Peaches (musician)
Merrill Nisker (born 11 November 1966), better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electroclash musician and producer.
Not to be confused with Peaches Geldof, Peaches Christ, or Peaches from Peaches & Herb.
Peaches
Born in Ontario, Peaches began her musical career in the 1990s as part of a folk trio, Mermaid Cafe. In 1995, she established a rock band, the Shit. That year she also released her first solo album, Fancypants Hoodlum. After moving to Berlin, Germany, she was signed to the Kitty-Yo label and released her second album, The Teaches of Peaches (2000).[1] Touring as the opening act for bands like Marilyn Manson and Queens of the Stone Age, she subsequently released her third album, Fatherfucker (2003).
Peaches' songs have been featured in films such as Mean Girls, Waiting..., Jackass Number Two, My Little Eye, Drive Angry, and Lost in Translation. Her music has also been featured on television shows such as Orphan Black, Lost Girl, The L Word, South Park, Skam, The Handmaid's Tale, 30 Rock, True Blood, Fresh Meat, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Boys, Sex Education, and Letterkenny, and has been used for the promotion of Dirt. Peaches has performed guest vocals on several songs, including "Oh My God" from Pink's album Try This, "We Don't Play Guitars" from Chicks on Speed's album 99 Cents, "My Girls" from Christina Aguilera's 2010 album Bionic (produced by — and co-written with — Le Tigre), and "Scare Me" from Major Lazer's 2013 album Free the Universe (also featuring Timberlee).
Early life[edit]
Merrill Nisker was born in 1966 in Toronto, Ontario. Her family was culturally Jewish, though not religious.[2] Her maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada from Ustrzyki Dolne in Poland; her paternal grandparents were from Galicia in what is now Ukraine.[3][4][5]
In an interview in URB magazine, she recounted how growing up she experienced antisemitism; on her walks home from school, students from a nearby Catholic school would throw stones at her and call her a "dirty Jew".[6]
As a teenager, Nisker appeared in two plays alongside future Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page, including a musical, My Brother's Keeper. She shared this story with Damian Abraham on his Turned Out a Punk podcast.[7]
Peaches is bisexual.[8]
Career[edit]
1990–1999: Mermaid Cafe, Fancypants Hoodlum, The Shit[edit]
During the early 1990s, Nisker was part of folk trio Mermaid Cafe. The name was taken from the Joni Mitchell song "Carey". She later released her first solo album, Fancypants Hoodlum, under the name Merrill Nisker in 1995, and subsequently developed the style and persona known as Peaches. In 1995, Peaches was in The Shit - a noisy four-piece combo with Chilly Gonzales (a.k.a. Jason Beck), bassist Sticky Henderson (later of Weeping Tile and Music Maul), and Dominique Salole (a.k.a. Mocky). Their absurd, highly sexual rock music was a harbinger for what Nisker would become, as it was during this time that she adopted the Peaches name. The Peaches moniker was taken from the Nina Simone song "Four Women" where Simone screams at the end, "My name is Peaches!"[9] In Toronto, before rising to fame, she lived above the sex shop Come as You Are with fellow recording artist Feist.[10][11] Feist worked the back of the stage at Peaches' shows, using a sock puppet and calling herself "Bitch Lap Lap".[12] The two toured together in England from 2000 to 2001, staying with Justine Frischmann of Elastica and M.I.A.[13] M.I.A. went on to video-document Peaches' 2000 US tour and made clothes for the musician, while Peaches inspired M.I.A. to use the Roland MC-505 in her own compositions.[14][15]
2000–2002: The Teaches of Peaches[edit]
After creating a six-track EP, Lovertits, Peaches moved to Berlin, Germany. While visiting her old friend Jason Beck, who was enjoying modest European success as Chilly Gonzales in his new home base of Berlin, Peaches landed a one-night gig. On the merits of that show alone, Berlin's Kitty-Yo label signed her on the spot. The label offered her the chance to record a new album, The Teaches of Peaches, back home in Toronto, and the already-completed Lovertits EP was released in the summer of 2000. The full-length album The Teaches of Peaches, was released that fall.[16] The album contains her signature song "Fuck the Pain Away".[17]
Peaches appeared on the British TV show Top of the Pops, but her performance was deemed too racy to be aired.[18]
Nisker signed a European contract with Sony following the release of The Teaches of Peaches. She later made a big-budget video for the song "Set It Off", in which she sat in a locker room as her pubic and armpit hair grew to Rapunzel length. Sony subsequently dropped her. "Now they want their money back," Peaches said.[18]
In 2001, Nisker's 34AA bust was one of the first female busts cast by famous 1960s groupie Cynthia Plaster Caster, who was better known for making molds of male rockers' genitalia.[19][20]
In 2002, Peaches appeared in "Hideous Man", a short film directed by John Malkovich. The short was created as a showcase for clothing designed by Bella Freud, and featured the poetry of Gary Sinise.[21]
2003–2005: Fatherfucker[edit]
In 2003, Peaches released her second album Fatherfucker on XL/Kitty-Yo after years of touring and opening for artists like Marilyn Manson and Queens of the Stone Age. She once again wrote and programmed all of the album's music herself. The single "Kick It", which features Iggy Pop, was described by Peaches to Rolling Stone as "more about rock 'n' roll than sex."[22]
For her album Fatherfucker, Peaches was nominated in the "Outstanding Music Artist" category for the 15th GLAAD Media Awards along with Rufus Wainwright, Meshell Ndegeocello, Junior Senior, and Bitch and Animal, but lost to Wainwright.[23]
Art[edit]
Peaches opened her first institutional solo art exhibition "Whose Jizz Is This?" at the Kunstverein in Hamburg on 10 August 2019 (through 20 October 2019). Taking a bold and unexpected approach to the topics of sex, feminism, queerness, gender, and new millennium politics, Peaches calls her WJIT presentation "a deconstructed musical in 14 scenes". At the heart of this presentation are the "Fleshies", who have renamed themselves as such to rewrite their narrative, break away from humans and human interactions, do away with words like "sex toys" and "masturbators" in a quest to find sexual equality amongst themselves.[47]
Inspiration[edit]
Peaches lists John Waters, Cindy Sherman, Paul McCarthy and the films Tron, Grease, Liquid Sky and Phantom of the Paradise as inspiration for the visuals in her live shows.[53]
