Brian Dillon spoke to Canadian hitmaker Peaches before she makes her return to Dublin with a DJ set at Mother Pride Opening Party, just weeks after her show at The Academy. Pride parties are nothing without electrifying artists, and that’s the best way to describe this force of nature.

Having just released her first album in 10 years, Peaches is very much in the queer music psyche, once again delivering a daring sound with fearless visuals in a political climate that seems destined to dismiss the outrageous and homogenise identity.

Peaches’ fearless art is a breath of fresh air in a music era full of viral TikTok soundbites. Her tour, which landed in Dublin in April, has immersed audiences in her colourful world. With her upcoming appearance in Dublin for the capital’s Pride celebrations, she promises party-goers a fun time when she takes to the decks at the National Museum of Ireland – Collins Barracks.

Speaking to GCN ahead of her set at Mother Pride Opening Party, Peaches described her special relationship with Ireland, her admiration for the country’s collective attitude towards world events, her new music and the importance of boundary-pushing work in a time where queer expression is being attacked from all sides.

“We had a great Dublin show at The Academy,” she revealed. “It was quite electric.”

Peaches wants to “bring the party” when she returns to Dublin for Mother. “I have a long relationship with Mother Club,” she said. “I DJ’d there probably 15 years ago. Also played their Pride festival with my full show back in 2022.”

Peaches’ recent Dublin performance, where she brought her truly unique stage presence as she performed tracks from her latest album, No Lube So Rude, was a night to remember.

“I thought it was a very powerful crowd,” she admitted. In fact, Peaches thinks rather highly of Ireland, not just because of its enthusiastic concert-goers.

“Understanding its history, its independence, its relationship to what’s going on in the world now, you know, its support for Palestine, its relationship to writers, to thinkers, to really going deep with people. It’s a very powerful country.”

 

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The reception to her new body of work, which is her first album release since 2015’s Rub, has been positive, with queers welcoming back the punk artist’s gender-bending, norm-smashing approach.

“It’s just great, great reception. The album has been accepted very well, and it’s very in line with what I do, but very much of this time.”

She also spoke of delivering an immersive and enhanced experience through visuals, whether it’s music videos or during concerts.

“I guess I just feel it’s very important to enhance the music through visualisation and making sure that the visualisation is not static, but something that is mobilising and moving and growing and shrinking and changing all the time.

“So it’s not just like a set piece goes on, and it stays there the whole show. It moves around. It’s about constant change and how we can change and how we can push ourselves. It’s also about, obviously, a lot of work on the way the world has been trying to push marginalised communities, trans communities, queer communities, any woke communities out of its own,” she added.

“So this is sort of an expression of all that in the ways that it can keep moving and be very powerful, and also addressing bodily autonomy with, on a very absurd level, weird shapes of body and things that are not normally seen, like very large bits. They aren’t large clits or dicks. They’re bits, huge bit pieces or, you know, my costumes that represent prolapse or the breakdown of the body.”

On her live performances, and the impressive energy she gives during them, she added: “It’s very important to feed off the audience. It’s important to also give positivity and to let it feel that there can be a celebration and a joy happening and an energy. And just adrenaline really drives me, to be honest. Yeah, it’s a kind of situation, as soon as you step out on stage, it brings you alive. I mean, it’s a different kind of alive because all of a sudden there’s a group of people, and you are one person engaging with a bunch of people, which is a different experience from having a conversation or even partying with somebody, you know, where it’s like you’re all just one to one, you know? So it’s a different form of expression.”

The timing of Peaches’s return strikes music fans as quite intentional, given the current political climate.

“I mean, now is the time to speak up,” she said. “And I feel like, yes, I could probably use my material that I’ve used – old material – but I feel like it was important to update it and say something right now and create something that’s of this time to show solidarity.

“It feels very relevant. It feels like people are really excited and holding on to it, and I feel like I’m noticing other artists really hold on to this. And, you know, as shit as the times are, it’s pushing people to really be creative and be outspoken.”

A standout from Peaches’ latest album is her song ‘Hanging Titties’, which comes with a video co-directed by RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars champion Jimbo, who will be familiar to many Mother attendees. As always with Peaches’ visual work, viewers never know what to expect next, and this video certainly continues that trend.

“Because the song’s called ‘Hanging Titties’, I thought about Jimbo and first of all, I had a lot of respect for Jimbo. I think they’re a very brilliant performer and they use a lot of large breasts in their acts. They have a very creative mind, and I don’t know them at all, but I thought I would take a chance and DM them and just ask them if they would like to collaborate on a video. They immediately said they admired me as I admired them, and I sent them the song, and in three minutes, they wrote back a full treatment to a video.”

She continued: “They were just like, ‘Ok, I am trapped by you. You’re a nurse, and I have hanging titties, but I am in a nursing home, and I need to break out’, just the whole thing. And I was like, ‘Wow, this sounds really developed and striking. Let’s do it.’

“And then Jimbo took it upon themselves to find a director and directed it with this director. They did all the art direction themselves. They put everything together, and they were involved in a residency in Vegas at the time. I wasn’t going to go to Vegas. I was going to do green screen, but I was very lucky that I got an opportunity in LA, which means I could fly to Vegas for a night.

“I had like one day. I couldn’t even stay the night to finish the scenes that are in the night. But yeah, I got to go to Vegas, and then we just shot it there, and we had never met before that. But it was just a no-brainer. Very easy. Clicked and things worked out really well.”

Although Peaches is no stranger to Dublin (she has even done a bus tour), audiences can still expect something new from her set at Mother Pride Opening Party. It is just one slot in a busy roster of performances, but it will certainly be a highlight. Speaking about what the audience can expect, she revealed: “Having a good time with Peaches. Just like, what can I say? It’s a DJ set. It’ll be fun. Maybe I’ll do a couple of live tracks and let’s have a good time.”

Catch Peaches, as well as Scissor Sisters, Tara Kumar and more at Mother Pride Opening Party, hosted by Panti Bliss on June 26. Mother’s legendary Pride Block Party also takes place in Collins Barracks on June 27; tickets for both are available via Eventbrite.

 

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