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Payday Brings Back The Good Old Days With A Skate Park Party

Many of Payday’s childhood memories revolve around long days at the skate park, hanging with friends and constant jokes. There’s the time she and her friend forgot skateboards, scooters, or anything to ride with, so she dared her friend to hit a bowl in a pair of Heelys. Suffice it to say, it did not go well for said friend. Payday also remembers the slightly sketchy green van that would always be parked, "we never knew what they were doing in there." Then there were days spent inside, passing the hours with extensive sessions of Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the XBox. She always loved the sport because of the energy—even if she excelled more at the XBox game than IRL—and the iconic soundtrack served as early inpsiration. When she wasn’t playing Tony Hawk, she was assuming the POV of a thumb in the Tech Deck videogame on her GameBoy. Reminiscing on those early days, it felt right for her First On SoundCloud meet-n-greet to take place at a skate park.

“It would be crazy if Tony Hawk showed up,” Payday says to FOSC with a chuckle. “Like, could you imagine?” Mr. Hawk never showed, but Payday’s meet n greet at the Culver City Skate Park had no shortage of fresh faces. Pro skaters CJ Collins, Ish Cepeda, and Chris Pierre showed up for the festivities, with Cepeda jumping on the mic to MC the skate sesh and introduce Payday before her electric performance.

Childhood Payday would have been awestruck to see all of the attendees at her event, just around to skate, chill, and support her music. Well, Payday’s not far removed from those childhood years—she’s still a teenager—but felt like she was reconnecting to that same energy. “A skate park is the best place to do something like this because everyone is here to have fun. It’s nostalgic for everybody, it feels so nice,” she explains.

The chance to catch her breath and just hang for a few hours is a welcome change of pace for Payday, who’s been on the road with A.G. Cook. The shows have been a blast, but as any touring musician can tell you, its nice to have some downtime. “I’ve been on tour for a minute now, I’ve been cooped up on the stinky tour bus. It just feels good to be outside and do something... athletic,” she says with a laugh. A highlight of the tour has been getting to meet new fans in each city. Payday has loved performing and connecting audiences night after night, and it’s one of the aspects she was eager to repeat with her meet n greet and performance. “One of the best parts of tour has been getting to connect with people that support me. I wanted to bring that same energy to the skate park and the people I meet today.”As Payday explained during her First On SoundCloud Clubhouse Session, she spent her childhood moving all around the country. She spent her childhood between Louisiana, Texas, California, and Washington, a multi-faceted upbringing that influenced her sound. “When you’re growing up in a certain place, you're pretty much only gonna hear rap shit,” she explained. “When you go somewhere else, you’re exposed to different shit,” she adds. The skate park was a constant throughout these moves, and was influential regarding the music she was exposed to. As she went to different schools, made new friends, tried to navigate being a young person in an increasingly confusing world, the skate park was a safe-haven of like minded people. “Skating is an artform and it’s beautiful, and everyone is always hyping each other up. That’s why I love being here,” she explains.

Payday’s ability to blend genres into something unique and fresh resembles the unpredictable experience that is the skate park. You never know who you’ll run into, what sort of clothes they wear, what styles they’re into. That’s Payday’s favorite part about skate parks, and, as such, her First on SoundCloud meet n greet. Fans and new friends were able to win custom Payday skate decks and were given the opportunity to outfit them with griptape, trucks, and wheels. “There’s just no place like the skate park,” Payday says. And on Saturday, October 16, Payday was able to call the skate park her own, and everyone in that one-of-a-kind crowd was there for her.

Get to know Payday here.

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