Feb. 3, 2026
Peaches
The player is loading ...
Peaches has spent more than two decades pushing boundaries in electronic music and performance art, inspiring the look and sound of edgy pop artists like Lady Gaga and Grimes. But long before she was known for her outrageous stage shows, Peaches got her start as part of a folk trio in Toronto. In the mid-'90s, after discovering she could become a one-woman band with her Roland drum machine, Peaches began developing a provocative new persona.
In 2000, she moved to Berlin and released The Teaches of Peaches, featuring the song "Fuck the Pain Away." The track has been cited by Thom Yorke as an inspiration while making Radiohead's In Rainbows, and has appeared in countless movies and TV shows including Lost In Translation, The Handmaid's Tale, and even South Park. Peaches has spent the last several years creating works for stage and screen, including serving as the subject of two recent documentaries. Now, after more than a decade, she's returning with No Lube So Rude, her first album in over 10 years, recorded in Berlin with producer The Squirt Deluxe.
On today's episode, Leah Rose talks to Peaches about making No Lube So Rude and how the album addresses identity, bodily autonomy, and offers an antidote for all the friction in the world. Peaches also discusses how she recently discovered her dad pleaded with a bar mitzvah band to give her her first shot performing live on stage. And she shares her deep love of '70s rock and roll trivia.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Peaches HERE.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Peaches has spent more than two decades pushing boundaries and electronic music and performance art, inspiring the look and sound of edgy pop artists like Lady Gaga and Grimes. But long before she was known for her outrageous stage shows, Peaches got her start as part of a folk trio in Toronto. It was in the mid nineties, after discovering she could become a one woman band with her rolling drum machine, that Peaches began developing a provocative new persona. In two thousands, she moved to Berlin and released The Teaches of Peaches, featuring the song Fuck the Pain Away. The track has been cited by Tom York as an inspiration while making Radioheads in Rainbows, and has appeared in countless movies and TV shows, including South Park, Gloss in Translation in The Handmaid's Tale. Peaches has spent the last several years creating works for stage and screen, including serving as a subject for two recent documentaries. Now, after more than a decade, she's returning with No Lube So Rude, her first album in over ten years, recorded in Berlin with producer The Squirt Deluxe. On today's episode, Lea Rose talks to Peach is about making No Lubes so rude, and how the album addresses identity, bodily autonomy and offers an antidote for all the friction in the world. Peaches also discusses how she recently discovered her dad pleaded with the bar Mitzvah band to give her her first shot performing live on stage, and she shares her deep love of seventies rock and roll trivia. This is Broken Record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's Leah roodse with Peaches. Head over to YouTube dot com slash Broken Record podcast to see the full video interview.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: It's so funny.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: I was just watching different video interviews and reading old interviews and stuff, and I read about your first ever experience with the stage and you actually started as a wedding singer.
00:02:06
Speaker 4: I started as about Mitzvah, bar Mitzvah singer.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Yes, no, yeah.
00:02:12
Speaker 4: I have a lot of cousins in New York, and when I was little, I don't know I was. I love music. There was no musical talent in my family. We listened to a lot of albums and I was at my cousin's bar Mitzvah in New York where it was like, you know, a big deal. They had the bar Mitzvah band, and I turned to my mom and I said, can I sing with the band? And she's like, I don't know, can you sing? You know, which is just funny, Like I don't know why I thought the audacity of me. And I just learned this year that my dad actually bullied the bar Mitzvah band and said, my daughter wants to sing. Let her sing, because they I think they said no, but nobody told me that. And yeah, my dad said she wants to sing. Let her sing. This is something she wants to do. So I don't get to thank my dad for it now he's past, but I'm letting him know that that was a beautiful thing to do for me. And I sang Barber streisand the way we were, which is very inappropriate for a seven year old to sing about like a divorce breakup in the seventies, but that's what we used to listen to at home. So I sang that and Uncle Morris cried, Oh Wowmars cried, and then I had to sing that song at every barmits VN wedding up until I was a teenager and could say, listen, I can't do this anymore.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: Do you ever listen to that now? And reminisce like, is there any songs from your childhood that you listen to that you just love and makes you feel like warm and cozy?
00:03:49
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:03:49
Speaker 4: I mean I am a crazy song quiz fin. I don't know if you know this game where you like, I want to they play you like a part of a song and then you have to guess the artist and the song. And I cannot get enough of the seventies. I can sing every little every lyric from every song I know, every artist I know, like stupid trivia about it. So no, it warms my heart. And yeah, there's lots of albums from my childhood, like like Hair, the album Hair I used to like. You know, I'm sure that had a big influence on me listening to that or you know, it's funny. I listened to Neil Diamond live like whatever my parents had. Also ROBERTA. Flack, which was a huge one, which is first time ever I saw your face. That just kills me. Even talking about that song brings tears to my eyes.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: Oh that is such an intense, beautiful song. It's amazing speaking of hair. I was going to ask you about this. I'm sort of jumping around a little bit. Ye, I was going to ask you. So in the Teachers of Peaches documentary, a lot of the costumes for the review of Peaches that you were doing and going back through that album and bringing that back to the stage, a lot of hair, a lot of costumes with hair, like what's the hair about?
00:05:19
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:05:20
Speaker 4: Well, hair was very important to me as a symbol of understanding what beauty is when I was first starting Peaches, Like, why is it that if I don't shave my pubic hairs, I am dirty or gross, but only because I'm female identified. But if I grow the hair on top of my headlong, I am beautiful. Or if I have long eyelashes, I am a symbol of beauty. But if I shave my eyebrows then I'm weird. If I don't shave my legs or my armpit hairs, then again that is unacceptable. So it's just hair, and we all have it, and there are different standards for different constructs of gender. So it was me exploring that idea, and so I started with the little hot pants and the pubic hair, and I met Charlie Lymondo, who is a hairstylist who started when he was twelve. His uncle taught him how to do hair and he's done hair for everybody, every celebrity, every fashion show, you know, through the years. And he showed up in Berlin when I was when he was seventeen and said, I'm your addresser. Now he's French, I'm your addresser and just started doing my hair and cutting hair in dark rooms, literally in dark rooms in Berlin. And then he turned into.
00:06:56
Speaker 2: Hair like intentionally dark.
00:06:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, like sex dark rooms that were dark.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
00:07:03
Speaker 4: And the first time he dyed my hair was during a DJ set where he hid anunder the DJ set and with bleach and a blow dryer and a bottle of and like a bottle of water and a bowl and he's like, hey, just come down, come up. And at one point I disappeared in the DJ set and came up with with blonde hair from and.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Put on a nine minute song and you're like exactly, and people thought it was mad or where would I go?
00:07:32
Speaker 4: And when it came back and the people who were you know, a little too high or drunk, they were like, wow, like did you have blonde hair before it was really kind of exciting, and we started to do like performative things, and Charlie and I have collaborated a lot, and he makes hair fashion. He's also you know, moving into that. So some of those, all those outfits were made by Charlie and so they're quite amazing and so we use them.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then that's carried over into the new project. It seems like I saw the newer photos on your in there's more hair. There's hair showing up in different places.
00:08:13
Speaker 4: There's hair. Yes, definitely, the theme you know that was hair. My themes have also been a lot you know, imagery of like the absurdity of our bodies and how we are shameful of them, and also making the ridiculous fun and question to like raise questions. So I had which Charlie also made a multi multi breast bathing suit, or like all Dick costumes, there's like a vagina head that I wear, or my dancers turn into huge vaginas. And this time around the theme is get Ready prolapse. Prolapse is like when it all just kind of blurts out. It's it's kind of like dropping gravity. So yeah, and also like growing, vulging, you know, festering, and so that's kind of I think it feel like where we're at understanding our bodies and understanding the world.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're yeah, so yeah, prolapse.
00:09:19
Speaker 3: So then that leads right into hanging Titties hang exactly. So tell me about Hanging Titties? Why is that the first song? And also when you're when you're sequencing an album, do you think of it sort of as like creating an arc? Or how do you put the songs together? Is it just what sounds good coming after another, like thinking like a DJ? Or how how does the sequencing work for you?
00:09:45
Speaker 4: It's all of that. It's definitely you know, you want to think thematically and you definitely want an arc, or I do because I I think of it as an album. Yeah, so you do think about an arc, but you also have to make sure that the songs work together, and the same with when you're making a live show, which won't be the same kind of order because you listen differently than when you experience it live, I believe. Yeah, So I thought it was just such a strong statement. I don't know, can you say anything on this podcast? I guess so I don't know, so, I mean, I just thought it was so strong to just own the hanging titties as cunt, you know, like older than you looking so cunt. Oh look at you, all of my cunt thirsty much. My hanging titties hit like the punch, like, you know, because everybody's always like my teenies and I defy gravity and they're cute and you love them, and you know, which is great and that when you're that age and you have them, you should own it. So I'm owning what I have and I'm representing my age and owning it and you're loving it.
00:10:51
Speaker 3: How does it feel now that your body's changing and you're on stage and so much of you is revealed?
00:11:00
Speaker 2: At times?
00:11:01
Speaker 4: I think it's even more important. And that's that's I think by virtue of me being like that, that's that's strong.
00:11:09
Speaker 3: Does is there any apprehension like, oh fuck, like I have to get on stage like my body's changing.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: No, this is me, this is my this is also my reckoning, this is also my manifestation, like and come on, I'm not old.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: I'm not that old.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: I'm just and I'm also saying like come on, I'm not that old, like Also, we're living longer, you know, people are living till one hundred. You no longer have to think about your life in thirds, right, I think about it, I guess in thirds, and now you think of it in quarters. And also if you think about when you were young and your parents or your grandparents, what they what they experience as being that age, and it was it was a little it was different. They understood things different, they went through different things. They didn't have this pop culture experience that we do now and continue to have and find joy in. So you know, it's more like the kids, the parents and the grandparents are like, let's go, let's go, Like we understand coming together in physical spaces more than the younger generations do.
00:12:19
Speaker 3: So I read that you have been exploring yourself more deeply in recent years, and I'm just curious what that means and how or if that connects to the new album at all.
00:12:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess exploring myself deeper sounds kind of elusive, but I guess what it means is, you know, at the age I'm at, there's a recogning that happening happens. This is a reckoning that's happening in terms of like, I feel like the work I have done has been very performative and very outward and very direct obviously, and I realize that a lot of them are manifestations. They're not always completely this is how I am, and we're never this is how I am. You know, they are manifestations. There are ways to help us come into these beings, and as we do, there's also voices behind, or little things behind, saying like what is the deeper meaning of that? Or what is what is your feeling? Even though you're doing those manifestations and putting them out in the world and performing them and discussing with a community and that helps also motivate themselves and mobilized people together and all those things, there's still things inside yourself that you need to reckon with. So that's where I think the exploration is showing up in the album. So there's still obviously me advocating and finding creative and humorous and entertainment ways and camp ways of dealing with the world around us, but I'm also dealing with myself.
00:14:29
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more from Peaches after the break.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: I know that you've been super busy.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: This is I think it's like your first full length album in ten years, but you've been doing a bunch of other stuff in the meantime. Yeah, why now, like, why did you decide to do the album now? Was it something that you always knew you wanted to do another album, or did it sort of just come together organically.
00:15:00
Speaker 4: I did want to do another album. I did a teaches of Peach's twenty year anniversary tour actually twenty two years after because of COVID, so we had to delay it a little bit, but it again, you know, and I also was still playing live a lot. And I understand that I have a huge body of work and a legacy and a point of view, and that I could be a sort of review of myself, you know, just take the body of work and keep doing it. But I just thought, after all the projects I've been doing, let's go back to music, and let's let's get out there with new material and fresh, fresh takes on what is going on with me where I'm at now, and also with the world, with the world and where it's at, and you know, it's very important to express these new ideas and also hearing people and coming together, you know, physically coming together and also getting out here and talking to you everybody, and you know, because you put out a new album, then it does put a resurgence into people wanting to talk to me and interview me and and and it helps expand my platform and help mobilize. I'm really using that word mobilize a lot. But that's that's what I really feel like. That's the motivating factor right now.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: What's your favorite part of this process?
00:16:35
Speaker 3: Do you enjoy the creative part, the performative part, the marketing part. There's so many different hats you have to wear when you're out creating and then promoting a project.
00:16:47
Speaker 4: I always get stressed out doing press. I think I'm always like, no, I don't want to do it, And then when I actually do it, it helps me understand everything that's going on, and I really I get to where people are at and it's actually really great, but I'm so begrudgingly like, But then when I get there, I'm so excited about it. Yes, and so I do enjoy that. That is a big learning for me. And but my love is on the stage. I love the stage. I'm a show gulf.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: Do you feel like when you start a show that you have to like get the crowd comfortable or get people to sort of like jump start their fun. Is that sort of like a pressurized thing for you? Or how do you sort of like ease them into it or get them excited?
00:17:40
Speaker 4: I feel like they're so damn excited or any Yeah, so I just can and they're like, which way is she going to do the show? Is it going to be through silence? Is going to be a big dance? Like There's so many ways I have presented shows, and I feel like they're all effective in different ways. You know.
00:17:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you were coming up and figuring out who you were going to be on stage, at what point did you really figure out how to work the crowd?
00:18:08
Speaker 2: And when did you feel like, Okay, I have this power?
00:18:14
Speaker 4: That is a very good question. I feel like it evolved when I saw how people were reacting to me and how I was not interested in just you know, I wanted to be connected to people. I wanted to be in their face. I wanted to be a performer. I wanted to be in the moment. So I would just keep trying things. Yeah, I would just the more I would go and then I would go like, oh now let me try another little costume. Or let me do a costume change, or people would actually give me things like costumes and I'd be like, oh, I could use that, or let me try that out. So it's also like really came from from people responding to what I was doing in real time or through through gifts or being inspired to give me things by what I was doing.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: And I'm also curious about the evolution and how you came to Peaches. So you started as a bot mitzvah singer, that was your debut, and then talk a little bit about the different you know, genres or different type of styles you tried and how you got to Peaches because Peaches didn't happen till you were in your thirties.
00:19:35
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Yeah, So I started as a bar mitzvah singer. I loved singing. There was no real outlet, you know. I could play the recorder in music class, but I never thought it could really be a musician, because I thought you needed to have like people in your family playing music, or that you needed training or all these things. Like I said, we spent a lot of time in New York. I saw a few Broadway plays. There was a lot of weird, amazing musicals on late night TV in Toronto, and I what I came too is that I wanted to be a theater director, so that was more of my focus in theater. But it always centered around music, so I never really realized that it was like music that was driving it. There was something about theaters that didn't have this immediacy that I wanted. But I ended up going to theater directing school for university for first year and then said I wanted to do cool musicals to people, and other directors would scoff at me, they'd laugh at me. They'd say, we are doing ibs in here, we are doing checkof so nobody really took it seriously. I thought it wasn't so serious. I thought it was going to be a really cool way. But I dropped out of the program and I just started to take other arts and understand where I was at. And I needed a job and I worked at a daycare and I was playing acoustic guitar and realized that these kids are very bored and the teachers are bored, and I started to develop sort of theater games and music where these young kids could relate to and role play, but really learn and process and not have to like like stand in front of their parents in it too too and say a line like I'm pretty you know. So it wasn't about the parents. Weren't allowed, they weren't even invited to this conversation. It was just about the kids. And every week they would like develop these things and it was an amazing program. I worked at the YMCA and then head a YMCA recognize what I was doing. I started working around the holes all the YMCAs in Toronto and then private schools because I wasn't a teacher. And while I was learning acoustic guitar, I had an ex girlfriend who also played acoustic guitar, and we were writing songs and we got a gig together at a small pub and it went well, and so we played every week and another friend joint, so we became a trio Mermaide Cafe and we would be singing folks songs, mostly breakup songs, singing harmonies about breaking up with each other, which was funny.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: But were they original songs?
00:22:24
Speaker 4: All original songs. The name Mermaid Cafe came from Joni Mitchell's song Kerry. That was the only song we covered, I think yeah, And they were all originals. And so I was teaching during the day and you know, learning that I was a musician. At night, we would practice three I wasn't I was one of the writers, but I wasn't like the main, main writer, you know. But we would all write songs and perform them that week. And then after a year of that, I was like, I don't want to I think I want to explore more than being an acoustic musician. And I started playing electric guitar and I had more posts kind of indie rock, trying that out, and it didn't really resonate with people. I mean, I learned lot, and then I had this epiphany jam with a friend who was in another band. She was kind of dissatisfied with that band, and I wanted to start ah girl band. Yeah, that's gonna be the way, and she said, well, I have a crush on this guy. And my neighbor, who also is a musician, has some space in their basement and we could jam there. And so I went begrudgingly again like guys rare, but I didn't say a word to them. I was really like, I brought my electric guitar and I was like, we're gonna jam, and we smoked a big, huge joint and then we started playing and everybody just started yelling anything like sexual and profane things, and it was really exciting. And then someone out people yeah, someone yelled switch and we switched instruments. I had never played drums before, and all of a sudden, I was playing drums, switched again, and I was on like a synthesizer, which I always at that point thought was anna cool because I was like, punk is a synthesize, And then I was like, whoaa, synthesizer. You could play one note and then like filter it and do things, and I was like amazed by it and amazed by the whole experience. And the four of us got together after and we said, we're the shit. This is the shit. So we called ourselves the shit, and we said, let's rename ourselves. And I said, I want to be Peaches because there's a Nina Simone's song Struggle about four women's and there is in no way that I thought the struggle was my struggle. But the way she said at the end of the song about the fourth women, they call me Peaches, it was so passionately said that I was like, I want her to be saying that to me, and there's no way she's going to be saying they call me Meryl. So I changed my name to Peaches, and you know, we would play and we really resonated with people, and we resonated with ourselves. But after a year people moved on. But I really wanted to continue this, and people moved away. So I got a machine. I went into a music shop and I saw this machine on display and it was called the Rolling Groovebox five ah five and you could program things and this is but I didn't have a home computer. Nobody did. This is like nineteen ninety eight. And I was like, oh, this is cool. This could be my drummer, and this could be my bass player, and this could be my synth player and blah blah everything. So I took it home and started to play around with it and use the principles of what we were talking about in the shit, and also think about how I wanted this like rock energy like Stooges energy, punk energy, but craft worky sounds or you know, make this instrument a punk instrument, and also be very direct. And I was questioning about who's allowed to say what sexually. I think we talked about that at the beginning, So I was like, and why is it that, you know, remember it's nineteen ninety eight. Why is rock people? Why do rock people hate dance music? And why do dance people hate rock music? And how can I put them together? And how can I have my take in my perspective without a male case?
00:26:34
Speaker 3: What was happening in popular music at that time? Like, I feel like that is sort of like.
00:26:39
Speaker 4: Brittany Britney Spears, was Happenings's child maybe des Child, Yeah, maybe a little yeah, And I.
00:26:48
Speaker 3: Think like Lilith Fair was sort of like happening. I think that ended in ninety nine. Was any of that? Were you like listening to any of what was happening in in pop mainstream music or were you just in your own kind of like indie punk land in that anything that Were you referencing that at all?
00:27:08
Speaker 4: No? Not really, No, I wasn't really referencing that. I was referencing more like punk, the the epic noess of rock, but from my machismo, you know, And the I was I was listening to more like Missy Elliott and Little Kim was was a big one for me too. And uh, the miseducation of Lorne Hill and you know, and in the mid nineties, I was I was like moving away from you know, all my older influences to like, you know, Sonic Youth and all these like indie post punk indie bands.
00:27:55
Speaker 2: Cool.
00:27:56
Speaker 3: So were you actively trying to be different from things or was that not even a factor?
00:28:03
Speaker 4: I was just trying to like put it all together. I didn't have, you know, Also, this machine, I didn't really know a lot about it. You know, my first beats were all one twenty bpm because I didn't know how to change the bpm. You know, things like that.
00:28:17
Speaker 3: There's no like YouTube tutorials back then, like you like literally about two thousand and six, right, you had to learn it on your own, Yeah.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: Which is super cool.
00:28:26
Speaker 3: Didn't you teach Mia how to use a drum machine?
00:28:30
Speaker 4: Well? One of my first tours was opening for Alastica. Do you remember that was also big? Alaska was big, and PJ. Harvey was big for me too, in like ninety five. Yeah, and Justine had heard a single of mine, Lover Tits and asked me to come on tour, and may m Ia was more interested in being like a documentary and art filmmaker and she was doing a documentary on her father as a Tamil Tiger and also very good friends with Justine and documenting the last tour of Elastica together. And we met there and she was fascinated because she came from a huge hip hop culture and loved music but never thought about making music and then saw the machine and thought, wow, what is that? And I was like, it's easy, you should do it. And her and Justine, I think they worked together and she got one and yeah, really served it. Oh, really served her well.
00:29:38
Speaker 1: Nas Break will be back with Leah Rose and Peaches.
00:29:45
Speaker 3: I wish that more people had the opportunity or I had that approach like, oh it's easy, you can do it, cause it does seem so intimidating.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it can be difficult and it can be complicated, but you have to find the way that it works for you.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:30:00
Speaker 3: I want to ask you about Fatherfucker. So Fatherfucker turned twenty two last year. First of all, do you ever listen back to albums in full?
00:30:13
Speaker 4: Not so often, but I did listen back to you know sometimes like when we when you finish the album, then you're like, how does it how does it sound like with the other albums are But yeah, there are certain songs in Fatherfuckers that I think I overlooked that I really like. Oh like what the Inch I think is a really cool song. I always love Tombstone. I think it's really really cool. Then there's all the like you know, the more known ones to me anyway, like kick It or Operates?
00:30:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, which one of your albums is your favorite?
00:30:52
Speaker 4: They're all my babies. But I do I feel like Fatherfucker has a has a very strong place in my heart because you know, Teachers and Peaches was so well received and so powerful for in music circles, but Fatherfucker was They were like, this is a failure. What is Peach is doing? But in terms of like community and cultural cultural relevance and understanding queerness more going really hardcore into the queer aspect of my work, it's such a win. And so many people from those communities tell me what Fatherfucker meant to them. Yeah, so I'm really proud of that.
00:31:39
Speaker 3: Do the things that people say to you when someone comes up to you and tells you how meaningful your work is to them, does that change at all the way that you approach other artists. Like, let's say you met Anne Wilson from Heart and you wanted to tell you wanted to just gush about one of her songs. But having the experience of having so many people tell you, you know, like how impactful your work is to them, Like, does that change how you talk to others?
00:32:09
Speaker 4: Just become a blubbering fan. There's nothing you can do about it. You're just like yeah, and you're like, but you don't understand. I mean, I see I'm teaching. Maybe you don't know who I am. It doesn't matter. You're just a blubbering fan and you love them and hopefully they will take mercy on you.
00:32:27
Speaker 3: Have you had any what felt like awkward experiences with people that you've met where you just turned into a blubbering fan.
00:32:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I've also had awkward experiences where just they're just like, okay, whatever.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, who just working.
00:32:43
Speaker 3: I know you've worked with Iggy Pop and he was a big influence early on.
00:32:47
Speaker 2: How is that experience?
00:32:49
Speaker 4: It was amazing because he's so spontaneous. He was also like when we were in the studio, He's like, if I don't get it, I'm not gonna do it. Okay, So let's just try it. You know, he's just he wants to give, he wants to share with, you know, generations that also relate and love what he does. But he's also going to be real. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I'm glad it worked.
00:33:14
Speaker 2: So if he didn't get the track, if he didn't get the.
00:33:17
Speaker 4: Or didn't feel the tribe, yeah.
00:33:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, ooh, that's kind of like feels pressurized. Oh I hope he likes it.
00:33:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, but also he's being real and I appreciate you.
00:33:26
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: So okay, So once you had Peaches established and you were on that journey, looking back, like, how has Peaches evolved and what do you like with the new album?
00:33:42
Speaker 2: Are you filling in holes? Are you?
00:33:45
Speaker 4: I'm a woman in control of all my holes? That's one of the other lines I love on this album. So I am filling in those holes. The holes are filled, the holes are filed. I guess the evolution is just to like bring Peaches, which is not difficult into twenty twenty six. Part of the conversation that started back in two thousand and continued on with the last album being two thousand and fifteen and not just bringing it into now. And I really feel like it has that feeling. And I think the production is incredible.
00:34:26
Speaker 2: And the production is incredible.
00:34:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that it's really good. Yeah, So I'm I'm super happy. I had a spirit helped me produce this album named Scort Deluxe.
00:34:39
Speaker 2: I had.
00:34:41
Speaker 4: And Yang, this amazing mixer in Berlin. She did all the mixing used had amazing choices also, and have a country you know as a master who is the master of the masters. So it was a great team.
00:35:02
Speaker 3: How do you get into the mood to record since you're making sort of like sometimes atbeat or more maybe party music, Like can you just roll into the studio at any time of day and get into that headspace or do you have to do like do you have to have a drink?
00:35:17
Speaker 2: Do you have to smoke?
00:35:18
Speaker 4: Like?
00:35:18
Speaker 2: How do you get into that space?
00:35:21
Speaker 4: There's no there's no rhyme or reason. You just have to get into it. You just have to get in. I used to smug a lot of weed in there, and now I don't know, I just kind of it wasn't easy. There was a you know, that's a you know, also when you have so much material and some and you want to make it fresh, but you also are really uh, you know, your concerns are still a concern. You know, it's not it's not easy, so just keep trying. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm very fortunate that me and my partner we built a studio. Well they built the studio, but we have a studio in our basement. So and it's soundproof.
00:36:05
Speaker 2: Wuief.
00:36:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, so now it's sound proof and ready to go.
00:36:10
Speaker 2: Nice.
00:36:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:11
Speaker 3: I saw that in the Teachers of Peaches documentary You in the space?
00:36:15
Speaker 2: Did you end up building this studio in that same space?
00:36:17
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:36:18
Speaker 2: Wow? Yeah, that's super cool.
00:36:21
Speaker 3: So okay, so you don't you don't have to be in a specific mode to record it, just sort of when it happens, it happens.
00:36:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:31
Speaker 4: I'm also not super spontaneous. I know it sounds like party music, but there's a lot of thought and agony that comes into it.
00:36:39
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, are there any specific sessions you remember where maybe something interesting happened, Maybe this song wasn't sort of working and then one thing changed and all of a sudden something clicked.
00:36:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, anything you remember.
00:36:57
Speaker 4: I just know that not in your mouth none of your business, which if you've seen the documentary, comes from my partner's line about not in your mouth, none of your business. Just that I was that just came spontaneously, like that just rolled right out of my mouth because it was just like I need to say this now. So that was cool because we didn't even know we would have that song.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: Very cool. What is your favorite track on the album?
00:37:26
Speaker 4: If you have one, They're all my babies, They're all my babies. I mean I I I guess right now it is Hanging Titties because it's its high energy. Yeah, do you have a favorite track.
00:37:38
Speaker 3: Or I like hanging Titties and I like.
00:37:44
Speaker 2: Fuck, how you want to fuck a lot?
00:37:46
Speaker 4: Great? I love that song too.
00:37:47
Speaker 2: I love that And then I love the last song on the album.
00:37:50
Speaker 4: Be Love Beautiful.
00:37:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, tell me about that one. How did that come about?
00:37:56
Speaker 4: Be Love is just like like we were talking about how an album has an arc, and be Love is like, hey, in the end, we really just have to be love and we have to come from a place of love. And that is really the song that most reck with myself because there's a lot of like discon you know, talking about my being disconnected or feeling anxiety and things like that, but also like just have to push through for love, not be loved, but give love.
00:38:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you do to sort of make yourself feel better? Like what are your little self care things or what do you do to sort of comfort yourself when you're not feeling good.
00:38:39
Speaker 4: That's something I still have to work on. I feel like I have a hard time letting go, you know, of those feelings. So I have to learn to like sit with them and really just feel what they are. But I don't have a go to thing. Do you.
00:38:58
Speaker 3: Probably getting like super cozy in bed with tons of blankets.
00:39:01
Speaker 4: Oh that's Cute's that's nice.
00:39:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love being cozy. That's a big thing for me. And then being outside going on walks. It's so great for that breathing air, sunshine, weating.
00:39:17
Speaker 2: Weating, I like weading.
00:39:19
Speaker 4: I do a different weating, but yes, but I also like singing for me if I just like sing out?
00:39:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what kind of songs do you like to sing?
00:39:29
Speaker 4: Oh? Power ballads? Eighty power ballads? Yeah, like some old heart Oh my god? Yes, what don't they want someone? A terrible Yeah, that's amazing, She's so amazing, So amazing. I want to see that documentary about Anne Wilson.
00:39:49
Speaker 2: Yes, they're so great.
00:39:52
Speaker 3: No, they have a they have an audio book that's really interesting.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: They have a great story.
00:39:58
Speaker 4: Oh I know they probably have like wild music music industry stories.
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Too, totally.
00:40:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:40:08
Speaker 2: In their early careers started in Canada.
00:40:10
Speaker 4: It did Mushroom Records on the West coast because they are the seventies and I know weird trivia about those.
00:40:18
Speaker 2: We need to start a weird trivia show. We're trivia with Peaches. Let's go. I would listen to that.
00:40:24
Speaker 4: It's not really very weird, right, Well.
00:40:28
Speaker 2: You got to get the people to listen, so say weird. Okay, weird?
00:40:31
Speaker 4: Weird is it?
00:40:31
Speaker 2: I'll bring them in Okay, okay, So I will let you go soon.
00:40:37
Speaker 3: Is there anything about the album that you want to talk about, like anything that I didn't specifically ask you about, or anything you want to say about the album?
00:40:46
Speaker 4: So I was writing it was literally writing down what about love? Because I'm constructing.
00:40:50
Speaker 3: My karaoke list constantly that that's a hard song to sing.
00:40:56
Speaker 4: Oh No, I wouldn't never, I've got it, I got you done that. I don't want to blow at your mic right now?
00:41:04
Speaker 3: What are your favorite power ballads? Like, what comes to mind when you think power ballads?
00:41:09
Speaker 4: Well, now that one for sure. It's I Love more T It's U Laura Brannigan. She also did Oh that Night, It is My World. I love I love singing her any Pat Benatar song is amazing. My go to is Weathering Heights Kate Bush Nice I love. There's so many. I just love awesome. Yeah, they're really for the teachers of Peach's anniversary. Dour I did a twenty minute or twelve to twenty minute version of It's All Coming Back to Me Celine Dion with starts and stops and new lyrics and things like that. So that was also hard to say. That was very voice expanding. Also, Private Dancer is a big one for me.
00:42:05
Speaker 2: Oh so good. Yeah, I love that video.
00:42:10
Speaker 4: Private Dancer written by Mark Knopfler from from What's the name of it now? I don't remember the name Brothers in Arms. Someone out there was saying the name of the band is uh, you know? They also did they did the MTV theme, did they we Got the stormuck? Whatever of you know?
00:42:28
Speaker 2: That's oh Dire Straight Dire Straights.
00:42:30
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I had it like a brain freeze.
00:42:33
Speaker 2: That song was the ship. That video was on MTV all the time.
00:42:36
Speaker 4: Well because it wasn't I want min Yeah. So the singer from that band and the writer Mark Knopfler wrote Private Dancer, Wow, which is strange.
00:42:47
Speaker 2: Look at him. Yeah, that is weird.
00:42:51
Speaker 3: So is there anything else about the album that you want to touch on or talk about about the creation of the album or.
00:42:59
Speaker 4: I'm just super excited about it and I love it and I'm glad you mentioned the song fuck How You Wanna Fuck? I think it has some really good stings and powerful messages in there, and i just want to get it out there, and I'm excited for the tour. It starts February twentieth in the States, and uh yeah, it's gonna be great.
00:43:25
Speaker 2: Okay, this is last question.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: If you were to put together like an essential Peaches playlist, what would be on it?
00:43:33
Speaker 4: Oh? I mean I would I mean I would put on of course, you put on fuck the Paint Away, you'd put it boys want to be Here? You put on to Operate. I would put on Tombstone or put shake your dicks dick in the air, rub is big for me. I'd also put on Free drink ticket. Uh what, there's like, so many songs to put on it.
00:44:05
Speaker 2: This is hard hanging titties.
00:44:07
Speaker 4: Hanging titties. I wasn't even give no lub so rude. Fuck how you want to fuck? I'm gonna just start naming every single song I wrote. So I don't really know what to do about this.
00:44:19
Speaker 2: That works.
00:44:19
Speaker 3: Thank you Peaches so much for thank you talking. Thanks listen, Yeah, have fun on tour.
00:44:24
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thanks yay by.
00:44:29
Speaker 1: In the episode description, you'll find a link to a playlist featuring Peach's latest album, No Lubes So Rude, as well as a mix of her past releases. Be sure to check out YouTube dot com slash Broken Record podcast to see all of our video interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record pot. You can follow us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tomaday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look for push Can Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions and if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app Our theme musics by Kenny Beats Justin Richmond
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Peaches has spent more than two decades pushing boundaries and electronic music and performance art, inspiring the look and sound of edgy pop artists like Lady Gaga and Grimes. But long before she was known for her outrageous stage shows, Peaches got her start as part of a folk trio in Toronto. It was in the mid nineties, after discovering she could become a one woman band with her rolling drum machine, that Peaches began developing a provocative new persona. In two thousands, she moved to Berlin and released The Teaches of Peaches, featuring the song Fuck the Pain Away. The track has been cited by Tom York as an inspiration while making Radioheads in Rainbows, and has appeared in countless movies and TV shows, including South Park, Gloss in Translation in The Handmaid's Tale. Peaches has spent the last several years creating works for stage and screen, including serving as a subject for two recent documentaries. Now, after more than a decade, she's returning with No Lube So Rude, her first album in over ten years, recorded in Berlin with producer The Squirt Deluxe. On today's episode, Lea Rose talks to Peach is about making No Lubes so rude, and how the album addresses identity, bodily autonomy and offers an antidote for all the friction in the world. Peaches also discusses how she recently discovered her dad pleaded with the bar Mitzvah band to give her her first shot performing live on stage, and she shares her deep love of seventies rock and roll trivia. This is Broken Record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's Leah roodse with Peaches. Head over to YouTube dot com slash Broken Record podcast to see the full video interview.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: It's so funny.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: I was just watching different video interviews and reading old interviews and stuff, and I read about your first ever experience with the stage and you actually started as a wedding singer.
00:02:06
Speaker 4: I started as about Mitzvah, bar Mitzvah singer.
00:02:09
Speaker 2: Yes, no, yeah.
00:02:12
Speaker 4: I have a lot of cousins in New York, and when I was little, I don't know I was. I love music. There was no musical talent in my family. We listened to a lot of albums and I was at my cousin's bar Mitzvah in New York where it was like, you know, a big deal. They had the bar Mitzvah band, and I turned to my mom and I said, can I sing with the band? And she's like, I don't know, can you sing? You know, which is just funny, Like I don't know why I thought the audacity of me. And I just learned this year that my dad actually bullied the bar Mitzvah band and said, my daughter wants to sing. Let her sing, because they I think they said no, but nobody told me that. And yeah, my dad said she wants to sing. Let her sing. This is something she wants to do. So I don't get to thank my dad for it now he's past, but I'm letting him know that that was a beautiful thing to do for me. And I sang Barber streisand the way we were, which is very inappropriate for a seven year old to sing about like a divorce breakup in the seventies, but that's what we used to listen to at home. So I sang that and Uncle Morris cried, Oh Wowmars cried, and then I had to sing that song at every barmits VN wedding up until I was a teenager and could say, listen, I can't do this anymore.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: Do you ever listen to that now? And reminisce like, is there any songs from your childhood that you listen to that you just love and makes you feel like warm and cozy?
00:03:49
Speaker 2: Yeah?
00:03:49
Speaker 4: I mean I am a crazy song quiz fin. I don't know if you know this game where you like, I want to they play you like a part of a song and then you have to guess the artist and the song. And I cannot get enough of the seventies. I can sing every little every lyric from every song I know, every artist I know, like stupid trivia about it. So no, it warms my heart. And yeah, there's lots of albums from my childhood, like like Hair, the album Hair I used to like. You know, I'm sure that had a big influence on me listening to that or you know, it's funny. I listened to Neil Diamond live like whatever my parents had. Also ROBERTA. Flack, which was a huge one, which is first time ever I saw your face. That just kills me. Even talking about that song brings tears to my eyes.
00:04:46
Speaker 3: Oh that is such an intense, beautiful song. It's amazing speaking of hair. I was going to ask you about this. I'm sort of jumping around a little bit. Ye, I was going to ask you. So in the Teachers of Peaches documentary, a lot of the costumes for the review of Peaches that you were doing and going back through that album and bringing that back to the stage, a lot of hair, a lot of costumes with hair, like what's the hair about?
00:05:19
Speaker 2: Okay?
00:05:20
Speaker 4: Well, hair was very important to me as a symbol of understanding what beauty is when I was first starting Peaches, Like, why is it that if I don't shave my pubic hairs, I am dirty or gross, but only because I'm female identified. But if I grow the hair on top of my headlong, I am beautiful. Or if I have long eyelashes, I am a symbol of beauty. But if I shave my eyebrows then I'm weird. If I don't shave my legs or my armpit hairs, then again that is unacceptable. So it's just hair, and we all have it, and there are different standards for different constructs of gender. So it was me exploring that idea, and so I started with the little hot pants and the pubic hair, and I met Charlie Lymondo, who is a hairstylist who started when he was twelve. His uncle taught him how to do hair and he's done hair for everybody, every celebrity, every fashion show, you know, through the years. And he showed up in Berlin when I was when he was seventeen and said, I'm your addresser. Now he's French, I'm your addresser and just started doing my hair and cutting hair in dark rooms, literally in dark rooms in Berlin. And then he turned into.
00:06:56
Speaker 2: Hair like intentionally dark.
00:06:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, like sex dark rooms that were dark.
00:07:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
00:07:03
Speaker 4: And the first time he dyed my hair was during a DJ set where he hid anunder the DJ set and with bleach and a blow dryer and a bottle of and like a bottle of water and a bowl and he's like, hey, just come down, come up. And at one point I disappeared in the DJ set and came up with with blonde hair from and.
00:07:27
Speaker 3: Put on a nine minute song and you're like exactly, and people thought it was mad or where would I go?
00:07:32
Speaker 4: And when it came back and the people who were you know, a little too high or drunk, they were like, wow, like did you have blonde hair before it was really kind of exciting, and we started to do like performative things, and Charlie and I have collaborated a lot, and he makes hair fashion. He's also you know, moving into that. So some of those, all those outfits were made by Charlie and so they're quite amazing and so we use them.
00:08:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then that's carried over into the new project. It seems like I saw the newer photos on your in there's more hair. There's hair showing up in different places.
00:08:13
Speaker 4: There's hair. Yes, definitely, the theme you know that was hair. My themes have also been a lot you know, imagery of like the absurdity of our bodies and how we are shameful of them, and also making the ridiculous fun and question to like raise questions. So I had which Charlie also made a multi multi breast bathing suit, or like all Dick costumes, there's like a vagina head that I wear, or my dancers turn into huge vaginas. And this time around the theme is get Ready prolapse. Prolapse is like when it all just kind of blurts out. It's it's kind of like dropping gravity. So yeah, and also like growing, vulging, you know, festering, and so that's kind of I think it feel like where we're at understanding our bodies and understanding the world.
00:09:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're yeah, so yeah, prolapse.
00:09:19
Speaker 3: So then that leads right into hanging Titties hang exactly. So tell me about Hanging Titties? Why is that the first song? And also when you're when you're sequencing an album, do you think of it sort of as like creating an arc? Or how do you put the songs together? Is it just what sounds good coming after another, like thinking like a DJ? Or how how does the sequencing work for you?
00:09:45
Speaker 4: It's all of that. It's definitely you know, you want to think thematically and you definitely want an arc, or I do because I I think of it as an album. Yeah, so you do think about an arc, but you also have to make sure that the songs work together, and the same with when you're making a live show, which won't be the same kind of order because you listen differently than when you experience it live, I believe. Yeah, So I thought it was just such a strong statement. I don't know, can you say anything on this podcast? I guess so I don't know, so, I mean, I just thought it was so strong to just own the hanging titties as cunt, you know, like older than you looking so cunt. Oh look at you, all of my cunt thirsty much. My hanging titties hit like the punch, like, you know, because everybody's always like my teenies and I defy gravity and they're cute and you love them, and you know, which is great and that when you're that age and you have them, you should own it. So I'm owning what I have and I'm representing my age and owning it and you're loving it.
00:10:51
Speaker 3: How does it feel now that your body's changing and you're on stage and so much of you is revealed?
00:11:00
Speaker 2: At times?
00:11:01
Speaker 4: I think it's even more important. And that's that's I think by virtue of me being like that, that's that's strong.
00:11:09
Speaker 3: Does is there any apprehension like, oh fuck, like I have to get on stage like my body's changing.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: No, this is me, this is my this is also my reckoning, this is also my manifestation, like and come on, I'm not old.
00:11:23
Speaker 2: I'm not that old.
00:11:25
Speaker 4: I'm just and I'm also saying like come on, I'm not that old, like Also, we're living longer, you know, people are living till one hundred. You no longer have to think about your life in thirds, right, I think about it, I guess in thirds, and now you think of it in quarters. And also if you think about when you were young and your parents or your grandparents, what they what they experience as being that age, and it was it was a little it was different. They understood things different, they went through different things. They didn't have this pop culture experience that we do now and continue to have and find joy in. So you know, it's more like the kids, the parents and the grandparents are like, let's go, let's go, Like we understand coming together in physical spaces more than the younger generations do.
00:12:19
Speaker 3: So I read that you have been exploring yourself more deeply in recent years, and I'm just curious what that means and how or if that connects to the new album at all.
00:12:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, I guess exploring myself deeper sounds kind of elusive, but I guess what it means is, you know, at the age I'm at, there's a recogning that happening happens. This is a reckoning that's happening in terms of like, I feel like the work I have done has been very performative and very outward and very direct obviously, and I realize that a lot of them are manifestations. They're not always completely this is how I am, and we're never this is how I am. You know, they are manifestations. There are ways to help us come into these beings, and as we do, there's also voices behind, or little things behind, saying like what is the deeper meaning of that? Or what is what is your feeling? Even though you're doing those manifestations and putting them out in the world and performing them and discussing with a community and that helps also motivate themselves and mobilized people together and all those things, there's still things inside yourself that you need to reckon with. So that's where I think the exploration is showing up in the album. So there's still obviously me advocating and finding creative and humorous and entertainment ways and camp ways of dealing with the world around us, but I'm also dealing with myself.
00:14:29
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more from Peaches after the break.
00:14:35
Speaker 2: I know that you've been super busy.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: This is I think it's like your first full length album in ten years, but you've been doing a bunch of other stuff in the meantime. Yeah, why now, like, why did you decide to do the album now? Was it something that you always knew you wanted to do another album, or did it sort of just come together organically.
00:15:00
Speaker 4: I did want to do another album. I did a teaches of Peach's twenty year anniversary tour actually twenty two years after because of COVID, so we had to delay it a little bit, but it again, you know, and I also was still playing live a lot. And I understand that I have a huge body of work and a legacy and a point of view, and that I could be a sort of review of myself, you know, just take the body of work and keep doing it. But I just thought, after all the projects I've been doing, let's go back to music, and let's let's get out there with new material and fresh, fresh takes on what is going on with me where I'm at now, and also with the world, with the world and where it's at, and you know, it's very important to express these new ideas and also hearing people and coming together, you know, physically coming together and also getting out here and talking to you everybody, and you know, because you put out a new album, then it does put a resurgence into people wanting to talk to me and interview me and and and it helps expand my platform and help mobilize. I'm really using that word mobilize a lot. But that's that's what I really feel like. That's the motivating factor right now.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: What's your favorite part of this process?
00:16:35
Speaker 3: Do you enjoy the creative part, the performative part, the marketing part. There's so many different hats you have to wear when you're out creating and then promoting a project.
00:16:47
Speaker 4: I always get stressed out doing press. I think I'm always like, no, I don't want to do it, And then when I actually do it, it helps me understand everything that's going on, and I really I get to where people are at and it's actually really great, but I'm so begrudgingly like, But then when I get there, I'm so excited about it. Yes, and so I do enjoy that. That is a big learning for me. And but my love is on the stage. I love the stage. I'm a show gulf.
00:17:22
Speaker 3: Do you feel like when you start a show that you have to like get the crowd comfortable or get people to sort of like jump start their fun. Is that sort of like a pressurized thing for you? Or how do you sort of like ease them into it or get them excited?
00:17:40
Speaker 4: I feel like they're so damn excited or any Yeah, so I just can and they're like, which way is she going to do the show? Is it going to be through silence? Is going to be a big dance? Like There's so many ways I have presented shows, and I feel like they're all effective in different ways. You know.
00:17:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, as you were coming up and figuring out who you were going to be on stage, at what point did you really figure out how to work the crowd?
00:18:08
Speaker 2: And when did you feel like, Okay, I have this power?
00:18:14
Speaker 4: That is a very good question. I feel like it evolved when I saw how people were reacting to me and how I was not interested in just you know, I wanted to be connected to people. I wanted to be in their face. I wanted to be a performer. I wanted to be in the moment. So I would just keep trying things. Yeah, I would just the more I would go and then I would go like, oh now let me try another little costume. Or let me do a costume change, or people would actually give me things like costumes and I'd be like, oh, I could use that, or let me try that out. So it's also like really came from from people responding to what I was doing in real time or through through gifts or being inspired to give me things by what I was doing.
00:19:12
Speaker 3: And I'm also curious about the evolution and how you came to Peaches. So you started as a bot mitzvah singer, that was your debut, and then talk a little bit about the different you know, genres or different type of styles you tried and how you got to Peaches because Peaches didn't happen till you were in your thirties.
00:19:35
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, Yeah, So I started as a bar mitzvah singer. I loved singing. There was no real outlet, you know. I could play the recorder in music class, but I never thought it could really be a musician, because I thought you needed to have like people in your family playing music, or that you needed training or all these things. Like I said, we spent a lot of time in New York. I saw a few Broadway plays. There was a lot of weird, amazing musicals on late night TV in Toronto, and I what I came too is that I wanted to be a theater director, so that was more of my focus in theater. But it always centered around music, so I never really realized that it was like music that was driving it. There was something about theaters that didn't have this immediacy that I wanted. But I ended up going to theater directing school for university for first year and then said I wanted to do cool musicals to people, and other directors would scoff at me, they'd laugh at me. They'd say, we are doing ibs in here, we are doing checkof so nobody really took it seriously. I thought it wasn't so serious. I thought it was going to be a really cool way. But I dropped out of the program and I just started to take other arts and understand where I was at. And I needed a job and I worked at a daycare and I was playing acoustic guitar and realized that these kids are very bored and the teachers are bored, and I started to develop sort of theater games and music where these young kids could relate to and role play, but really learn and process and not have to like like stand in front of their parents in it too too and say a line like I'm pretty you know. So it wasn't about the parents. Weren't allowed, they weren't even invited to this conversation. It was just about the kids. And every week they would like develop these things and it was an amazing program. I worked at the YMCA and then head a YMCA recognize what I was doing. I started working around the holes all the YMCAs in Toronto and then private schools because I wasn't a teacher. And while I was learning acoustic guitar, I had an ex girlfriend who also played acoustic guitar, and we were writing songs and we got a gig together at a small pub and it went well, and so we played every week and another friend joint, so we became a trio Mermaide Cafe and we would be singing folks songs, mostly breakup songs, singing harmonies about breaking up with each other, which was funny.
00:22:22
Speaker 2: But were they original songs?
00:22:24
Speaker 4: All original songs. The name Mermaid Cafe came from Joni Mitchell's song Kerry. That was the only song we covered, I think yeah, And they were all originals. And so I was teaching during the day and you know, learning that I was a musician. At night, we would practice three I wasn't I was one of the writers, but I wasn't like the main, main writer, you know. But we would all write songs and perform them that week. And then after a year of that, I was like, I don't want to I think I want to explore more than being an acoustic musician. And I started playing electric guitar and I had more posts kind of indie rock, trying that out, and it didn't really resonate with people. I mean, I learned lot, and then I had this epiphany jam with a friend who was in another band. She was kind of dissatisfied with that band, and I wanted to start ah girl band. Yeah, that's gonna be the way, and she said, well, I have a crush on this guy. And my neighbor, who also is a musician, has some space in their basement and we could jam there. And so I went begrudgingly again like guys rare, but I didn't say a word to them. I was really like, I brought my electric guitar and I was like, we're gonna jam, and we smoked a big, huge joint and then we started playing and everybody just started yelling anything like sexual and profane things, and it was really exciting. And then someone out people yeah, someone yelled switch and we switched instruments. I had never played drums before, and all of a sudden, I was playing drums, switched again, and I was on like a synthesizer, which I always at that point thought was anna cool because I was like, punk is a synthesize, And then I was like, whoaa, synthesizer. You could play one note and then like filter it and do things, and I was like amazed by it and amazed by the whole experience. And the four of us got together after and we said, we're the shit. This is the shit. So we called ourselves the shit, and we said, let's rename ourselves. And I said, I want to be Peaches because there's a Nina Simone's song Struggle about four women's and there is in no way that I thought the struggle was my struggle. But the way she said at the end of the song about the fourth women, they call me Peaches, it was so passionately said that I was like, I want her to be saying that to me, and there's no way she's going to be saying they call me Meryl. So I changed my name to Peaches, and you know, we would play and we really resonated with people, and we resonated with ourselves. But after a year people moved on. But I really wanted to continue this, and people moved away. So I got a machine. I went into a music shop and I saw this machine on display and it was called the Rolling Groovebox five ah five and you could program things and this is but I didn't have a home computer. Nobody did. This is like nineteen ninety eight. And I was like, oh, this is cool. This could be my drummer, and this could be my bass player, and this could be my synth player and blah blah everything. So I took it home and started to play around with it and use the principles of what we were talking about in the shit, and also think about how I wanted this like rock energy like Stooges energy, punk energy, but craft worky sounds or you know, make this instrument a punk instrument, and also be very direct. And I was questioning about who's allowed to say what sexually. I think we talked about that at the beginning, So I was like, and why is it that, you know, remember it's nineteen ninety eight. Why is rock people? Why do rock people hate dance music? And why do dance people hate rock music? And how can I put them together? And how can I have my take in my perspective without a male case?
00:26:34
Speaker 3: What was happening in popular music at that time? Like, I feel like that is sort of like.
00:26:39
Speaker 4: Brittany Britney Spears, was Happenings's child maybe des Child, Yeah, maybe a little yeah, And I.
00:26:48
Speaker 3: Think like Lilith Fair was sort of like happening. I think that ended in ninety nine. Was any of that? Were you like listening to any of what was happening in in pop mainstream music or were you just in your own kind of like indie punk land in that anything that Were you referencing that at all?
00:27:08
Speaker 4: No? Not really, No, I wasn't really referencing that. I was referencing more like punk, the the epic noess of rock, but from my machismo, you know, And the I was I was listening to more like Missy Elliott and Little Kim was was a big one for me too. And uh, the miseducation of Lorne Hill and you know, and in the mid nineties, I was I was like moving away from you know, all my older influences to like, you know, Sonic Youth and all these like indie post punk indie bands.
00:27:55
Speaker 2: Cool.
00:27:56
Speaker 3: So were you actively trying to be different from things or was that not even a factor?
00:28:03
Speaker 4: I was just trying to like put it all together. I didn't have, you know, Also, this machine, I didn't really know a lot about it. You know, my first beats were all one twenty bpm because I didn't know how to change the bpm. You know, things like that.
00:28:17
Speaker 3: There's no like YouTube tutorials back then, like you like literally about two thousand and six, right, you had to learn it on your own, Yeah.
00:28:25
Speaker 2: Which is super cool.
00:28:26
Speaker 3: Didn't you teach Mia how to use a drum machine?
00:28:30
Speaker 4: Well? One of my first tours was opening for Alastica. Do you remember that was also big? Alaska was big, and PJ. Harvey was big for me too, in like ninety five. Yeah, and Justine had heard a single of mine, Lover Tits and asked me to come on tour, and may m Ia was more interested in being like a documentary and art filmmaker and she was doing a documentary on her father as a Tamil Tiger and also very good friends with Justine and documenting the last tour of Elastica together. And we met there and she was fascinated because she came from a huge hip hop culture and loved music but never thought about making music and then saw the machine and thought, wow, what is that? And I was like, it's easy, you should do it. And her and Justine, I think they worked together and she got one and yeah, really served it. Oh, really served her well.
00:29:38
Speaker 1: Nas Break will be back with Leah Rose and Peaches.
00:29:45
Speaker 3: I wish that more people had the opportunity or I had that approach like, oh it's easy, you can do it, cause it does seem so intimidating.
00:29:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker 4: Well, I mean it can be difficult and it can be complicated, but you have to find the way that it works for you.
00:29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:30:00
Speaker 3: I want to ask you about Fatherfucker. So Fatherfucker turned twenty two last year. First of all, do you ever listen back to albums in full?
00:30:13
Speaker 4: Not so often, but I did listen back to you know sometimes like when we when you finish the album, then you're like, how does it how does it sound like with the other albums are But yeah, there are certain songs in Fatherfuckers that I think I overlooked that I really like. Oh like what the Inch I think is a really cool song. I always love Tombstone. I think it's really really cool. Then there's all the like you know, the more known ones to me anyway, like kick It or Operates?
00:30:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, which one of your albums is your favorite?
00:30:52
Speaker 4: They're all my babies. But I do I feel like Fatherfucker has a has a very strong place in my heart because you know, Teachers and Peaches was so well received and so powerful for in music circles, but Fatherfucker was They were like, this is a failure. What is Peach is doing? But in terms of like community and cultural cultural relevance and understanding queerness more going really hardcore into the queer aspect of my work, it's such a win. And so many people from those communities tell me what Fatherfucker meant to them. Yeah, so I'm really proud of that.
00:31:39
Speaker 3: Do the things that people say to you when someone comes up to you and tells you how meaningful your work is to them, does that change at all the way that you approach other artists. Like, let's say you met Anne Wilson from Heart and you wanted to tell you wanted to just gush about one of her songs. But having the experience of having so many people tell you, you know, like how impactful your work is to them, Like, does that change how you talk to others?
00:32:09
Speaker 4: Just become a blubbering fan. There's nothing you can do about it. You're just like yeah, and you're like, but you don't understand. I mean, I see I'm teaching. Maybe you don't know who I am. It doesn't matter. You're just a blubbering fan and you love them and hopefully they will take mercy on you.
00:32:27
Speaker 3: Have you had any what felt like awkward experiences with people that you've met where you just turned into a blubbering fan.
00:32:35
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I've also had awkward experiences where just they're just like, okay, whatever.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, who just working.
00:32:43
Speaker 3: I know you've worked with Iggy Pop and he was a big influence early on.
00:32:47
Speaker 2: How is that experience?
00:32:49
Speaker 4: It was amazing because he's so spontaneous. He was also like when we were in the studio, He's like, if I don't get it, I'm not gonna do it. Okay, So let's just try it. You know, he's just he wants to give, he wants to share with, you know, generations that also relate and love what he does. But he's also going to be real. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but I'm glad it worked.
00:33:14
Speaker 2: So if he didn't get the track, if he didn't get the.
00:33:17
Speaker 4: Or didn't feel the tribe, yeah.
00:33:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, ooh, that's kind of like feels pressurized. Oh I hope he likes it.
00:33:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, but also he's being real and I appreciate you.
00:33:26
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
00:33:29
Speaker 3: So okay, So once you had Peaches established and you were on that journey, looking back, like, how has Peaches evolved and what do you like with the new album?
00:33:42
Speaker 2: Are you filling in holes? Are you?
00:33:45
Speaker 4: I'm a woman in control of all my holes? That's one of the other lines I love on this album. So I am filling in those holes. The holes are filled, the holes are filed. I guess the evolution is just to like bring Peaches, which is not difficult into twenty twenty six. Part of the conversation that started back in two thousand and continued on with the last album being two thousand and fifteen and not just bringing it into now. And I really feel like it has that feeling. And I think the production is incredible.
00:34:26
Speaker 2: And the production is incredible.
00:34:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think that it's really good. Yeah, So I'm I'm super happy. I had a spirit helped me produce this album named Scort Deluxe.
00:34:39
Speaker 2: I had.
00:34:41
Speaker 4: And Yang, this amazing mixer in Berlin. She did all the mixing used had amazing choices also, and have a country you know as a master who is the master of the masters. So it was a great team.
00:35:02
Speaker 3: How do you get into the mood to record since you're making sort of like sometimes atbeat or more maybe party music, Like can you just roll into the studio at any time of day and get into that headspace or do you have to do like do you have to have a drink?
00:35:17
Speaker 2: Do you have to smoke?
00:35:18
Speaker 4: Like?
00:35:18
Speaker 2: How do you get into that space?
00:35:21
Speaker 4: There's no there's no rhyme or reason. You just have to get into it. You just have to get in. I used to smug a lot of weed in there, and now I don't know, I just kind of it wasn't easy. There was a you know, that's a you know, also when you have so much material and some and you want to make it fresh, but you also are really uh, you know, your concerns are still a concern. You know, it's not it's not easy, so just keep trying. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'm very fortunate that me and my partner we built a studio. Well they built the studio, but we have a studio in our basement. So and it's soundproof.
00:36:05
Speaker 2: Wuief.
00:36:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, so now it's sound proof and ready to go.
00:36:10
Speaker 2: Nice.
00:36:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:36:11
Speaker 3: I saw that in the Teachers of Peaches documentary You in the space?
00:36:15
Speaker 2: Did you end up building this studio in that same space?
00:36:17
Speaker 4: Yeah?
00:36:18
Speaker 2: Wow? Yeah, that's super cool.
00:36:21
Speaker 3: So okay, so you don't you don't have to be in a specific mode to record it, just sort of when it happens, it happens.
00:36:31
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:36:31
Speaker 4: I'm also not super spontaneous. I know it sounds like party music, but there's a lot of thought and agony that comes into it.
00:36:39
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, are there any specific sessions you remember where maybe something interesting happened, Maybe this song wasn't sort of working and then one thing changed and all of a sudden something clicked.
00:36:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, anything you remember.
00:36:57
Speaker 4: I just know that not in your mouth none of your business, which if you've seen the documentary, comes from my partner's line about not in your mouth, none of your business. Just that I was that just came spontaneously, like that just rolled right out of my mouth because it was just like I need to say this now. So that was cool because we didn't even know we would have that song.
00:37:23
Speaker 2: Very cool. What is your favorite track on the album?
00:37:26
Speaker 4: If you have one, They're all my babies, They're all my babies. I mean I I I guess right now it is Hanging Titties because it's its high energy. Yeah, do you have a favorite track.
00:37:38
Speaker 3: Or I like hanging Titties and I like.
00:37:44
Speaker 2: Fuck, how you want to fuck a lot?
00:37:46
Speaker 4: Great? I love that song too.
00:37:47
Speaker 2: I love that And then I love the last song on the album.
00:37:50
Speaker 4: Be Love Beautiful.
00:37:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, tell me about that one. How did that come about?
00:37:56
Speaker 4: Be Love is just like like we were talking about how an album has an arc, and be Love is like, hey, in the end, we really just have to be love and we have to come from a place of love. And that is really the song that most reck with myself because there's a lot of like discon you know, talking about my being disconnected or feeling anxiety and things like that, but also like just have to push through for love, not be loved, but give love.
00:38:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, what do you do to sort of make yourself feel better? Like what are your little self care things or what do you do to sort of comfort yourself when you're not feeling good.
00:38:39
Speaker 4: That's something I still have to work on. I feel like I have a hard time letting go, you know, of those feelings. So I have to learn to like sit with them and really just feel what they are. But I don't have a go to thing. Do you.
00:38:58
Speaker 3: Probably getting like super cozy in bed with tons of blankets.
00:39:01
Speaker 4: Oh that's Cute's that's nice.
00:39:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love being cozy. That's a big thing for me. And then being outside going on walks. It's so great for that breathing air, sunshine, weating.
00:39:17
Speaker 2: Weating, I like weading.
00:39:19
Speaker 4: I do a different weating, but yes, but I also like singing for me if I just like sing out?
00:39:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what kind of songs do you like to sing?
00:39:29
Speaker 4: Oh? Power ballads? Eighty power ballads? Yeah, like some old heart Oh my god? Yes, what don't they want someone? A terrible Yeah, that's amazing, She's so amazing, So amazing. I want to see that documentary about Anne Wilson.
00:39:49
Speaker 2: Yes, they're so great.
00:39:52
Speaker 3: No, they have a they have an audio book that's really interesting.
00:39:57
Speaker 2: They have a great story.
00:39:58
Speaker 4: Oh I know they probably have like wild music music industry stories.
00:40:06
Speaker 2: Too, totally.
00:40:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:40:08
Speaker 2: In their early careers started in Canada.
00:40:10
Speaker 4: It did Mushroom Records on the West coast because they are the seventies and I know weird trivia about those.
00:40:18
Speaker 2: We need to start a weird trivia show. We're trivia with Peaches. Let's go. I would listen to that.
00:40:24
Speaker 4: It's not really very weird, right, Well.
00:40:28
Speaker 2: You got to get the people to listen, so say weird. Okay, weird?
00:40:31
Speaker 4: Weird is it?
00:40:31
Speaker 2: I'll bring them in Okay, okay, So I will let you go soon.
00:40:37
Speaker 3: Is there anything about the album that you want to talk about, like anything that I didn't specifically ask you about, or anything you want to say about the album?
00:40:46
Speaker 4: So I was writing it was literally writing down what about love? Because I'm constructing.
00:40:50
Speaker 3: My karaoke list constantly that that's a hard song to sing.
00:40:56
Speaker 4: Oh No, I wouldn't never, I've got it, I got you done that. I don't want to blow at your mic right now?
00:41:04
Speaker 3: What are your favorite power ballads? Like, what comes to mind when you think power ballads?
00:41:09
Speaker 4: Well, now that one for sure. It's I Love more T It's U Laura Brannigan. She also did Oh that Night, It is My World. I love I love singing her any Pat Benatar song is amazing. My go to is Weathering Heights Kate Bush Nice I love. There's so many. I just love awesome. Yeah, they're really for the teachers of Peach's anniversary. Dour I did a twenty minute or twelve to twenty minute version of It's All Coming Back to Me Celine Dion with starts and stops and new lyrics and things like that. So that was also hard to say. That was very voice expanding. Also, Private Dancer is a big one for me.
00:42:05
Speaker 2: Oh so good. Yeah, I love that video.
00:42:10
Speaker 4: Private Dancer written by Mark Knopfler from from What's the name of it now? I don't remember the name Brothers in Arms. Someone out there was saying the name of the band is uh, you know? They also did they did the MTV theme, did they we Got the stormuck? Whatever of you know?
00:42:28
Speaker 2: That's oh Dire Straight Dire Straights.
00:42:30
Speaker 4: Oh my god, I had it like a brain freeze.
00:42:33
Speaker 2: That song was the ship. That video was on MTV all the time.
00:42:36
Speaker 4: Well because it wasn't I want min Yeah. So the singer from that band and the writer Mark Knopfler wrote Private Dancer, Wow, which is strange.
00:42:47
Speaker 2: Look at him. Yeah, that is weird.
00:42:51
Speaker 3: So is there anything else about the album that you want to touch on or talk about about the creation of the album or.
00:42:59
Speaker 4: I'm just super excited about it and I love it and I'm glad you mentioned the song fuck How You Wanna Fuck? I think it has some really good stings and powerful messages in there, and i just want to get it out there, and I'm excited for the tour. It starts February twentieth in the States, and uh yeah, it's gonna be great.
00:43:25
Speaker 2: Okay, this is last question.
00:43:28
Speaker 3: If you were to put together like an essential Peaches playlist, what would be on it?
00:43:33
Speaker 4: Oh? I mean I would I mean I would put on of course, you put on fuck the Paint Away, you'd put it boys want to be Here? You put on to Operate. I would put on Tombstone or put shake your dicks dick in the air, rub is big for me. I'd also put on Free drink ticket. Uh what, there's like, so many songs to put on it.
00:44:05
Speaker 2: This is hard hanging titties.
00:44:07
Speaker 4: Hanging titties. I wasn't even give no lub so rude. Fuck how you want to fuck? I'm gonna just start naming every single song I wrote. So I don't really know what to do about this.
00:44:19
Speaker 2: That works.
00:44:19
Speaker 3: Thank you Peaches so much for thank you talking. Thanks listen, Yeah, have fun on tour.
00:44:24
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thanks yay by.
00:44:29
Speaker 1: In the episode description, you'll find a link to a playlist featuring Peach's latest album, No Lubes So Rude, as well as a mix of her past releases. Be sure to check out YouTube dot com slash Broken Record podcast to see all of our video interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record pot. You can follow us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tomaday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look for push Can Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions and if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app Our theme musics by Kenny Beats Justin Richmond
