Counting Lucky Stars and Blessings with Faerybabyy

Words By Matthew Spence:

Passing by and trying to squeeze through these Gen Z days, we’ve been getting closer to finishing the worksheet that Millennials, Gen X, and everyone before (aka Generation “Other Motherfuckers”) started. It’s a Mix & Match sheet; we’ve been drawing the line from “Individuality” to “Who fucking knows, I don’t assume.” We’re all just characters walking around in the CN City.

 

With culture being a melting pot of dopeness, people are more multifaceted than ever (or at least comparatively to previous generations). You can lineup people in “Usual Suspects” style or sonder on a bench “Manhattan” style (minus the creepiness of Woody Allen), and you’ll go 0/10 playing “Pin the personality on the person,” even if you had a cheat sheet.

However, when it comes to rising star Payton Morse, you’d have to hack the school system to change your grade cause pinpointing her is gonna be far from an easy feat. But that’s just another day in the life of Faerybabyy. Prepare to see her world “Being John Malkovich” style.

 

 

 

 

I certainly did, as our convo ranged from our own sleep paralysis experiences (she actually taught me a tip on how to wake yourself from it) and swords. Literally, we talked about swords in the first 5 minutes, as she owns a few of her own. “I used to work Renaissance festivals, so I’ve been obsessed with them, plus it helps me feel safe.” (She’ll get Kill Bill on your ass)

Now, if you’re going through the right channels courtesy of YouTube and Spotify, you may have bumped into her. Not literally, unless you live in California, but in through due to the power of the algorithm. Thanks to her single “Orange Soda” (no relation to Baby Keem or Kel Mitchell) picking up traction with over 400k views on YouTube and over 200k on Spotify. She’s bubbling up her music career with her own form of music, inspired by Surf Rock, Post Punk, and New Wave, which she likes to call “Surf Goth”.

 

 

“Maybe no one else will call it that, but that’s what I’m trying to achieve, but maybe Surf Goth is the B-25s.”

Personally, I call it “Sour Patch Pop.” Why? [I don’t even have a fucking reason anymore; it just sounds cool and fitting].

However, no matter what label you wanna attach to her music, she has 3 words for it: “Joyist, stoic, and depressive; those all contradict, but I think that’s what it is. It [the music] contradicts in a way.” With her poppy melodies that instantly catch your ears like Mermaid Man hearing the “Conch Signal,” combined with her bleak lyrics that include wanting a lobotomy and sucide, wrapped around her Y2K aesthetic and Pinterest fantasies. She managed to collide two realities and managed to make them coexist

“I’m a girly girl, but I like ‘boy music,’ I quote, because obviously girls can listen to it. But I’m definitely a ‘girly girl’; I like my outfits and do my makeup very cute; I’m always down for the but I definitely like heavier music, and way heavier than I make.”

 

 

In our convo, I couldn’t help but ask about her, especially being a doppelganger for Lily-Rose Depp and Christina Ricci. I should’ve asked if she’s ever claimed to be Lily-Rose Depp to get a free coffee at Starbucks. I digress

Well, it may not be heavy compared to others like Death Grips or, an example she used, Charli XCX. The art of subversion acts as the dumbbell to add more heaviness to her music and lyrics. Even better, it’s all from her core. While there are plenty of artists who go about trying their hardest to stand out and give contrasting whiplash. Faerybabyys evolution was just a natural progression of letting herself just drive the tour bus (figuratively, I mean). She explains, “I think that’s who I am to my core. I’ve always been like Contrarion; I always felt like everything about me has like the shock value in conversations.” She continues, “I’ve always been shocking to people as far as my personality goes, so my music has to be an extension of that in some way. I can be very jarring with how depressive I get, but I’ll say it with a smile <laughs>.” Duality of personality. It sounds like Claire but feels like Allison.

 

“Expect the Unexpected” is the game; Payton is unintentionally playing it. Before having over 40k followers on Instagram, including the likes of Current Joys, Beck, Brooke Olimperi, Kerwin Frost, and a bunch of talented people. Before having over 80k monthly listeners on Spotify and 8k followers on TikTok and residing in California, it all started with a little kid in the South. Starting out living in Texas, she was surrounded by country music such as Patsy Cline, courtesy of Mama Morse. Her love of music started early in her childhood, writing poems and nursery rhymes so when I was young I’d write about bees (I’m trying so hard not to reference the Bee Movie here) and anything else nature that connected with her. “I always wanted to do music; I wanted to be like Mariah Carey and the girl from Freaky Friday or Paramore. I wanted to be everyone I love and wanted to make music.”

[Fun fact: she had a crush on Nick Cannon at one point when she was a kid.]

 

Little did she know, she was slowly loading up her arsenal, slowly but surely. Gaining influences and listening to a shit ton of music as time was tick-tocking away. From New Wave legends like the Smiths, the Cure, to new legends for Gen Z like Surf Curse. Thanks to being apart of a skate crew in Texas, she grew to enjoy Black Sabbath, Pantera, and Slayer. Growing a fandom of Burger Records (before the controversies). To Dungeon Core to Egg Punk. Even having her stage name and plan. Have a girl band named “the Babettes.” Each member would have a “baby” name; she landed on Faerybabyy.

Now, all she needed was one flick of a lighter to let off the fireworks: an ex who complained that her singing voice wasn’t great. Behold and a middle finger: Faerybabyy.

Releasing a couple of tracks on SoundCloud to soon her first official release on DSPs “Milk Time” in 2021. Despite the “day at the beach” vibe it gives, her early work is still her fine-tuning her art and her trajectory; it wasn’t until 2022, that everything came together. The vocal change. With her first 3 singles: Milk Time, Birthday Song, and Aloha Hawaii, there was still a level of discomfort despite her execution being well, as she says her trying to sing “pretty” was more “forced.” But in 2022, her single “With All Due Respect” is where everything began to flow: “It finally clicked. I’ve predominately listened to this music for a long time now, like really into the Soviet Post Pink before it popped off, and loved Surf Rock.” Adding to the fact, it was the easiest song she made at the time: she wrote it in an hour and did the vocals in 1 take, and half was freestyled. It must’ve made the revelation even sweeter. Ironically, for a song that drenches you in Gothic spirit and that the South Park Goth Kids would cover it in their own band.

[FYI: You’re never gonna hear perform her earlier stuff live, unless she’s feelin very generous]

 

 

Fast forward. It’s 2024. More singles dropped over the past 3 years such as: My life’s a movie (derogatory), Lucky Star, rosalia (with casual collaborators Mica & Sinnerella), and her bubbling song, Orange Soda (even though technically her biggest song on Spotify is “Rise n’ shine”). Speaking on Orange Soda’s popularity on YouTube “Felt great to have anyone care about me doing music at all because I’ve been making it for 4 years now as Faerybabyy and no one cared <laughs>. My numbers haven’t gone up a lot, but just like the kind words and reinforcement, these meant strangers in a world where people wanna say negative opinions first are actually being nice and loving it [Orange Soda]. Even 1 person is enough, but 200k is even more good for me.”

Continuing, “Really makes me feel closer to God; good things started happening when I started being more obedient to him.”

Plot Twist #2: She’s a devoted Christian.

Originally raised Southern Baptist, but, like me with college, she hated it. Passionately trying to distance herself from it in anyway and anyhow. During her time away from faith, she’d look into acultism, Alister Crowley, the Book of Thoth, and every other religion essentially. However, after a rough few years and a breaking point, she “fell back to asking for God cause nothing else was helping” and soon found validity in it. You love to see people getting saved.

 

Now, she practices the faith while making the music. Balance. While she doesn’t necessarily make Christian music in the traditional and conventional sense. That doesn’t make her music any less holy. Everyone praises in their own way, personally I’m not religious (I even wrote an article about it), however, I can appreciate someone’s spirituality if they apply it to art in a way that isn’t preachy but instead just self-expression while still giving free will to the audience to connect or not. Let’s examine: Peep the cover of her debut EP, or songs like nightmares, which she considers a Christian song: “I’m a little fucked up; maybe a normal Christian would be like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ To me, it’s a worship song.”

Perhaps the lobotomy song with lyrics like:
“Cast out all your doubts your worry
Give it up, give it to God” and
“The Father is the best friend I’ve ever had.”.

Maybe “Rise n’ Shine”:
‘Take a cold shower; wash yourself of all your sins.’

All of these elements surround and ultimately would help lead to her debut EP, Lucky Star EP,” released in May of 2024; it’s 8 songs that carry the torch of Faerybabyys musical journey. Soundtracking occasions such as dancing with yourself in your bedroom, relaxing poolside Ferris Bueller style, or soundtrack TikTok edits of Donnie Darko or Debra from Empire Records. Which is fitting, since alone time is important to Payton: “I like being alone, I’m always alone actually. I’m like the loneliest person I know and my roommates would say the same”.  She continues “People before they spend so much time with me, I’m an easy person to get so many ideas about. Like a lot of people make assumptions about ‘You’re the loneliest person I’ve ever met, I thought you’d be parting all the time”.  Truth be told, she’d rather be home watching cartoons or reading her bible. “I don’t exhaust myself”.

As again, it translates to the music, the music can resonate with those who value alone time or those who may feel used to being alone. In good ways and sad, but, hey music is therapeutic, so even in the unfortunate cases, the music is there to keep them company for the better. The track “rosalia” gives the 80s Gothic new wave winks at your rhythm and makes you wanna recreate the Iconic Breakfast Club dance scene.

 

 

 

 

The project is the culmination of years of figuring herself out and finally hitting the nail on it. Proud isn’t even the word to express her gratitude for getting to this moment in her artistry: “That was actually crazy; it took so much work, and there were so many songs that didn’t make it on the EP, but it was just about finding the things that stuck together in the right way. It felt really good.” Adding to a co-sign from her favorite Eggpunk page by reposting her EP, shit was feeling really amazing for Payton.

Now on a few tour dates with Slater later this year, she’s on the right path of dopeness. But that’s my vision; what does she say for her future? “5 years from now, I hope I’m on a sheep farm, with 2 little kids running around in organic linen clothing that I sewed myself and a husband that prays better than I do. I still wanna put it in music, but because I want to, not cause I have  to.” All in all, Faerybabyy is a gem of the future, putting her spin on the past.

 

 

Be sure to check out Faerybabyys music on all platforms it’s available on.  Stream Lucky Star EP. Follow Payton on all of her Social Medias (but beware of the DOOM scrolling) and Check her out live if she’s ever near you.

Remember Peace of Mind is what we all need to find.