DREAMING BIG
From Thai nursery rhymes to producing a Spotify single, Glen Burnie teen pursues singing career
Ever since she could talk, Old Mill High School senior Mehlani Payton was a singer.
When she was a toddler, Payton, whose mother is Thai, would sing Thai nursery rhymes, and make up songs when those got old.
As a seventh grader in 2017, she decided to start writing her own songs to eventually perform them at her middle school’s talent show. That Christmas, Payton received a keyboard purchased from Goodwill and her dad bought her first guitar not long after.
“At that point, I had never really explored the idea of actually writing [my own songs],” said Payton, a 17-year-old Glen Burnie resident. “I was always just like, ‘Oh I want to be a singer when I grow up.’ And I didn’t realize I should probably write songs and maybe that could help [me advance towards that goal].
“I started teaching myself how to play a little bit, and then ever since then, it kind of just started building and building,” she added.
When the pandemic struck in early 2020, Payton, then a sophomore, thought she might take a break from music. Instead, the months of lockdown and taking classes virtually became prime songwriting time. In September 2021, 15-year-old Payton released her first single “Boyfriend” under her first name, Mehlani, on Spotify and other streaming platforms. “I don’t need a boyfriend when I got the chick in the mirror,” Payton sings over a heavy guitar riff. “Yeah, I don’t need a boyfriend, do I gotta be any clearer?”
“I was just getting out of a relationship and I didn’t really know how to deal with that really so I kind of just wanted to put out a song that could help other people,” she said.
Relying on Zoom calls with freelance producers, Payton recorded everything from harmonies to instruments with a microphone in her bedroom.
Ryan Hall, a producer from Atlanta, has worked with Payton for the past year, helping her to record her new single “Down Bad,” set to be released on Spotify later this month.
“She’s not someone who takes her music lightly,” Hall said. “She has such a creative voice and mind that when I am producing the song, she’s basically the mastermind and I just make it happen.”.
Recently, she performed a “Best of the
80s” gig as her first live show in January at the Fish Head Cantina in Baltimore County.
The show was hosted by the School of Rock in Gambrills. Payton attends the school’s “hallmark” performance class that prepares students for live performances by playing rock music’s most iconic songs with a band composed of their peers, according to itswebsite. The School of Rock offers lessons in performance skills and songwriting, along with basic instrumental and vocal lessons.
Students are assigned songs and parts tailored to them based on their age, experience and ability to learn new skills and concepts. Students then work through their parts in weekly private music lessons and refine the skills and concepts those songs introduce.
Payton sang two songs: “Our Lips are Sealed” by the Go-Gos & “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. She sang back-up vocals for “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks.
“I’m literally walking an answered prayer,” she wrote on Instagram. “Welcome to the start of my journey to getting rid of my stage fright.”
The lead-up to the release of her second song has been stressful, she said, but her friends, family and supporters, especially her classmates and teachers, have made it worth all of the work. Some teachers at Old Mill have allowed her to post her promotional posters for “Down Bad” in their rooms, creating a mini scavenger hunt for students to search for her pre-save QR code.
“It’s been overwhelming and kind of stressful running around the whole entire school, but at the end of the day ... it’s been really helpful,” she said. “I just have so many people saying [things] like ‘Good luck,’ ‘I’m really excited, I can’t wait to hear,’ “she said.
After she graduates in the spring, Payton said she hopes to study performance, songwriting and music theory in college. The University of California Berkley’s College of Music is at the top of her list.
For now, she is preparing the release of her next single that will be available for streaming on Spotify and Apple Music on Feb. 25. She admits she sometimes checks her Spotify account to see if people are still listening to “Boyfriend.” A little over a year after its release, the song has about 6,000 Spotify streams.
“When I randomly check and I see somebody’s listening,” she said, “it’s just encouragement for me to keep going, you know.”