Songfacts®:

• "Payday" is an anti-capitalism anthem that satirizes the accumulation of wealth by the few. "It's about gentrification, class fetish and how the human brain is so powerful that with enough time and processing power combined it will be able to justify, defend and/or continue to commit the actions of any human being it controls," explained vocalist James Smith.
• The song mocks the poor-kid-done-good narrative that keeps the capitalist dream alive. "The sliver of society that are born into poverty and manage to escape it are championed as proof that the system works, that hard work pays off," explained Smith to Yahoo. "That anyone can get it, if they really want it. We know that's not true, but that mentality snares you, because you should be rightfully happy that people have escaped the pit of poverty, that they've pulled their family out of it, too."
• What constitutes a ghetto? Huh?
  Is it growing your own lettuces in the potholes on the road
  
  Asked by Mojo magazine if the line about growing your own lettuce in potholes on the road is a dig at gentrification, Smith replied: "The gentrification of growing vegetables like pottery is now the definition of being middle class - but people just used to be potters. They had to make their own cups. It wasn't a status symbol. And it's the same with growing things in your garden. Cultivating vegetables, when we're going to end up with all these food shortages, it's a skill that they should be teaching at school. Instead, it's left to the suburban gardeners. Survival things are subverted and turned into hobbies."
• Yard Act lost their original lo-fi demo for "Payday" after they recorded it onto Smith's computer and the hard drive corrupted. They had to rebuild completely in the studio with 909 electronic drums. Smith told Apple Music that when guitarist Sam Shjipstone added a "really mad funk guitar," it was exactly what it needed.
• Yard Act recorded "Payday" for The Overload. The track coaxes the album's overarching narrative along, in which Smith wages war against capitalist stooges.
• Yard Act's go-to visual collaborator James Slater directed the video. "We wanted to do something less location and narrative-based for this video," said Smith, "so an infinity white studio served as the perfect purgatory for an anti-capitalist anthem funded by a major record label."