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Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk with LAYTON's Debut, "sad boy"



Originally from the coast of Florida, Amelia Island to be exact, LAYTON is making major waves with her distinctively beachy, sun-kissed Pop flavor.

Growing up drawn towards music, this brought LAYTON to Nashville in 2015 to study songwriting at Belmont University. She began writing and releasing melodies in the style of singer-songwriter and folk, releasing these songs on her Soundcloud and nurturing her lyrical instincts for honest and personal storytelling. She quickly found her sound in the Pop community and began to branch out from her formerly acoustic sound, but never leaving behind her singer-songwriter lyrical sensibilities.

LAYTON’s debut single “sad boy,” infuses a buoyant atmosphere that trickles into her profound lyrical techniques as she exercises her fortified skillset as a songwriter. This pulsating Pop vibration has us fully immersed in the palliative hues that sway in the full throttle of LAYTON. She effortlessly flows through the instrumentation with a nimble sense of urgency to hypnotically deliver the message that we hear and crave.

Undaunted to plunge into the depths of her lyrical motifs, the words trickling into “sad boy,” illuminate the authentic life experiences that LAYTON has experienced with a certain someone, and is quick to reiterate. The type of confidence that LAYTON showcases through this track truly attaches to the narrative of this musical tale. Managing to paint brightly lit images that float in our head as we hang on to each line she strikingly croons, the luscious reverberation that scoops LAYTON’s vocals into an enthralling dreamscape of upbeat vibrancy has us shook to the core.

For a debut single, the solidified foundation that this has implanted upon us is exceedingly raising the bar for the genre of Pop. Known for her features with Lyfes, Prymo, and Bardo, we have no doubt that LAYTON will be establishing her name in a major way with bops to come.



Congratulations on the release of “sad boy.” We love the entire arrangement of this masterpiece! As artists, there is a certain vulnerability that some feel that they can or cannot cross. When creating music do you have any boundaries in place for yourself?


Thank you so much!! I totally sometimes feel that way to an extent and have to pull back a little or change some lyrics in the song if I feel like I'm overstepping or getting too personal, but I definitely try to be as honest as I can with my lyrics at the same time. The boys I've written songs about 100% know when they're about them haha. Really, I think music is a place for me to be more vulnerable than I would in real life and in real conversation, so I try to push my boundaries instead of limit myself when it comes down to it.

Could you please share what the creative and recording process looked like when fashioning your debut single, “sad boy?"


Yes! I wrote "sad boy" in the summer of 2019 with my roommate, Blaire Elbert and, Autumn Buysse who is one of my best friends and an incredible songwriter in Nashville. I went to Autumn's house and was just ranting about this boy that I was hanging out with at the time. He was kind of leading me on and kept making excuses as to why he couldn't be in a relationship and I was just kind of over it. I kept referring to him as a sad boy and Autumn really liked it so we came up with the chorus idea and finished the song in a few hours. We sat on her living room floor and drank wine out of mugs and were finished with the entire song by the end of the night. I brought it to my good friend, Landon Sears who produced it with his roommate Michael Simpson. Blaire came with me to record and hopped on some background vocals, my friend Chris Miller happened to be at Landon's when we were working on it and got on some vocals as well. We sent it to my friend Andy Centner who tracked the guitar and sent it back and it was mastered by my friend Cody Norton in Hendersonville. It became a whole group project with my friends from college and me which made it so much more fun.

Did you find that the creative process varied when creating a solo track, versus being featured on a collaboration?


The process between the two for me is pretty different. When it comes to creating a solo track from scratch, I'm able to make it more personal, spend more time on it, and get it to sound exactly how I want it, which could take months. I don't stress as much when writing a track for collaboration since it isn't my musical composition and is not a song for me as a solo artist. When I collapsed with Lyfes on "West Coast" for instance, I was able to finish the lyrics in a day since I was just writing over a beat that he sent me to work on. I love both processes, but I'm much more particular when it comes to writing and releasing songs alone to put out as a solo project.


What does “sad boy” mean to you as the creator? What are you hoping that listeners take away from this track?


This song means a lot to me since it was such a long process and such a project that my friends and I worked so hard on to get just right. It was also nerve-wracking to release since it was my very first single as a solo artist and was pretty much my debut as a songwriter and singer for pop music. I really like the honesty in the lyrics and the fact that I was able to write and create it with my best friends in Nashville. I love that I was able to tell a story that I think people can relate to while throwing in subtle but specific hints on who it is about and my personal situation with a non-relationship and kind of make fun of it. I'm really proud of "sad boy" and I hope people see that and like it as much as I do.

 
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