking what her audience would make of her songs and felt like her personal experience with her dad wouldn’t connect or resonate with anyone else.
“I didn’t write a single song about it,” she explains. “Writing songs is like picking at scabs for me and I wasn’t ready to do that. This life event that happened to me, I felt like no one else had it happen to them. I couldn’t share it or write about it. It gave me horrible writer’s block for a year and a half.”
She ended up parting ways with her label and returned to New Zealand, seeking solace with her mum and old friends. It was here that she began to piece herself back together.
“I started writing again because the pressure was off. I thought no one would hear my music. That my career was dead, so I may as well write,” she says. “At the time, I was in a bad place with my music, but actually, I was also finding happiness. I was working in the Kate Sylvester Ponsonby retail shop, which I absolutely loved, I was flatting in Mount Eden and I was with my partner Isaac [Kennedy], enjoying all the good bits of New Zealand.”
Things turned around for her musically when school buddy and longtime collaborator Oscar flew in from the UK. Together they co-produced a record over a month in friends’ bedrooms, Molly’s house and in studios. Her debut album YOYOTTA was born, named for the title track You’re On Your Own This Time Again.
She loves that Isaac is also a musician. He has his own band, GROMz, and for three years he joined Molly on stage, playing drums in her band. “He’s just so supportive of it all,” she smiles.
Despite being estranged from her dad for now, he has heard Molly’s album.
“He told me that he was glad I made something out of it all. I love my dad – you never stop loving someone. I’m sure I’ll connect with him at some stage, but for now, I’m focusing on getting back into my music.
“I see this album as the beginning of my career, despite releasing four before. I feel like I’m figuring out who I am so people will get to see who I am.”
Follow Molly’s musical career on her Instagram page.
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