The Sweet Success of Peaches

In honor of Women’s History Month, we are throwing some shine on the most influential female industry figures who helped pioneer electronic and dance culture.

Peaches turns 50 this year, and she could still kick your ass. Okay, maybe she wouldn’t want to, or maybe she would—but it would be as a joke? I don’t know. I do know she’s seen it all this century. She was there for electroclash (of course), bloghouse, and the constant mutations of pop. She has helped influence a wide net of people in her orbit, from headier to more mainstream acts. She is one of Gen X’s defining electronic divas, and she’s still going pretty HAM.

The “international electroclashing queer icon”/“raunchy electropop singer”—born Merrill Beth Nisker—got her break in music relatively later in life for such a youth-driven (and of course, male-dominated) scene. Nisker took the name Peaches from the final lyrics of the Nina Simone song “Four Women”:

My skin is brown
My manner is tough
I’ll kill the first mother I see
My life has been too rough
I’m awfully bitter these days
Because my parents were slaves
What do they call me
My name is PEACHES

That pretty much sums up the Peaches persona that was birthed: tough, resilient, bitter, and here—whether you like it or not. Peaches has publicly identified as queer for a long time, and her exploration of gender, sexuality, feminism, and identity is really at the core of her music and songwriting. She spent her 20s honing her performance and songwriting style: rapping over big beats, sometimes more on the techno side, sometimes on the rockier side. Aggressive but accessible. Artsy, but not too up its own ass to not also be fun.

It wasn’t until Peaches was almost 30 that she first caught the attention of a larger market—in this case, Europe—with her debut record Teaches of Peaches, which came out on a relatively small German label in 2000. Once that record starting getting around, Peaches began getting attention and recognition in her native North America. It wasn’t long before she was this sort of “It” personality, floating between scenes and genres as the mainstream music industry was reckoning with the internet and culture mashing became the dominant style.

Peaches has been known for the last two decades as a generally impish and provocative spirit in the international scene, seamlessly gliding between left-of-center pop music, camp, and the political, the sexual, and the intellectual. Even if you’ve never heard of her music, you’re probably at the very least somewhat aware of her. Her reputation has a way of preceding itself like that.

Peaches now spends her days doing all manner of projects—from working on her own music, of course, to directing films, performing in musicals, and making books and art. She’s managed to develop a career out of what could have easily become a quick flame-out. She has remained relevant and decidedly unboring, leaving stale scenes in the dust as she continuously morphs and adapts without sacrificing her essence.

See also: Beth Ditto, JD Samson, and Miss Kittin