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Peaches October, 5th, 2001. Place de la Daurade, Toulouse, France.
We meet Peaches right after her show, on the shore of the Garonne
river that runs through Toulouse. She was playing a free concert
in an art festival, set up by the Art School of Toulouse and paid
for by the city (yes, some city council still care about art and
culture...) The enthousiastic crowd gathered around the small backstage
tent to talk to the artist. I thought this would blow my chance
of having an interview, but miss Peahes had not forgotten the promise
made before the gig. She came out of the tent with a plate featuring
lamb chop on rice and told me a 'shall we?' while already walking
toward the river. I would not refuse this invitation for a horse,
so I followed
BiB/Oa: Where did you get your name from?
Peaches: From a Nina Simone song called "Four Women".
And I think she's an amazing figure in music. And in the end of
the song she just says "peacheees"(she sings). She's not
talking about the fruit though, she's talking about a woman. This
woman's parents are slaves, so it's not that I'm related to this
woman or anything...It's just the way Nina Simone sings it.
BiB/Oa: So is she one of your major influensis?
Peaches: No, I just think she has a huge part in the music
world
BiB/Oa: How and went did you start playing music?
Peaches: Twelve years ago(she's now 34 she confesses). I
was going to be a theatre director but then I hated acting, and
getting upptight about everything. I could just see myself gettring
a heart attack getting in to the theatre world before I was thirty.
I just knew five songs on the guitar, so I started playing in a
club with this friend of mine. We played there for a year, and I
realized that was what I'd rather do. So it took me a while to find
out what was my expression. I needed to express myself artisticly,
music suited me better
BiB/Oa: What's the big thing that made you change to electronic?
Peaches: Well, all the friends I was playing music with moved
away, and I felt I had to keep the attitude of playing and what
I like about it, so I started playing on machines
BiB/Oa: Do you live in Canada now?
Peaches: No, I live in Berlin. I got intrest from a label,
and I thought it would be better to work with them in Berlin where
they are than in Canada where nobody takes you seriously unless
you're outside of the country. They really eat their own, their
young or whatever. It's just a saying in Canada that makes me sick.
They are just too critical
BiB/Oa: So you find people more supportive in Germany?
Peaches: Yeah, they make things happen more. Some people
liked what I did in Cannada too, but somehow they could make it
work in Berlin.
BiB/Oa: Did you listen to alot of electronic music?
Peaches: No, you know what? I grew up listening to Rock'n'Roll.
Like the Ramones, Kiss, even Pat Benatar, my main stream lady. Also
the Pretenders, The Kinks, The Who....You know; stuff like that.
I was a teenager in the eighties you know, but I wasn't into electronic
music, I was more into whatever was kind of popular
Oa/BiB: So I guess you found a vivid electronic sceen in
Berlin?
Peaches: Oh yaeh, with the Chicks on Speed and all that.
But I think people are going electro crazy all over Europe. I don't
know, I've been to Spain and Norway, and the electronic music was
very big there. Are you catching the electro wave here to? Why is
there so much french shitty house music in France?
Oa/BiB: Oh, the wall paper music. Yeah, some people are
really good at it. I guess it sells well in Canada, so why sould
they change, huh? (Laughs) But anyway you hang out with the Chicks
on Speed, right?
Peaches: Yeah.
Oa/BiB: That was a rich answer....
Peaches: Okay, I can tell you that they are my new financial
manager, which is a good reason to hang out with them.
Oa/BiB: How do you come up with songs? Messing around with
machines or do you conceptulize before?
Peaches: I just do it in my room. I have very simple equipment,
it makes things more direct
Oa/BiB: It's the Katheleen Hannah way. Have you met her?
Peaches: Yes, in New York. We were enjoying eatchothers performance
very much. And I played with Le Tigre in Berlin. I wanted to play
with them, then their manager was worried that they thought I was
too volgar. So they were like: "What are you talking about??"
So we had a great time playing together, and I also keep in touch
with JD and Joanna who play in the band.They're really great, I
love them
Oa/BiB: What are your plans for the future? Any ongoing
projects?
Peaches: You know, just the same...Play music and do some
videos with friends. If you saw the movies tonight, that were playing
behind me, one of the was called cowgirls. It was made by a friend
of mine, her name is sherile Boyle(spelling unsure....sorry if wrong)she's
a visual artist. Yeah, she's a visual artist, not just a girl! We
colaborate together when she makes overhead drawings that she projects
behind me and we do some interactive audio-visual and cartoon stuff.
She also does that on her own with country music. I hope to do more
things with her. And also Mignon (same comments on spelling) who's
the queen of the electro goth. We do alot of show
Oa/BiB: How do you feel being on the stage on you own?
Peaches: It's really good. It is petrifying, but also enpowering.
You know you figure out your way
Oa/BiB: Okay thank you for this nice talk.
Peaches: Yeah, thank you. And thank you France for eventually
givving me some shows. Cus I was like "What the fuck is wrong
with France" for a while.
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