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GET READY TO BREAK AWAY FROM POP MUSIC’S SAFE ZONE AS THE ORIGINAL CHAMPION OF ALTERNATIVE QUEER MUSIC IS READY TO DROP RUB, HER FIRST ALBUM OF NEW MATERIAL IN SIX YEARS

WORDS: CLIFF JOANNOU

PEACHES

When it comes to LGBT counter-culture you don’t get artists more brutally honest than Peaches. Born Merrill Beth Nisker, the Canadian-born singer/songwriter/ performer, who now resides in Berlin, has been making music since 1995. Taking the beats of sometimes misogynistic and homophobic genres like rap and rock as inspiration, Peaches twists and turns the lyrics into edgy queer anthems that celebrate sexuality in all its forms.

DARIA MARCHIK

Who is Peaches?

I hate this question; I mean how can I possibly say who I am? I’ve been making music and shaking up the mainstream for fifteen years. I started saying what I wanted to say from my perspective because I felt that things were still heteronormative and very patriarchal. It seemed like what I did was not in the vein of what everyone else was doing. Now when I say what I do people are like ‘So? Everybody does that’. But they didn’t then, so I’m quite excited that it has become such a topic and that people are addressing these things. I’m not trying to just pick topics because I want them to be controversial. I see this new album as more of a celebration post-gender, post-age. I love [the new album track] Vaginoplasty because I intro it by saying,

“This song isn’t about your big ass, it’s not about your big dick or about your big tits, it’s about your big vagina.” You know, who’s gonna talk about that?