Molly Payton teams up with Oscar Lang on ‘Bandits’ External Inbox

Molly Payton links up with Oscar Lang today on ‘Bandits’, a new duet from the longtime friends and collaborators, out now via The Orchard. ‘Bandits’ marks the first new music from Molly Payton since the release of her Compromise EP in late 2022, which included highlight cut ‘Ruins’ – a track described by The FADER as “a fizzing ball of indie rock energy.” 

’Bandits’ is the latest evolution for Molly Payton’s raw-edged, confessional songwriting – a devotional ode to the people who stand by us without question in tumultuous times. On the track’s central premise and muse, Molly shares “‘Bandits’ is a Bonnie-and-clyde-esque love song that I wrote for my boyfriend. We’d moved to the UK together after only having dated for around 6 months and were moving around a lot. I wanted to write something that said ‘hey I know we’re skipping straight to the real nitty gritty stuff here but I’m grateful that you’re around’. It’s rare to find someone that’s willing to drop everything and run away with you.” When it came to choosing a partner for the track, the obvious choice was Oscar Lang – a constant fixture in Molly’s life since the pair first connected at high school following her relocation to the UK in her mid-teens; “I knew I wanted it to be a duet and I’ve been friends with Oscar for so long, I knew i wanted it to be him singing it – it was so fun to work together again.”

After coming of age in London, and making a name for herself across breakout EP Porcupine and follow-up mini-album Slack in late 2021, a huge loss drew Molly Payton back to her New Zealand for an unexpected stint. After returning to the UK with a new partner in tow, the promise of the honeymoon phase soon gave way to a disorienting period of couch-surfing, house-sitting, pet-minding and near constant uncertainty for the pair – who racked up a staggering 20 moves in the space of 6 months all whilst balancing a hospitality job and packed touring schedule. This constant stage of flux saw Molly gripping for any semblance of certainty and routine – yet the urge to create never left. Molly turned to a steadying force in her life, longtime producer Oli Barton-Wood (Nilüfer Yanya, Porridge Radio, Sorry) to help her set the foundations for the Compromise EP.  Refusing to gloss over the unsettled origins from which it was raised, Compromise is titled in wry acknowledgement of the turbulence and upheaval which bonds its three tracks.

Driven forward by her unwavering ardency, even in the face of chaos, Molly Payton has already earned wide critical acclaim from the likes of Pigeons & Planes, i-D, Dork, DIY, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Steve Lamacq at 6Music, BBC Radio 1 and beyond. Praised initially for her evocative lyricism and evolved songwriting, she’s also been turning heads for her captivating, elevated live shows – and across the past 18 months has supported the likes of Arlo Parks, Oscar Lang, Tom Odell, Wallice, and Beabadoobee. With the release of ‘Bandits,’ Molly Payton comes to a newfound peace with her cross-hemisphere existence – understanding that her true home is in the hands of the people who ground her.