Peytan Porter has evolved a lot as an artist, which is evident on her new EP, appropriately titled Grown. The rising star learned plenty, especially after the release of her debut In My Head in 2022, lessons that proved especially beneficial with Grown.

“I am so proud of this project,” Porter tells Everything Nash. “It feels like a course correction. It’s the first project I released that I knew how I felt about it before it came out. So now, how everyone else reacts to it is kind of secondary to how I felt about it before I put it out. It’s really freeing and really exciting and really nice.”

Porter poured so much of herself into In My Head, rightfully pleased with the finished product, even if she realized it wasn’t as authentic as she initially thought it might be.

“The first project I put out was pink and pop and really pastel-leaning stuff, and it’s exactly what I thought I needed to be, to be successful in the country format,” Porter explains. “It’s exactly who I orchestrated my artistry to be for that moment. And then I just wasn’t fulfilled by it, and there wasn’t a longevity to that sound for me. That was not the rational feeling to have. It was doing well.”

Porter was so convinced that In My Head wasn’t who she wanted to be as an artist, that she decided not to release the second part of the project that was already completed.

“I had to hit the brakes on everything when it came out,” Porter explains. “I wanted the second thing that I released to put me back in the right direction, and that meant getting away from the process of recording, and the hustle and bustle, and really leaning back into my instincts.”

Instead of focusing on the kind of music she thought other people wanted her to record, Porter focused on the music she liked instead, using that as inspiration for all of the songs on Grown.

“This just feels a lot more honest, and it feels like I can keep this up for a lot longer,” she explains.

The title track of the project was born from Porter’s own foray into adulthood, making choices that she now knows might not have been the wisest, although they still taught her plenty.

“The title track, ‘Grown,’ is from that whole season when I decided I was going to make decisions without asking for people’s opinions. I got an apartment in Nashville,” Porter recalls, sharing that the apartment she chose, in hindsight, wasn’t the best, or safest, choice for her.

“My parents were like, ‘This is not the best,'” Porter shares. “But they’ve seen me make somewhat irrational decisions and it pay off, so they were like, ‘We trust you. This is your life, if this is what you want.’ They dropped me off and drove back to Georgia, and I just cried all the way … There were gunshots outside my window most nights, and I had an outward-facing unit, ground-level, just a young woman. It wasn’t the safest place for me.”

On New Year’s Eve, Porter was journaling when she heard gunshots again, this time right outside her apartment.

“It was just this moment of getting really honest with myself, and being like, ‘This is exactly what you wanted. Are you happy? You put yourself in this situation. You are exactly where you want to be,'” Porter remembers. “I’m writing songs and releasing music. My dreams are coming true. Living alone, all of these things are exactly what I wanted, and I’m terrified to go to sleep.”

Porter is no stranger to weaving her own stories into her music. The Georgia native comes from a long line of family members working in either education or the postal service, which made Porter stand out with her strong musical talents and abilities.

“I’m not from a music family,” Porter says. “But I think God was like, ‘Let’s see what happens here,’ and sprinkled a little music on the middle child. I’m the middle of three girls, and I spent a lot of time in the basement by myself, just twiddling my thumbs and exploring things. I found singing as a release, and I got really interested in songwriters, and started diving into the craft of songwriting while I was in the basement. Eventually, I started trying my hand at writing my own songs, and that became the easiest way for me to directly communicate with my friends and family.”

Find Grown and all of Porter’s music and upcoming shows at PeytanPorterMusic.com.