PEYTON: SINNER WITH SOUL

He’s broken out of the dance genre with the help of The X-Factor and is ready to take on Sam Smith as a versatile queer soul guy.

name by any means, and now I can finally share my album with a more mainstream audience. I needed a boost so there was a bit of familiarity.

On your anti-bullying anthem, When They Go Low you give Michelle Obama a songwriting credit! [Laughs] Which she probably doesn’t even know about, but we didn’t think Michelle was going to turn around and say we couldn’t use her words in this inspirational anthem at a time when America really needs it.

That track has taken on a life of its own as an anti-bullying rallying cry!

A primary school in Byron Bay loved it so much they posted a video on my Facebook of these kids all singing every word to the song. I grew up in the tradition of gospel music and, even though I’m not religious, my approach to music and songwriting is about ministry. It’s more than just entertaining people; it’s trying, sometimes, to inspire or lift someone’s spirits or turn someone’s way of thinking about. When I saw that video, I cried. Bullying UK got involved as well and we’re hoping to roll that out in other schools – and I can be an ambassador for the association as well.

This is a subject close to your heart, right?

It’s taken all these years for me to talk about it. I