Interview || Beach House Sessions With Peyton

Peyton speaks to us about living in Ibiza, Beach House Sessions and his fine body in this Exclusive Interview 

Like so many American soul singers, Peyton got his musical start in the church. Raised in the south of the US, Peyton was brought up in a family of Pentecostal preachers and was working as the minister of music for his father’s church by the time he was seventeen. After moving to the UK to study, Peyton went on to live in Colombia, South America and New York City, before finally settling in London.

In 2003 Peyton signed his first single to the Hed Kandi label, A Higher Place. Legendary House music producer Eric Kupper (Degrees of Motion) produced the first official mix which topped dance charts around the world and went on to become a House classic. Peyton soon began working on his debut album with Eric Kupper, as well as travelling around the globe performing to tens of thousands, turning the world into his touring playground one country at a time. It was also during this time that Peyton was invited to be one of the five presenters on the UK version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was a big hit in the UK on LIVING TV and was subsequently syndicated to networks all over the world.

While his music continues to spread, many of his songs are being dubbed as anthems, others are recognised as club classics, and Peyton’s worldwide reputation as a performer and writer has secured him the title of one of House music’s most soulful superstars

Hello Peyton and a very warm welcome to Think IN Electronic. It’s an honor to be doing this interview with you. Thank you for taking time out to answer a few of our questions or as we like to say to be interrogated by us.

1. How are you doing and where is your favorite place to spend summer and you can’t answer anywhere, where there is a beach perhaps?

As if I would answer ‘anywhere’  . . .  come on!  I’d like to think you’d expect me to be  more interesting that that!   I used to always come to Ibiza for five or six weeks in the summer, because it was my favourite place.   Now I live here, and I have to say it’s still my favourite place to spend the summer. 

2. We are from South Africa and we like hearing what people know about our beautiful country. So what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear South Africa?

Nelson Mandela.  Good wine.  The Lion King.  (I’m quite sure the last one has more to do with Orlando than it does SA, but it still springs to mind for some reason!)

3. Let’s start at the beginning the story goes you got your musical start in church. Tell us more...

My dad is a Pentecostal preacher in the south of the US.  I was raised in the church, and music was a big part of our church life.  I was singing gospel music from the time I was a small boy, and directing the church choir by the time I was a teenager. 

4. From church to clubs now isn’t that something that doesn't happen very often. How did you find yourself in dance music and not gospel or soul?

I emancipated myself from the shackles of religion around the time I was 21.  I held on to the good stuff, but threw out all the bad.   (For instance, Christianity as a philosophy is all about LOVE, but as a religion it has been used repeatedly to justify hatred and violence.   And I’m all about the LOVE!)  It was almost a decade later that I wrote my first-ever dance hit, A Higher Place, which kick-started my career as a House music artist.   I write songs that are spiritual and uplifting and sound like gospel, but they are not religious!  The DJ booth has become my pulpit and the dance floor has become my sanctuary!

5. Growing up your dream was to be a writer and you have two degrees in literature and for three years worked as a literature professor, have you given up on that dream or is it something you still want to achieve? If you were a writer what would you write about?

It’s definitely something I still think about and lately I’ve been starting to write down some of the stories behind the tracks on my latest release . . . Beach House Sessions . . . for a running blog called Behind The Music.  It’s been getting a really great response, so I’m gonna keep it up and see where it leads!  If nothing else, it’s been fun excavating the adventures of my crazy life for literary purposes.  It makes a nice change from songwriting.

6. How receptive were your parents about your chosen choice of career?

They've been incredibly supportive over the years, although I think somehow even after all these years they are still wondering if I will ever get a ‘real’ job.   Running around the world singing in dance clubs has never quite seemed like a credible way to make a living, but after eleven years of doing it full time I think they've stopped worrying about me and accepted that I really do have a job. 

7. You have an insane voice. How did you realize you actually had a real talent to sing? What was your favorite track to sing as a child and especially in the shower?

Thank you.  Actually I was never much a shower singer, but I was singing in church from the time I was a small boy.  One of my favourite gospel classics to sing was always His Eye Is On The Sparrow, and it still is today.  Such a beautiful, powerful song and no matter what your faith is, we all want to believe that someone or something is watching over us. 

8. Do you have any musical/vocal training?

I have a degree in music as well as literature, so yes.   However, most of my training has really come from experience rather than lessons.    By the time I had my first voice lesson, I had already been singing in public for many years.  The classes were more about learning how to breathe, and how to sing correctly to avoid damaging my vocal chords. 

9. You are from the US, live in London and currently live in IBIZA! Do you ever miss the US or the fast food?

Fast food is everywhere, and I’m not a big fan, so that’s definitely not a problem.  I do miss other things about the US however.  I miss the general optimism and friendliness of the people.  I miss the cheap shopping.  And I miss my family!  But otherwise, I’m really happy to be in Europe and I can’t really imagine living anywhere else now that I’ve been here for 17 years. 

10. We have Cape Town and it comes very close to Ibiza with regard setting and scenery. What makes living in such a spectacular place so special?

Even as I type these replies to your questions on my computer, I can hear the wind blowing across the Mediterranean Sea and hear the waves crashing over the rocks at my local beach and it’s a sound that I never get tired of.  Every day I see new cloud formations in the sky at sunset which blow my mind, and every night I look up at a star-filled sky and wonder how I got so lucky to live here.   A lot of people ask me how I can stay in Ibiza even in the winter when it’s so quiet, but honestly after living in big cities my entire adult life, I am so happy to be in a place where I feel connected to nature, and where I can come home from my travels and actually just hear myself think and dream. 

11.  Living on the white isle means you must be having crazy party habits.  How do you like to spend your nights and what makes a party special for you?

Honestly, after years of coming to Ibiza and partying like crazy, it’s kind of strange but when I moved here all that changed.   I started seeing this island in a completely different way, and for me now being in a nightclub with thousands of strangers off their heads really isn't very appealing.   Of course I still have my moments to party as that is just part of my spirit, but it tends to be with good friends in more intimate settings.   Besides, the clubbing scene has changed so much in Ibiza and if you go to one of these big clubs you’re more likely to find a dance floor full of people just standing with their mobile phones in the air, filming the dumb spectacle of a show, or the DJ, rather than actually dancing.   Personally I find this rather boring.                                 

12.  Now we have seen videos of you performing and your press shots, and well, your body is insane! Do you think living in Ibiza has contributed to your beach body? What’s your workout routine?

Wow, that’s really nice of you to say!  I was just thinking about skipping the gym today, but you've given me motivation to get my ass there!  Actually, I've been working on my body in some way or another for many years.  I did Bikram yoga for ten years, and I’m still doing different types of yoga and working out and trying to eat well.  It’s been a hard long uphill battle which never gets any easier the older you get, but vanity and professional necessity keep me going!  Nobody wants to see a fat slob on stage singing House music anthems!

13. 13 of your biggest tracks put into one album titled Beach House Sessions. Listening to the album we are immediately transported to the beach. What were you trying to achieve with the album and why did you give it away as a free download?

I’ve made a lot of dance music over the years, in a lot of different styles.  I’m probably best known for Funky or Gospel House, but a genre of House music that I personally love and have made a lot of is Beach House.   This is House music for pool parties, and cocktail sipping, and long drives with the windows down.  Since I had my residence at Blue Marlin in Ibiza this summer, I wanted to create a souvenir of music that I could give away at my gigs so people would go home and remember what a great time they had in Ibiza.  So I went through my music and personally selected all the records that I thought fitted this genre, and sent them to DJ Alex Taylor in Sydney for him to select the final tracklisting and mix the CD!   I gave it away because people are gonna take it for free anyway, and I wanted to beat them to it.   You can’t steal it if it’s a gift!

14. Writing lyrics and songs is pretty much the same as writing a story. Except with songs it’s a story that’s untold, where do you draw your inspiration?

I’ve always drawn my inspiration from personal experiences, love affairs, love disasters, hopes and fears and everything in between.  Sometimes I write songs with a message because I like to preach.   Music is powerful and can be an effective tool for delivering a message of hope.  There’s a bit of my father in me.  I feel a responsibility to use my gifts to help others if I can, and writing songs that lift people up and encourage them to keep going when they feel down is one way I can do this!

15.  Beautiful is your collab with the late legend Frankie Knuckles. Tell us more about the collab and the track. What was it like working with Frankie?

Working with Frankie was a dream come true.  I never imagined I would have such an amazing opportunity but I finally got the nerve up to approach him, and then it turned out he already knew of me and was very keen to work with me too.   It was a lesson in overcoming fear!  We limit ourselves so much by assuming things are not possible, before we’ve even given them a try.   The song I sent him was a track I had started many years before with producer ATFC, but we never finished it.  It’s a song about friendship, and taking stock of all this beauty that is around us everyday.  Frankie was a beautiful soulful man with a big heart, and he loved the song.   I was very blessed to have this chance to work with him, especially as he passed away only a year later. 

16.  This interview would not be complete with out asking you something about the energy and passion you out. Watching your performances on youtube and your zest for life shines through.  We need some tips on how to be positive so share your secrets.

Being positive is a daily meditation.  And by meditation, I mean exercise.  It’s not always easy.  I’m lucky that I had a spiritual foundation for my life, which I got through my family, and that has served me well.   Not everyone has that, and they have to try and find it for themselves later in life.   One of the ways I stay positive is through harnessing gratitude.  When I start to feel overcome with fear, or negativity, or panic . . . I immediately look around me and start saying out loud THANK YOU.  I begin to give thanks for all the small and big things in my life, even as I’m feeling terrified, or pissed off, or disappointed.   This gratitude helps to shift the tide, and keeps me on the positive side.  Well, most of the time.   Like I said, it’s a daily challenge.   It also helps to surround yourself with love.  There is a lot of love in the world, but often we choose to focus our energy on those things which are not love.   Love is the most powerful force in the world, and when you get in the habit of looking for it everywhere, it has the power to transform everything!   Nobody understood this better than Nelson Mandela. 

Quickfire!

Describe yourself using a fast food    

McDonalds Sausage McMuffin 

Favorite childhood memory     

Walking outside to feed my rabbit and discover that she had given birth to seven bunnies in the night.   I didn't even know that she was pregnant. 

Most difficult topic in university    

Math

First record ever bought     

Is it really boring if I just admit that I have absolutely no ****ing idea?  That was a long time ago, and I’ve burned up a few memory cells along the way.   But it was most likely  a gospel album, as I didn’t really start listening to secular music until my teens. 

Thanks so much for doing this interview with us. Do you have any last messages for your fans? 

I’m actually coming to South Africa for the first time in my life this coming New Year’s.  I will be singing at two events for Ibiza World, one in Cape Town on the 29^th of December  and then at Umhlaga Rocks near Durban on the 31^st.    Come say hi !!!!

For more info, stay in touch via www.peytonmusic.com