There is a mouse in Molly Payton’s kitchen. The musician is giving me a tour of her London flat when it runs out from behind the microwave.
The hallway fills with screams as her flatmates try to capture it. Chaos that’s not dissimilar to the mania of a typical festival pres, where every flatmate hates what they’re wearing and clothes are flying in the air.
Molly’s preparation matters a little more than the typical festival-goer, however: she is on today’s lineup, and will be performing on stage in a couple of hours.
To say that the last few years have been unpredictable for Molly is an understatement. Dropped by her label in 2022, she found herself back in Aotearoa following years in her newfound second home of London, where she’d built not just a following but a haven of like-minded musicians. Molly doesn’t believe in kismet, but in reflecting, the universe drawing her back to the homeland feels significant.
Unbeknownst to anyone except for her best friends at the time, Molly was experiencing losses beyond losing her label – her Dad had just been sent to prison. Her candid processing of these events make up the heart of her new, independently released album YOYOTTA.
It is a debut that is wrapped up in love from her community, stretching from Tāmaki Makaurau to London from its beginnings stemming from a visit from her British best friend to the 10-tracks being recorded in her friend’s “really shit Grey Lynn flat”.
I caught up with sweet Molly on the floor of her Stoke Newington bedroom as she prepared to play the All Points East festival in London’s Victoria Park alongside fellow indie darlings Mitski, Ethel Cain and Beabadoobee.
Molly, thank you for having me in your lovely flat. I’m so excited to see you play today. Tell me, what are your sensibilities for dressing onstage?
Molly: I dress for some reason, a little bit… not saucy, but I wear less onstage. Like you would never catch me wandering around in little shorts and a little top [off-stage]. Usually I wear my one pair of jeans for a month straight. Every single day.
When I'm onstage, I want to wear stuff that makes me feel a little like I’m in character. It’s always with my makeup; I do quite crazy makeup so I feel like I’m not myself.
Run me through today’s beauty look then.
Molly: I go quite dramatic and do the 60s silhouette on my eye, but I thought I’d add some blue today to contrast my hair and match my shorts.
What are your must-know beauty hacks for performing?
Molly: Fake lashes. Just one though, one at the end. It’s my trick.
We obviously also have to talk about hair, it’s such a core part of a musician’s stage look and yours is outrageously good. How do you style it?
Molly: Hannah [Cleminshaw, aka CLEM] just put me onto the curl trick. She uses Cantu curling cream and then scrunches some gel in after to hold the curls. Game changer. My curls didn't used to be this good.
What hair references are you showing to your hairdresser?
Molly: Have you seen Russian Doll? Natasha Lyonne. I’m obsessed with her.
I was trying to think when the last time we saw each other was but I couldn’t remember. You moved back to London at the beginning of this year, how’s that been?
Molly: There's a certain magic about the place that I can't really explain. When I'm in New Zealand, I love going on walks in nature. I miss that when I'm here. But I won't go for a wander around my neighbourhood and be like “this is so cute”. Whereas here, I could just walk all day. You feel like you're in a movie a little bit. I've lived here for six years on and off, and it hasn’t gone away. The album was the thing that got me [back] here. But I’m here for my friends, I wouldn’t deal with the rent if it was just to promote an album. My friends over here are everything to me.
Does your style change between London and New Zealand?
I think my style is better over here.
Same. Like, I wore yellow sequin shorts to the pub last night.
Yeah? I think I just feel like I can express myself freely here. Something about being away from your hometown makes you feel like you can be anyone you want. You’re who you are now rather than all the versions of yourself you’ve been before.
Congratulations on your debut album YOYOTTA. I re-listened to it on the bike ride over here and it’s magic. It’s insane that you’ve been in the music industry since you were 16 – what's that journey been like for you?
Molly: As everyone is when they’re 16, I was sort of a piece of shit. It’s not like I said anything bad, per se. I'm not gonna get cancelled. But it's more like I was so young, I didn't know what kind of musician I wanted to be, what genre I was making, let alone my opinions… Boy did I like to talk about my opinions on things, even though I didn't have any.
I feel being a teenage girl is just trying on different personalities. And eventually you get to a point, where you take bits of each one that you tried on, and that becomes who you are.
The core of the album is your own unbelievably vulnerable processing of your Dad going to prison. What was the writing process of this like?
I'd always been scared of writing about it, because in my head, I thought it was something that people wouldn't be able to relate to. Songs like You’re On Your Own This Time Again, if you didn’t know about my stuff with my Dad, and even when you do, people can apply that to their own life. So many of those feelings of losing trust and not being able to stop loving someone even though they've hurt you – that's so universal.
And I think, why the album was healing was that it made me realise that although maybe what I had been through was a bit crazy, and not everyone's dad goes to prison everyday… a lot of the things that I was feeling are things that a lot of my friends had felt before, and could actually empathise with.
How would you describe the evolution of your music, from your early releases through to YOYOTTA?
Molly: I think I heard Chappell Roan talking about it in an interview, which I think is really interesting and ties into my early career: people are really interested in people who aren't doing well. You do really well in this industry, if you can publicly be a bit messy. And those first two EPs, that's what I was doing. I was in a school with rich kids, celebrities’ children… They had no consequences for their actions and unlimited money. I had no money so I was trying to fit in. I was doing the bits that I could do – which was going out.
Corduroy, my biggest song is like, “I remember the day we first met. You couldn’t speak because you’d done too much ket.” It was tongue in cheek, cause I was kinda lying half the time, cause I hadn’t actually had my first kiss, I’m pretty sure. I think I am a much better songwriter now, and the music as well has grown so much.
But for whatever reason, it's just not as punchy when you're posting about it [on social media], to be like “here is a real song about what it feels like to have your relationship with your Dad leak into your relationship with your first partner”. That doesn’t have the same ring to it as “this is when I f…ed this guy that did too many drugs”.
You’re also going to be touring this album, which is so exciting. But I can’t stop thinking about you telling me on the phone that you’ve been deep in spreadsheets to prepare. That does not match the typical glam image of a musician’s life. Can you talk to me more about that?
Molly: That's a huge thing. You have to be f…ing smart with your money. When you don't have a label, it's just not what it used to be. It's not how bands used to just, like, jump in the van that they'd have and sail around the country. Now, especially after Brexit, the visa situation, it's just so expensive. But then, if like me, you've figured out the money side of it, you learn how to use Excel spreadsheets. I love you Excel. Being independent is great if you don't mind taking a hold of the business side of it. Because at the end of the day, it's running a business. I wish musicians didn't have to do that, but you do.
Aside from the spreadsheets on your laptop, what else will be in your tour suitcase?
Molly: It will mainly be my shoe rotation. Those [points to pile of shoes] are actually my work shoes, I will in fact be leaving them behind because they remind me of being on my feet for nine hours.
Wait sorry, what do you do for work here?
Molly: I work at Urban Outfitters.
That’s kind of lit.
Molly: Sounds like someone who’s never worked at Urban Outfitters…
