The First Note
At eight years old, Payton asked her music teacher a simple question: which instruments did girls play the least? The answer was bass and drums. She chose the bass.
That choice turned into ten years at School of Rock in Calgary, where Payton grew up making music in bands, rehearsing, performing, experimenting, and learning how to listen and respond to the musicians around her. She played her way through rock and blues, funk, soul, R&B, and jazz, discovering along the way that the part she loved most was the connection between players and the feeling of a song coming together.
Bass became her foundation, but her curiosity didn’t stop there. In time, she would pick up the other instrument on that original list too, the drums, and begin exploring music well beyond the four strings where it all started.
Beyond Four Strings
Bass may have been Payton’s first instrument, but it was never the only place she found herself making music. Over the years, she added upright bass, drums, percussion, and vocals, moving between instruments and styles and discovering what each brought to the way she heard and understood music.
At school, that meant playing classical upright bass in her award-winning Symphonic Band and taking on several roles in the award-winning Jazz Band, switching between upright and electric bass, stepping behind the percussion setup, and adding vocals. She also sang with her high school choir program, building on years of singing alongside playing bass and drums at School of Rock.
Her love of jazz also opened doors beyond school. Selected for the Girls in Jazz Honour Band YYC in both 2024 and 2025 and participating in Women in Jazz YYC, Payton performed on both upright and electric bass alongside other young musicians in Calgary’s jazz community.
All of it has given her the chance to experience music from different sides of the stage, not just as the bassist holding down the groove, but as a drummer driving it, a vocalist living inside the melody, and an upright player moving between the worlds of jazz and classical music. That range has become an important part of how she listens, collaborates, and finds her place in a song.
Turning It Up
When it came time to decide where music would take her next, Payton looked well beyond home. She applied to five highly regarded music programs across the United States and United Kingdom, and earned admission to every one.
From those opportunities, Payton chose the USC Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where she is now studying Popular Music with bass as her principal instrument. It’s a natural next step for a musician who has always learned by doing: playing with different people, exploring new sounds, taking chances, and spending as much time as possible making music.
Now immersed in one of the world’s most dynamic music communities, Payton is focused on becoming a stronger, more versatile player while building the relationships and experiences that will shape what comes next. The destination may have changed, but the approach hasn’t: listen, connect, and play what the music needs.
The Music She Loves
Payton’s musical world lives somewhere between deep pocket, fearless energy, and a bass line you can’t help but notice. Funk, Soul, R&B, Jazz, Rock, and Blues all find their way into her playing, but she is especially drawn to music where the rhythm section has something to say.
Her influences span generations of players who helped redefine what the bass could be. James Jamerson’s melodic instinct and unmistakable pocket, Bootsy Collins’ fearless personality, Carol Kaye’s versatility and feel, Nathan Watts’ deep groove, Victor Wooten’s musicianship and creativity, and Flea’s raw energy have each shaped the way she thinks about the instrument.
What Payton loves most is the space between holding a song together and giving it a voice of her own. She wants to play music that grooves hard, feels alive, and leaves room for musicians to listen and react to one another—whether she’s laying deep in the pocket or stepping forward when the music calls for it.