Georgia girl Peytan Porter has a heart of authenticity and has been turning heads in Music City since signing her publishing deal with Jody Williams Songs and Warner Chappell Music.
Heartbreak and curiosity often find themselves at the center of a country song and have a telling effect on songwriters. For Porter’s newest musical making “God’s Hotel,” she spills the belief that a hotel up above would serve much more purpose for her than a picture-perfect mansion.
On the song’s creative process, the singer + songwriter told us in an exclusive interview with Celeb Secrets Country, “So we wrote this one, me, Faren Rachels and Jeff Garrison, and we wrote it probably two years ago. Jeff G had the title ‘God’s Hotel,’ and we three have written together quite a few times. Jeff had the title ‘God’s Hotel’ in his back pocket. We have all grown up in and around religion and the church and have had our own relationships with it. We kind of followed that path down its lane and it kind of took us into this whole concept of what if there’s kind of an off the beaten path version of heaven for people who have gone through this part of unpacking their religion.”
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The song provides a dose of conventional country glossed by mountain air blended with poignant lyricism opening with her favorite line: “I was baptized by water ‘cause I was scared of the fire.”
“It’s the most loaded line to me in the song because I grew up Southern Baptist,” she confesses. “So there’s a lot of fire and brimstone and hell, and your reason for wanting to enter a relationship with God, who’s this loving and great character, apparently is because you’re scared of what’s going to happen if you don’t.”
When the Dawsonville, Georgia native first wrote the song two years ago, she wasn’t quite ready to front its lyrics.
“It took getting older and kind of a bird’s eye viewing that for me to be like, I don’t enter any of my friendships because I’m scared of them. I don’t enter any romantic relationships because I’m scared of them. Why would it make sense for me to want to enter a relationship with this eternal person because I’m scared of them and I’m scared of what’s going to happen to me if I don’t.”
When asked about her influences that have inspired this song, she revealed to us, “For this song and for this next batch of music, a lot of my references were Laurel Canyon era bands. Like, I loved Linda Ronstadt. I loved the Fleetwood Mac sound. I wanted all of it to be able to be replicated live at a show for sure. And that is leaning off of the programming and the track-heavy sounds and making it more organic and more roots feeling, which really is a byproduct of the music I like listening to. I lean folk and folk rock more than I lean pop.”
”For this one specifically, some of the artists would be Maren Morris. Her Hero album was huge for me. Stapleton obviously. Eric Church, a lot of that side of the country coin is where I feel like I resonate more sonically. Content-wise, like the idea of ‘God’s Hotel,’ is much more Americana leaning concept than it is mainstream country. I’m aware of that, and I’m aware of it because I like Americana artists. I’m cool leaning into that batch of folks.”
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Porter’s debut record, In My Head, issued a history of heartache and launched the songstresses’ first steps after growing a significant fan base from TikTok. Porter spoke to Celeb Secrets Country on the differences between that project and “God’s Hotel.”
“Sonically. it’s very different. Like I said, it’s not as pop-leaning. It’s visually different; it’s not as pink and pastel. The imaging is a little bit, I mean, I’ve got bangs now. I started eating more [laughs], so image wise has grown a little bit. I think that it’s kind of the first song I’m putting out knowing that not everyone’s gonna like it and not everyone’s gonna agree with it.”
“And a lot of my approach within my head was being liked and being welcomed right to country music. And it, I was too scared, honestly. I wasn’t brave enough to be honest about all of my thoughts and opinions on the world and my experiences. Right, so a lot of this next project is a coming-of-age narrative about just my last year of finally being honest with myself and being brave enough to be honest with everybody else. Right. And so this is the first one of those where it’s like, I’ve made some, some leaps and bounds within my own noggin and within my own spirit. And I, I’m proud of where I’m at now. It’s still a journey. I’m still, I don’t feel like I’ve arrived on anything, but I do, I hope it’s the first kind of peek into, huh, Peytan isn’t really just trying to be liked by everybody anymore.”
First signed as a singer songwriter in 2021, Porter broke out with the acclaimed debut single “Therapy,” racking up more than five million streams and ultimately leading to the 2022 EP, In My Head. Also featuring tracks like “Why We Broke Up” and “First Stone,” the project has now accumulated over ten million streams – but after spending her first year on the road, Porter’s vision has continued to evolve. “God’s Hotel” is the first taste of the Dawsonville, Georgia native’s lane-shifting project that is set to embrace a looser-fitting Americana style, while also digging deeper into her identity.
Listen to “God’s Hotel” below and let us know if you’re loving “God’s Hotel” by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sliding into our DMs on Instagram at @celebsecretscountry.
You can connect with Peytan Give her a follow at @peytanporter on Instagram and @peytanporter on TikTok.
