By SP

Warning: this article contains some profane words as they were quoted from various article, interviews and album title.

As many of you remember, Peaches appeared on the second season of The L Word with her song I U She and was turned down by Shane when she asked her to come up on the stage. Kate Moennig mentioned her in one of The L Word promos on Showtime when the cast was discussing the music on the show.

On Katherine Moennig fan website the actress was asked a question about music on The L Word and who are her favorite musicians that appeared on the show so far. Moennig replied, “… my favorite music guests so far have been Sleater Kinney and Peaches … sadly, I thought Peaches was underused. She is so fierce and raw. Not to mention, all of those girls were so much fun to work with.”

“Peaches is a phenomena” as stated in Peaches biography on the official website at www.peachesrocks.com. She is “the self-made, self-produced, do-it-yourself leader of the electro punk movement and master of the original dirty lyrical classic … Unique with her minimal pumping beats and loved by true innovators as diverse as Deborah Harry, Iggy Pop, Bjork, Josh Homme, Lil Kim, Kelis, 2 Many DJs, M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem not to mention the entire fashion and art world. Her live shows are legendary – a one-woman Kiss concert that has left the pop world in awe!”

Who is Peaches?

She is Merrill Beth Nisker, born in 1968 in Toronto, Canada. Her biography on wikipedia.com gives us some interesting information about the artist. “Before she became Peaches, she was an elementary school teacher and librarian … She lived and worked in Berlin for several years before moving to Los Angeles in 2005 … her songs are mainly concerned with sex … Peaches’ music is preoccupied with gender identity.”

Imagine that, a switch from an elementary school teacher to a rock star who likes to sing about sex and her second album is called Fatherfucker. She was asked this question in her interview The Teaches of Peachesto Venus (issue No. 17) by Fred Sasaki.

Peaches reply was, “Well, I wasn’t really ever a schoolteacher; I don’t have a teaching degree. I started teaching because when I grew up, learning creativity was ‘Sing this, read this part, dress up in a sailor costume, say your lines, your parents will clap.’ But there was no actual creativity or development involved, so I wanted to give kids a chance to use their creativity, which they have so much of. They could actually develop and feel free to use their creativity and not get boxed in by the general learning that happens unless you go to an arts school or something. I developed a program, started in daycares, and then moved to private schools because I couldn’t work in public school since I didn’t have a degree … At the same time, at night, I would do music for myself, and I think doing that in the day really made me want to unleash the kid in myself at night … Kids are totally creative and fun, I’m all for creativity and energy. My shows are live 200% pure energy.”

Why Peaches? How did Merrill Nisker come up with that name for herself? In The Teaches of Peaches interview she was asked if it was true that she chose “the name ‘Peaches’ after listening to the Nina Simone song Four Women. Peaches replied, “I don’t think that I’m a black slave or something like that, but it was just because at the end of the song she sings, ‘What do they call her, they call her Peaches!’ and the way she said it was just so raw and so pure and energetic; I was like, sing it to me. So I changed my name so she’d be singing it to me.”

Peaches music

It’s not quite that simple when we read that Peaches’s songs are all about sex. In her Fatherfucker Biography from www.beggars.com website her music described in following words, “Yes, it is true that the Canadian-born, Berlin-based artist likes to sing about sex. It is also true that her combination of deliciously minimalist electronic beats and power-chord stadium rock fuse together to make music that is sincerely unlike anything else you’ll hear on the planet.”

In her lyrics and music Peaches expresses her unique beliefs or, as it explained in wikipedia.com article, “Her lyrics and live shows self-consciously blur the distinction between male and female; she appears on the cover of her second album Fatherfucker with a full beard.”

When she was asked why she chose such a controversial title and an unusual cover picture, Peaches replied in her Peaches: Fatherfucker biography that “In the ‘Peaches’ way … I’m not one to shy away from controversial words, I just turn them around to my liking. It really was the best title; all the machismo versus libido versus femininity…it just seemed to fit and take it to a new level … As for me on the cover? That’s just my take on combining the male side with the female side.”

Peaches talked more about this idea of the male and female side in The Teaches of Peaches interview. “I just think that there is so much male and female in us all. When you do a rock performance people just see that it’s male. That’s totally ridiculous. Didn’t we learn something with Patti Smith or Joan Jett, down the line with all those? It’s still an issue, which is totally ridiculous … People ask me if I have penis envy. Well, I have hermaphrodite envy.”

So, what also makes Peaches so unique, apart form her music and her electrifying life performances?

In the article on AfterEllen.com by Malinda Lo (May 2004) the author makes the following observation, “Unlike pop stars who flirt with lesbianism for publicity (e.g., the overplayed Britney/Madonna smooch), Peaches is much more than a tease: she exudes her sexuality like sweat, and lavishes it equally on men and women. In the song “I U She” on Fatherfucker she raps, “I don’t have to make the choice / I like girls and I like boys … In other words, Peaches doesn’t apologize for liking what she likes and for liking it in many different ways. While she may not describe herself as ‘bisexual’, she clearly doesn’t shy away from that label. She could be the no-apologies post-feminist pro-sex poster child for lesbians and bisexual women everywhere…”

This is explained even further in Peaches: Fatherfucker biography. “Peaches is a state of mind as much as she is an artist. Essentially, Peaches is a revelation — an embodiment of sexual freedom, a damnation of gendered and lookist labels, and an admirable nasty attitude.” Or, as Peaches herself put it, “I see myself more as a conduit for sex. In the middle of one show, my sound guy grabbed his girlfriend and went to the bathroom to f***.”

Yes, her performance and live shows could be that powerful. As the article on AfterEllen.com stated, “… it’s through her live performances that Peaches’ really shines. There’s something about seeing this tiny Canadian-born woman strutting around onstage – usually entirely alone – that brings home the fact that Peaches is for real. She is absolutely magnetic on stage; she obviously enjoys performing and her energy is exhilarating. Sure, her performance is about having a good time and having sex, but it’s also about messing up the status quo.”

Are Peaches’ songs can be considered educational? What does the audience think about her music? Peaches answered that question in The Teaches of Peaches interview. “It could be, but I think the most important thing for me is that it’s good music. It’s all about the music first. I hope that people are just getting into the music and when they sing along with it — or they realize that I produced all the music and made all the beats and wrote all the lyrics, and then they think about the lyrics — maybe then there is something to learn, if they want.”

Some Other Interesting Facts about Peaches

She has a crotch gallery on her official website, www.peachesrocks.com, and she explained how it came about in her The Teaches of Peaches interview. “That started because my album cover for The Teaches of Peaches was a crotch and people came to my live shows and started taking pictures of my crotch and I thought that was pretty amazing because people do take pictures of people’s body parts without their heads. I embraced that and made a Web site so that I could actually see those photos and people sent the pictures in.”

She believes “in standing up for who you are,” as she said in the same interview. “Don’t be afraid, don’t buy that crap that you’ve got to be like this or beauty is only like this. Take charge in your own way. I don’t think everyone has to be in-your-face taking charge cause it’s not everybody's style. You have to find your way. Just use it to your advantage. Get satisfaction out of your life. Not everyone is the hunter.”

In The Teaches of Peaches interview Peaches was also asked if she really likes sex or it is all just part of an act? She replied frankly, “Of course I like sex. Sex is one of the five basic needs in life and one of the only two that involve another person. You need to eat, you need to sleep, you need shelter, you need to belong, and you need to have sex. Those are actually the five basic needs.”

There’s a lot more that can be said about Peaches. Check out her website, read her biographies and for some fun visit www.fatherfucker.com, if you dare.