In a world where it can feel like we’re supposed to adhere to a certain set of guidelines while writing our story, Paytra decided to simply create her own. As an independent singer and songwriter who also runs her own publishing company, Paytra is running through the music industry at her own pace. She’s striving for the best, and it can only get better.
Paytra grew up in a rather small town along the border of Michigan and Ohio. Many of the kids around her had interests and aspirations that simply didn’t resonate with her.
“I just feel like I never really fit in there,” she mentioned at the very beginning of our conversation. “I know that’s kind of a cliché story, but it’s true. I just always was like, I have to find my thing. It wasn’t like sports that were popular at my school, or what not. People were like ‘OH I want to be a police officer,’ or ‘I want to be a nurse.’ I was like I don’t. I just don’t.”
Music was indeed Paytra’s thing, and she couldn’t picture herself living in a world without it. Her father was in a rock band, and her mother was a Hip-Hop and R&B enthusiast. A love for music just naturally developed for Paytra, but it all escalated quickly when her parents obtained a piano for her from an auction. In her own words, it was “love at first sight,” and her childhood was spent learning how to play the piano classically!
“It’s important to follow those instincts when you’re young,” she shared. “I think when you’re young, there’s not all the voices in your ear telling you ‘oh you need to do this.’ You know just by what you like to do. That’s what you’re naturally good at, listen to it!”
One of Paytra’s biggest inspirations early on just happened to be Alicia Keys. Paytra recalled being rather shy as a kid, often being nervous to even go to school. However, seeing what Alicia was able to do artistically encouraged her to break out of her shell a bit. She shared, “When I started playing piano, I felt like that was a voice for me. Then watching her, I was like… I gotta start singing!”
Paytra had been persistent about wanting to sing for years, but in time she realized a change of scenery would benefit her greatly. She convinced her mother to take her to a singing competition in New York, which Paytra ended up winning. The experience fueled her desire to sing even more, and she ended up moving there not long after.
Obviously, life in the big city was drastically different than life in Michigan. People from all over the world, different cultures, and so many different walks of life flock to New York to try to make their dreams come true. This pushed Paytra to work as hard as possible on her singing, but also to conform to a new way of living. Perhaps one of the biggest beasts that Paytra had to tackle though, was learning how to navigate through the music industry alone! Paytra admitted that there were some instances where she had been taken advantage of, especially by men. As infuriating as the situations were, they helped Paytra find her voice even more.
“I think seeing that at a young age and fixing it and confronting it… like imagine 17-year-old sitting in a room with this 35, 40-something man and just telling him off,” she explained. “Getting to that boiling point of ‘no, I’m worth more than that,’ and seeing it, knowing it, now I just know automatically what to look for. I’m just lucky to have powerful men around me who love powerful women and support that.”
(By the way, sometimes we must remind ourselves that there’s power in saying no.)
This energy is still holding up strong, especially with the release of Paytra’s new single “Better.” Simply put, Paytra wanted to create a feel-good breakup song with a smooth throwback vibe. Splitting off from someone you deeply cared about (or… maybe thought you did) can be painful, but it’s the start of a new beginning. From there, you get to control the narrative!
“I just feel like it’s such a different side of me,” she observed. “Usually my songs are all like, me talking my…. you know… my ish… and I just wanted to be more real with this song. A little more honest, rather than putting up this tough girl front.”
As we all jam out to “Better,” it’s quite likely that Paytra is already preparing her next single for us. “I want to write the songs for you guys that I wish I had when I was growing up,” she affirmed. “A lot of men in music, I always related to because they were always talking about being a boss, getting money, getting the girls, not giving a crap about anyone else. I feel like I was always like, why can’t I feel that way? Why can’t she feel that way? This is what I hope you guys get from my music. That voice, that it’s okay to be a boss. It’s okay to be sensitive, and it’s okay to embrace that feminine energy that we have that’s so cool. But at the same time, men are not the only bosses! We are too, and we’re building our own empires.”
Consider this your formal invitation to check out Paytra’s empire. Listen to “Better” below, and say hi to Paytra on Instagram @paytra_!
