Summer Payton is an R&B singer, songwriter, musician and music producer from Chicago, Illinois. Surrounded by music from an early age, Summer picked up the piano by ear and learned from her father, a musician in the church. A childhood of being bullied and fat shamed led her to pick up her pen and write through her pain as well as start composing music to support her lyrics.
Her musical journey led her to New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music where she grew as a performing artist and fully developed her artistry. She’s performed in multiple cities including Chicago, New York, Atlanta and Berlin.
Summer has been releasing a string of singles over the last several months as part of the #Roadto25 Campaign. Links to each release below:
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Summer about her music, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I’m from Chicago, Illinois. Grew up in the South suburbs just outside of the city. At my core, I’m an R&B artist. I approach every piece of art from that perspective, even though sonically some records might tie in other genres whether that be more trap, more pop, or more singer-songwriter.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
My love of music started with my parents. My dad used to play organ at church and made sure there was a piano in our house. So I grew up watching him play and learning from him. My mom introduced me to to all of my favorite artists. From our car rides blasting music to Sundays cleaning the house with neo soul playing, to the concert footage she used to show me of all the greats. We watched so much footage of Michael and Janet you wouldn’t believe. And as a kid I wasn’t good at a lot of activities and I didn’t have a lot of friends. The female artists I grew up listening to like Aaliyah, TLC, Brandy, Destiny’s Child…they felt like my friends. And listening to their music made me feel like I belonged somewhere or like there were people like me out there. Especially Janet Jackson, who in life had a more quiet, borderline shy demeanor like I do but on stage is a beast. At some point I realized that was what I wanted to do and that music was what I was good at. I wrote my first song at 13, so I’ve been working at this for over 10 years now. This business can be disheartening, but what motivates me to keep going is just believing in a higher force. Knowing that what’s for me is for me and no one can take that away. At some point all of these years of preparation I’ve done will match with the right opportunity. And more than that, I’ve been privileged to have such a strong support system along this journey in my family. They’ve paid for every lesson, been to every recital and performance, bought every instrument I ever had interest in playing, every piece of software I needed and put me through expensive ass art school for college. I owe it to them to not give up. They believe in me and that’s all I need to keep going so I can provide them a return on their investment. My mom nurtured the dreamer spirit in me. Telling me I could do anything I wanted. I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up because it was hard because I truly believe this is what I was put on this earth to do.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
This release is a part of a series of releases I’m doing that are really special to me called the Road to 25. I had a sort of reckoning with myself, realizing that I was never going to move forward in my career without putting music out. I’ve habitually held on to music I’ve created over the years feeling like the time wasn’t right or that I didn’t have anyone who would care to listen, which was really my perfectionism eating away at me. Not to mention, when I met with record label executives, they acknowledged how talented I am but said they would sign someone who didn’t have an ounce of my talent if they had gone viral, if they had millions of followers. “So try to find a way to go viral” they said. LOL! Like there’s some magical recipe to follow for going viral. My only interest was having an opportunity for my music to be put side by side with the known, commercial artists and for people to have an opportunity to listen and judge for themselves if they like it or not. But their words still permeated and as I put a focus on trying to grow a fanbase, I wound up holding on to so much music. So I decided, to celebrate my 25th Golden birthday coming up this December with releasing my first full length project. But before getting there, I wanted to catch people up on my musical journey, to show my growth as an artist over the years and release an older song on the 25th of every month. These songs are a part of the Road to 25 campaign. I started in May with YOUNG AND FREE and NO EMOTIONS is the second release so far, the June 25th release.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Being an indie musician is hard. The biggest challenge is how to grow a fan base and get people to know about your music and not feel like you’re just releasing music into a void. In this time, everything is about numbers, popularity, who’s a social media influencer and who went viral. Not necessarily about talent. And we’re out here doing it alone. There’s no machine. So you have to figure out how to get your music to the people who might like it on your own.
Technology has definitely helped me be self sufficient. At this point I’m mixing and mastering my records myself and putting them out myself right from my laptop. Some songs I’m recording myself or producing myself. The blessing of technology is not having to wait or depend on anyone else to finish your music if you’re equipped with the skills. Or to not have to wait because you don’t have the money to pay for studio time or quality songwriters to write for you or producers to produce your music. So I just made sure I was equipped with the skills to do a lot for myself.
What was the last song you listened to?
It’s been Chloe and Halle’s “Busy Boy” for me. I love that song and I love them.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I prefer listening to music at the highest quality possible because I like hearing all the details and I like listening to music really loud, which is bad for my ears, I know. So my preference is Wav files but mp3s are fine. I do keep a collection of CD’s of albums that were important to me tucked away, complete with the informational CD inserts and pictures of my favorite artists.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I prefer different apps for different things honestly. I keep Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and Soundcloud all in rotation for different things. Spotify is where I listen to all my classic music from back in the day. Because I love the freedom to create my own playlists without clogging up my phone space library, on their platform specifically better than the others. Everything from the 60s to the early 2000s are in their respective playlists.
Apple Music is where I play my current jams. When artists I like release singles or albums I download them into my Apple Music library. That’s always the most up to date stuff I’m listening to.
SoundCloud is where I keep private links for my own music. So sometimes that’s what I’m listening to on there. It’s also where I keep my favorite underground artists/songs who don’t release their stuff on major platforms.
Tidal I have just to support a black owned business. I also appreciate the ability to listen to music with the Hi Fi option on their platform and I think their editorial playlists are better than any other platform. So when I want to listen to music but don’t want to take the time to set up a que of stuff I go there and pick one of theirs to turn on.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
My Instagram! I’ve put a lot of time and energy into my presence on that platform with different types of content. All of my releases, behind the scenes stuff is there as well as covers and tributes to other artists. You can message me on there, I always respond and love connecting with people. Also follow me on Spotify!
Anything else before we sign off?
I want to thank Indie Music Discovery for taking the time to interview me and spread the word about my release. I understand that music is an opinion based sport and everything isn’t for everyone. All I ask is that if people come in contact with my music and they hear something they like that they support it and share it. Word of mouth is an independent artist’s biggest asset. Every little thing helps us. So this means a lot.
