Payson Lewis is showing off his bold new sound with his latest song “Making Trouble!”
The track, released earlier this month, combines the ambience of both punk rock and pop to create an exhilarating production that skillfully depicts the imperfections of love’s turbulence. It illustrates how love can seduce you to behave in ways that feel uncharacteristic and perhaps put you in the link of fire for a world of hurt.
“Ever met that one person who you just can’t resist? Who you know is nothing, but a world of hurt, but you still just can’t say no? The one who has you breaking every rule you always said you’d never? I have. Hence, “Making Trouble,'” Lewis explains.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Lewis has always had a close relationship with music. As a kid, he taught himself to sing and play piano prior to attending the University of Southern California to further his growth as a musician and songwriter. Just after graduating, his career was launched by placing 4th on NBC’s The Sing-Off. Since then, Lewis has used his diverse musical skill set in performances all over the world.
He’s sung with national symphony orchestras in Taiwan and Korea, starred in theatrical performances in Chicago and Las Vegas, sung on multiple major motion picture soundtracks, and acted on several TV shows, including Jane the Virgin, The People vs. OJ Simpson, and How I Met Your Mother. Last year, he released his debut record, Take Me Apart, to universal acclaim. His charismatic sound has amassed him over a million streams on Spotify, too.
Celeb Secrets caught up with Lewis recently to talk our specialty — SECRETS! Keep scrolling to listen to “Making Trouble” and learn five fun facts you would never know.
1. “Making Trouble” was written about a girlfriend of mine who cheated on me. The whole concept being that she knew that what she was doing was wrong, but she didn’t care about the consequences; just wanted to have some fun and make a little trouble. So I wrote a song from the perspective of her and the guy she cheated with.
2. The original demo had the main guitar hook played on this wild and out of control saxophone. It sounded super cool for like the first 4 bars and then it drove me nuts. But we kept horns in for the bridge and then added a wild and out of control sax solo at the end as an homage
3. All the old film clips were added in to give it the sense of melodrama that was best captured in the super dramatic films from the 40s and 50s. Partially because the ex the song is based on is known for her DRAMA!
4. The artwork for the single was inspired by the super bloom of poppies in California in 2019. The idea being that everyone was being told not to walk or lay in the poppies, and yet every picture on Instagram for weeks were people doing exactly that. Knowing it was wrong…but doing it for fun.
5. All the call and response “Julio-hype” type lines were performed by an incredible ballroom dancer, Nick Garcia. He and I performed in a live show together and he was always adding vocalizations to emphasize his dance, and I thought to myself, “he’d be perfect to by my ‘Julio’.”
Let us know what you think of Payson’s song “Making Trouble” by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @celebsecrets.
