WEBVTT - Ep 107: Peaches 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.880 And then after a year I was not interested in 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:06.920 being in a folk band. I was like, I want 0:00:06.920 --> 0:00:07.680 to do more than that. 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.960 Hello and welcome to Midnight Chats, a podcast of casual 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:17.760 interviews with leading musicians, published weekly at midnight to suit 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:22.960 these informal and often under researched conversations. This week's episode 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.400 is hosted by me Stuart Stubbs, editor of Loud and 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:30.320 Quiet magazine. Joining me on episode one hundred and seven 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:35.400 of the podcast is artist, musician, theater maker, electroclash pioneer 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.680 and queer icon Peaches. Peaches started making music in her 0:00:39.720 --> 0:00:43.559 home city of Toronto in nineteen eighty nine in a 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.559 folk group called Mermaid Cafe, but it was in the 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.400 year two thousand when she really became the artist we 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.000 know her as today, releasing her seminal debut album, The 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.000 Teaches of Peaches. She originally intended to be a director 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.520 of musical theater and physical performance, as all always been 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.040 a big part of her shows, where she often jumps 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.560 into the crowd and quite frankly, freaks a lot of 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.520 people out. Peaches spoke to me from her home in Berlin, 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.280 a city she first visited with previous Midnight Chats guest 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.760 Chili Gonzales, an old friend of her since her early 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.160 days back in Toronto, where the pair also used to 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.120 play in a band called The Shit. A link to 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.039 the film that I mention that features early footage of 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.119 the two of them playing in Berlin is below this 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.840 podcast in the show notes, along with links to a 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:35.479 few of the other things that we cover. I'm not 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.480 exactly sure when a new Peaches album will be, but 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.640 in the meantime, she has recently dropped a new single 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.479 made for Lockdown called Pussy Mask. There's also a link 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:50.840 to the illustrated video for that track below. There's only 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.200 one Peaches, and here she is on episode one hundred 0:01:54.240 --> 0:02:00.080 and seven of Midnight Chats. Have you been living in 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.520 Berlin since essentially the first time you went there in 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:05.640 the early two thousands. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.760 Ish, Yeah, I have. I moved to LA for a while. 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:12.880 I've moved to early a few times, Like in two 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:16.280 thousand and six. I was there for a year, just 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.040 you know, making my album, and then I got a 0:02:20.120 --> 0:02:23.960 place in LA and I was there, you know, for 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:28.760 a few years, making rub and considering living there and 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:32.640 stuff like that. But I got pulled back in to Berlin. 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:36.040 You've got pulled back to Berlin. There's a few years 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.640 ago I saw when it came out. I think it 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:40.880 was a couple of years ago, the Chilly Gonzales film 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:45.120 Shut Up and Played the Piano. Within that, there's some great, 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.400 really early footage of you and him in Berlin playing 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.799 in some like basement venues and things. What year with 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:54.480 what years would that have been? 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.160 When the two thousand, two thousand and one? 0:02:57.560 --> 0:02:59.600 Sure, and that was like the first time that you 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.320 arrived in the city, right, because he had been living. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:06.120 Well, we lived, we arrived. We actually were visiting in 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:11.760 like nineteen ninety eight. We first visited and then he 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.200 moved there and I went back home. I had a 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:24.160 job and couldn't just move. But yeah, we visited there 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.919 and then came back. Made my first album in Canada 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:28.919 in Toronto. 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:32.520 What do you remember from that time? And from those 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:38.120 early shows they looked wild and exciting and great. What 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:40.280 was That's what it was. 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.400 It was just it was just like no holds bar 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.040 and who who gives a fuck? It's just like, let's 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.320 you know, whoever was playing, everybody else would just join, 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:51.480 Oh can I come with join on stage in your show? 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.720 You know? Friends that were, you know, performing and things 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:59.480 like that. It was always like, you know, like a 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.440 gang kind of feel like a group, fun thing to do, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.720 or even if you were alone, it was just there 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.000 was never a sort of like a set a set. 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.840 It was just let's see what happens. You know. I was, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:21.159 you know, exploring with my groovebox the and I always 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:24.080 had the beats programs, but I could always like you know, 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.000 mix them and shift them whatever way I wanted to, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:32.160 and it just gave a sense of it was more 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.640 about an energy and spontaneity, which was really exciting. 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:39.960 Would this has been the time that you and Chillie 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:43.000 were in the band The Ship or is this post 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:44.719 that band? 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:51.599 Definitely post that The Ship was in Canada and I 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:54.880 was very me and Chili con Cells and Machi. I 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:56.479 don't know if you know. Maki did a lot of 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.880 production for fives. He worked with Kalai, He's done a 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.000 lot of it, makes his own beautiful albums. And another 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:06.960 girl named Sticky. I was friends with this girl, Sticky, 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.480 and we were very dissatisfied with our own bands. And 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.760 she said, I know these two guys and one is 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.800 my neighbor and he has like a jam space in 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.720 his basement, so can we all jam? And I didn't 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:26.360 even know them, and we jammed, and I wanted to 0:05:26.400 --> 0:05:27.880 be in an all girl band, so I was like, 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.680 I don't want jam with boys or whatever. But it 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:32.960 was really fun. We just got super high and then 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:35.880 started to switch instruments, which I'd never done before. I 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 had never played like keyboards. They're like, here's keyboards. I 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.200 was like, WHOA like a kind of I was called 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.680 the SAH one thousand, but it had you know, filters 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.520 and things. I was like, this is really cool. I 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.200 started to play the drums all in this one jam, 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.160 and you know I would played electric guitar and stuff. 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.599 So I remember after that jam, we just all looked 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:57.440 at each other and we said, I think we're a band. 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.400 Now what's our name? And we were like with shit. 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.920 So that it was kind of like the way that 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.120 we all kind of got out of our own sort 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:11.920 of ideas of what we could do in music and 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:16.400 really set ourselves free. So that started me on the path, 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:19.360 the Peaches path, because we all renamed ourselves and I 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:21.280 said I want to be Peaches because I want Nina 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.839 Simone just to sing the words Peach it just the 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.840 word peaches to me, like, you know, just really on 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.080 that raw level, just that the passionate way she says 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.080 the word. I wanted her to be saying it to me. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:38.520 So yeah, that's what the shit was about. And Operate 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.160 actually Operate came from that band. That was like one 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:46.440 of the first songs I wrote. But that was also Yeah, 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.040 that was just exciting to like, you know, it's when 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.400 you have certain bands or you have certain performances and 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.560 you know that you know whether they were whether they're 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:55.560 connecting with people. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.800 You know, sure by the time that you first come 0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:02.920 to Berlin and are doing those those basement shows that 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:06.080 I mentioned that were in Chili's film, What was it 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:09.559 about that place that has essentially made you stay there 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:12.520 ever since? What was it that made you connect with Berlin? 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.320 Well, I think at the time in Canada and in 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.240 Toronto it was still didn't they you know, it was 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:22.840 very they didn't really understand what I was doing. It 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.160 was just always like, you know, if you want to talk, 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.040 you know, we would always call ourselves the Weird Ones 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.080 on last you know, we would play these nights and 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:34.000 they would always be like okay, and now let the 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.560 Weird let Gonzales or Peaches or let them on last, 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.800 because you know, then every at least the night's over. 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.320 We just people didn't really understand what was going on. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.400 And I remember when we went to Berlin it was 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.120 just seemed like it was more open and there was 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.400 just it was just that kind of place in time 0:07:54.440 --> 0:08:00.720 where people were just experimenting and the paths seemed to build, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:04.200 and the excitement in terms of not even like we're 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.360 gonna make it, it just more like let's be creative. 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.240 Because on your as we were chatting today, I've gone 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:15.400 way back into Peach's history and also pre Peaches. So 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.080 where does Mermaid Cafe? Who I didn't know about until 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:20.360 literally yesterday? 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:22.520 That goes really weird. 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.200 This is way back, right, this is one of your 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.000 Is this like this is one of your very first bands? 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.680 Kind of a folksy roots roots band trio of you. Yeah? 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.360 Yeah, so that's like eight eighty nine. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:40.880 Wow, okay, right really early. Yeah, So there was I 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.199 saw a short piece of footage yesterday. If you I 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.600 don't know if it was on like local Canadian TV. 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:50.640 It's on YouTube and there's somebody interviewing you in this 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:54.480 in this bar, the three of you, and I think 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.440 you described the music to her as homemade acoustic homemade 0:08:58.440 --> 0:08:59.400 acoustic pizza. 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:01.720 I think, yeah, we tried to have some kind of 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:05.760 like name. But the thing is I mean that that okay, 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:08.160 well let's go away. If you want to go way. 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.720 Back, sure let's do it. 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:17.439 I yeah, sure, of course. I I didn't really realize 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.400 I was a musician, you know. I I knew that 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:26.440 definitely I was. I would I would have to be 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.439 part of, you know, the arts and performance. I only 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.160 knew like musicals, you know, I wasn't really like that's 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:34.920 what I knew. I went to theater school. I wanted 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:39.640 to be a theater director. I wanted to direct cool musicals. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:43.520 And you know, you're in university and you want to 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:45.280 you say, yeah, I want to be a director of 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:48.840 cool musicals, and people like that is not what we're 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:53.960 doing here, you know. So I quickly realized I also 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.120 didn't want to be a theater director because I didn't 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:58.640 want to have a heart attack before I was thirty. 0:09:58.679 --> 0:10:02.679 I didn't want to have to like just all the 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.640 institutional things you'd have to like deal with, you know, 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:11.360 in terms of like just even budget lighting. Then you know, 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.760 you don't always have control over everything. And it was 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:15.920 just like all of this, It just seemed like it 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.320 would have been so many compromise, compromise and all this, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:25.520 and so I actually quit in the middle of I 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.000 got into a directing program. There were like seven of us, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.160 and I quit in the middle of it. I took 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.080 and was still in university, got like a BFA, so 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:36.880 did a lot of took a lot of different arts courses, 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.439 opened my eyes to a lot of things, had a 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:43.280 lot of fights with teachers about what art is or 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.839 you know, which was really you know, healthy and good 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:55.240 and growing. And I started to play acoustic guitar and 0:10:55.880 --> 0:11:00.480 my girlfriend at the time played acoustic guitar, and you know, 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.679 we got together even like yeah, that's jam that's how 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.120 we met and stuff. But then she got a gig 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.320 opening for somebody, and I said, oh, can I join? 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.080 And we spent like a week maybe working. She had 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:15.640 a lot of songs and I wrote two, and then 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:18.280 actually just a lot of people showed up. I guess 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:20.080 we had a lot of friends, but they really liked it, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.560 and the owner of the small club said could you 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:25.400 play here weekly? So all of a sudden we were 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.480 a band. Of folk band. So I never meant to be. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:30.880 It was supposed to be a one night thing. And 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:36.680 then another friend of ours, Joe, he taught me acoustic guitar. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:38.719 So he's like, I taught you acoustic guitar, I write songs. 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.680 I'm going to be part of your band. And so 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:42.120 it was just the three of us, and then all 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.160 of a sudden we were a band and playing a 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:49.360 weekly show and writing songs. And then I was like, oh, hey, yeah, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.920 I guess I'm a musician. That's cool. It's writing songs 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.080 and stuff like that. And then after a year, I 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.560 was not interested in being in a folk band. I 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.479 was like, I want to do more than that. So 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:03.720 that's how it came in. And then I realized I 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:05.439 was a musician. But then I was like, yeah, I 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:06.240 don't want to do folk. 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.000 Last year was kind of marked twenty years of peaches. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.360 Do you allow yourself to take a minute to think 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:14.600 about the things you've achieved. 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:23.640 That's a good question, I think pandemically speaking, I have 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.240 to find it dangerous to do that and just fallen up, 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.400 like so, I haven't been doing that during the pandemic, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:34.160 but I do like to look back and see like 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:41.959 in terms of like understanding what sort of performance wise 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.560 and lyric wise and music wise, what I was doing, 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.600 and how I would like to do it, or how 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:53.720 I could reconfigure it or recontextualize it, or how it 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:59.520 has or has not still gained relevance or meaning to me. 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:04.640 Another thing that I was listening to yesterday was your 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.000 I don't know if you would call it your debut 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.200 solo record or is it a kind of the record 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:14.360 that you made under your birth name rather than Peaches. 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.720 Do you consider that your debut or do you consider 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.400 Teachers the Peaches your debut. 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.160 I mean that consider Teaches the Peaches my debut. That 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:25.160 was like another It was like very big part of 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:28.120 my life and experimenting again, like it was after I 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:29.840 had the folkn and then I was like, I just 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.040 want to have a band, and you know, it was 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:39.840 my experimentation with writing and experimenting with my voice, and 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.480 you know, a self funded. It wasn't like it was 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.640 on a label or anything like that, so it's good. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.240 I was listening to it yesterday again for the first time, 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:53.000 and I was enjoying it. I thought like I could 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:55.280 kind of see how you'd gone from even though I 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.000 only saw a clip of Mermaid Cafe, I could kind 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.080 of see how you'd gone from that to that record. 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.000 But then how do you how how do you see 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:07.640 the kind of transition from because Pete when Peaches, when 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:11.680 Teachers of Peaches came out, it just felt so fully 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.440 formed and such a like from a listening point of 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.440 view from a fan, it just felt like it was 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:20.280 just everything was right, it was all in its right place. 0:14:20.600 --> 0:14:23.280 I think that's what happened. Yeah, it just that that 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:25.880 was the moment where it all came together. So I 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:27.920 think that, you know, when I was talking about the ship, 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.280 that was the band. You said it was under my 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:32.960 real name, Meryl Nisker, but the band was called Fancy 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:34.800 Pants Sudilm. But when I made the album, I'm like, 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.360 maybe it should called my name because it's my you know, 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.920 kind of it's all me. But I'll call the album 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:44.200 fans Panzylm because that's like just the project, you know. 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:49.920 So I was just sad, like I think interesting in that, 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:51.880 but it was popular and it could have continued. And 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.040 then when I started fans Pants Hudim, they were not 0:14:56.200 --> 0:14:59.120 having it. I had no audience. I never really had 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.040 an audience for that at all. Nobody nobody, They weren't 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:03.520 having it. 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.520 So was that just a timing thing, which is like 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.840 the mood at the time in Toronto? What was the 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:11.520 I don't know. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.840 I just wasn't connecting with people, and maybe I wasn't, 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.400 you know, really I was just experimenting, but it wasn't connecting. 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.520 And that's why the ship was so important, because all 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:21.720 of a sudden then it was like, Aha, I feel 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:26.040 like I'm connecting. I'm getting closer to understanding, you know, 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.840 my gut feelings about how to perform and what I 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:30.440 want to say. 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.600 You spent a year or so studying theater, thinking that 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.200 that was going to be your thing. Within that course, 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.760 did you study performance art? Was that part of it? 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:41.480 I don't know what performance are was? 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.440 Right? So there was nothing from that course that essentially 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:48.560 led directly to what became Peaches. 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:53.800 No, and I think that, you know, I just came by. 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.960 I think I realized that, oh, you can be a 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.240 performer and a writer, and you can direct, and it 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.960 can all be in your own hands. That was the point, 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.280 you know, I was like, someone else doesn't have to 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.000 tell you what to do or how to produce. It 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.120 or what to say or you can all do it 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:15.600 on your own, and you can also can completely change 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:19.800 it and also have the spontaneous element that theater never has, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.640 you know, it always is kind of one step behind, 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.000 you know, it never has this full spontaneity. So that's 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.800 that was what. So I learned what I couldn't do 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:33.760 in theater and tried to do it. 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:36.640 What were you what were you learning on that course? Then? 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.280 Was it about what was the syllabus that they were 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:42.960 teaching you about? That essentially turned you off it and 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.040 made you decide, actually, I don't want to be doing. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.840 This because I just wanted to make cool musicals and 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:50.160 you know that was not in the curriculum. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:53.640 Was any musicals in the curriculum? 0:16:53.920 --> 0:16:56.280 No, no way, no, it. 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:00.560 Wasn't a thing. My wife teaches at Golden Smith's, which 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:09.520 is arts, and I know about I still now and 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.600 they have a musicals degree there now they do. That's 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:14.240 fairly new. 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.919 Yeah, wow, what what what happens there? Should I be 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:18.440 going there? 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:21.560 You should be going there? I mean, they just they 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.200 study and they make their own musicals. 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:26.320 I think do you think you could put in a 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:27.040 good word for me? 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.840 For I'm pretty sure they would have you. I'm pretty sure. 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:33.800 I mean I can, I can, I can, I can 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:35.720 pull what what short strings I have? 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:40.080 What is interesting to me is that, you know, ten 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:43.040 years into my Peaches career, I was asked to do 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:49.439 a production at a very you know, underground but well 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.960 sought after a theater and I got to make my musical. 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:57.200 Is this Peaches Christ Superstar? 0:17:57.520 --> 0:17:59.360 No, this is Peaches does herself? 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.280 So this to celebrate ten years of pages, yeah. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:06.400 And so and so. In that way, I was responding 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:10.520 to jukebox musicals that at the time had nothing to 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:13.840 do with the actual music of the artists, you know, 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.359 like we will rock you, you know. So this was 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:21.760 before they decided to you know, honor Freddie Mercury and 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:25.520 and delve into more of his personal life. So we 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:28.920 were rocky. Was this Do you remember this musical which is. 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:33.320 Like the little yuristic Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's like set 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.720 in the future when music's been banned. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.320 Music's band and we have to find a secret guitar. Yeah, 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:42.600 you know, things like that, and then have you seen it? 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:43.000 Did you get? 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.160 I saw it in German. I was invited to the opening. 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.760 Brian May was there actually for the opening and it's 0:18:49.840 --> 0:18:51.639 like really, I was just like, I'm not having this, 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.720 but yeah, So it was kind of a response to 0:18:55.320 --> 0:19:01.240 jukebox musicals and also response to what people would say 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.280 about me in the myths, myths around who I am 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.280 and what I am and then so it was quite 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.760 exciting for me to take my love of musicals from 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:16.000 like early uh, you know, Buzzby Berkeley style to you know, 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:21.680 west Side Story, to like you know, Tina Turnier as 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:25.320 the Acid Queen or you know, other kind of Ken 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:33.240 Russell film versions of musicals, and to more experimental ways 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.480 to like Twila Tharpe style or you know, like just 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:39.400 bringing all the history and bringing all my love and 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.399 going like, finally I get to do this musical. And 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:44.720 I have been doing the research for the last ten 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:53.800 years on myself. So that was super, super satisfying. I 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.320 wanted to tell you a story about when if we 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.440 want to continue on the musicals, But when Rocky Horror, 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.360 the Rocky Horror Show came to Berlin in like two 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:10.280 thousand and nine or something like that, and I was 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.080 super excited and my my friends, I think got me 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:15.359 a ticket. My friend got me a ticket for me 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.399 her and her mother to go see it. So I 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.440 was super excited. And when you walked in, they gave 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:23.239 you a little package with a piece of toast in 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:27.800 it and some cards and some confetti and stuff like that. 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.320 So I was like, great, everybody's up for it, you know. 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.040 And the first thing that happened is, you know, the 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.240 narrator came on and was like broad and drug, you know, 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.639 but it's all in German. Not that I speak German, 0:20:40.680 --> 0:20:45.639 but and I just yelled at barring, you know, like 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:48.880 your breast thinks and all those things you're supposed to yell, 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:53.560 and everybody in the theater just turned around him looked 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.080 at me, and I was just like what you know. 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.680 I mean I was handed you know, the tools, and 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.760 this is what you do. So anyway, yeah, you's what 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:08.080 you meant to do. And then of course, like there's 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:11.840 a light comes on and I'm like jet it, you know, 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.280 I'm going on. People are staring at me whatever, not 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:17.199 as much. But then in the middle, like you know, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:22.520 they had an intermission and my friend explained to me 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.800 that the actor who was playing the boring Man, it 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:29.800 was his first time back on the stage in like years, 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:32.879 and he had had this huge, horrible drug problem and 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.480 it was like a huge thing and he was nervous 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:38.119 and all this. So I didn't know any of that. 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.040 I was just trying to play a love. I didn't 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.960 know that. So everyone else is like playing on that 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.200 stuff and I'm I'm just like trying to have a 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:49.520 good time. But and also people started, as Germans do, 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:54.600 they started to drink during the intermission, and then everybody 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.000 kept turning to me during the show, like. 0:21:56.960 --> 0:21:57.439 What do I do? 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.240 Now? I do? Now? What should I say? You know, 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:02.320 because they realized that they were supposed to do that, 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.040 Like they were showing me like the cards and like 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:07.800 cards for sorrow. Yeah, let's go. So it was it 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.840 was kind of funny. It was very a very German 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:11.600 moment too. 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:14.640 So you said that you met Jali because you were 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.560 introduced through a friend and to kind of jam in 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:22.240 the basement and stuff. Where does Feist come into your life? 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:24.880 Because I kind of see the three of you as 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:28.480 a sort of gang of sorts, seen as the amount 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:30.399