To borrow from neo-soul queen Jill Scott, hometown soul princess Peyton is currently living her life like it’s golden.
Her boho-R&B numbers have already appeared on episodes of HBO’s Insecure and Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. But, last weekend, ol’ girl gave us some new music to vibe to. Her latest album is called Au (pronounced “ay-you”), better known as the elemental symbol for gold. Her second full-length with West Coast rap/indie label Stones Throw Records, Au is more gleaming and precious than her previous efforts.
With Au, the Missouri City-born, Houston-based music prodigy-turned-singer/songwriter (Grammy-nominated gospel musician/Beyoncé mentor Theola Booker was her grandmother) says you get her at her most grown-woman. While her last album, 2021’s PSA, was recorded and released during her early twenties, there’s no doubt you’re getting a Peyton that’s older, wiser and more sure of herself on Au.
“I feel like that’s what was missing with PSA,” said Peyton (full name Peyton Booker, now 26), during a Zoom call mid-manicure. “I don’t feel like I was 100 percent true to myself. It just didn’t capture all of my essence.”
Peyton says that she “just felt more free and more confident” while working on Au. Her collaborators were Shafiq Husayn and Om’Mas Keith, veteran producers (Jay-Z, Frank Ocean, and Dallas’s own Erykah Badu have used their services) who’ve also recorded tunes as two-thirds of the LA collective Sa-Ra Creative Partners.
Peyton has collaborated with the creatives separately. She performed with Husayn on the track “Smile for Me,” off his 2023 So Gold album. A few years before that, she and Keith worked on music while attending a writing camp. It seems fitting that she would team up with these gents; Peyton’s spacey, lo-fi/alt-soul ditties are reminiscent of the wavy synth-soul that was Sa-Ra’s calling card back in the day. (If you’ve never listened to their acclaimed 2007 debut The Hollywood Recordings, maybe now would be a good time to go stream it.)
But Peyton insists that she didn’t call on the guys for some of that Sa-Ra magic. At first, she didn’t even know they were Sa-Ra.
“I’ve always been a fan of Sa-Ra since I found out about their existence, maybe when I was in college,” Peyton revealed. “I was very much a consumer, so I didn’t connect the names with the collective and things like that. So, after doing research and meeting with them, it was really cool to finally make this project.”
Peyton and Husayn started working on tracks together, with Keith later coming in and polishing some tunes. Peyton looked for inspiration by listening to such senior soul divas as Badu, Janet Jackson, Amel Larrieux and Deniece Williams. But, since a couple of tracks off Au sound like post-There’s a Riot Goin’ On Sly and the Family Stone (the organ-heavy “I Can’t Stay Away” is a psychedelic-soul free-for-all), she also threw some old-school funk in the mix.
“We definitely did some research because once we had an understanding of where it was going, that’s when Shafiq was asking me, ‘Hey, do you know Sly and the Family Stone?'” Peyton said. “And I was like, ‘Yes, I love them.’ My favorite song is ‘Mother Beautiful.’ And we would just listen to all this funk music.”
Unlike her previous Stones Throw projects, Peyton is certain to have a better time getting the word out on Au. She released the Reach Out EP in September 2019, just a few months before the world shut down. Two years later, she went full-length with PSA, right when people were still trying to figure out if it was cool to go back outside again.
“I would say it was a little different because, you know, I was doing festivals, but online,” Peyton recalled of her time in lockdown. “It was cool, and I was really grateful for all of the press. I mean, I was blessed to be in Rolling Stone twice, Essence.com, on the COLORS homepage. So, a lot of good came from it.”
The 26-year-old upstart hails from Houston music royalty; her grandmother was the late great Theola Booker, a gospel icon and a mentor to Beyoncé. (cydneyb/Photo by cydneyb)
While she doesn’t have any touring plans at the moment, she is looking forward to performing live and winning over more listeners as the latest alt-soul sista to come out of the Lone Star State.
“The biggest thing is that I definitely want to be performing more and connecting more with my local community, because I feel like Houston has always been the biggest supporter of my work and it’s why it’s traveled so far,” she said. “I just want to continue to connect with people and perform when I can in venues that value and appreciate the artists.”
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