Peach PRC, 'It’s Hard To Fathom That This Is My Reality'

Peach PRC is a star inspiring a community of pop fans to be themselves.

Bursting onto the limelight via TikTok, Peach PRC has become a beacon of inspiration for fans right across the globe. Her distinct messaging on the platform focussed on portraying real life coming of age struggles, through deeply personal stories and anecdotes. 

What spawned was a community of fans not just eager to support and be proud of their favourite creator, but a community that supported each other through any difficulty. Peach PRC’s ethos of resilience in the face of trauma transcended the traditional power dynamic of influencer and audience to one that built a community of youth up to be open about their struggles with mental health to each other.

Beneath the wholesomeness was the beginning of a pop star’s career. As Peach’s attention grew on her social media, so did her musicianship. This bubble burst with the release of her now hit, Josh. Following the release of the track, Peach PRC went beyond being a TikTok creator to building an entire world which both inspired and soundtracked the lives of her cult adoring fanbase. Josh would go on to achieve 27 million plus combined streams and reach #35 on the triple J Hottest 100. 

Since then, she’s released a flourish of unadulterated pop bangers including Symptomatic, Heavy, God Is A Freak and most recently, Forever Drunk. The latter of which can be best described as a depression bop, one that’s lyrics contrast its upbeat, mainstage worthy instrumentation. 

Peach PRC is now for the first time seeing her success in the physical form performing live shows following her rise to stardom during the pandemic. She now turns to her biggest live shows yet, being a part of this year's Falls Festival line up as well as its Adelaide leg titled Heaps good. You can grab ticketing details for Falls HERE and Heaps Good HERE. 

Leading up to her huge summer run, we chat to Peach PRC about the glory period of 2010s pop, building a non-toxic cult fanbase and manifesting her success from a young age. 

How did you find the experience of being a pop fan and adoring pop music in a city like Adelaide? 

Adelaide has a big band scene, so it was a lot of punk and rock and emo nights sort of era. I was super into pop and it was cringey and lame to like pop. Everybody loves pop but they didn’t want to admit it. I was a massive pop fan and I’d make sure it was on at all the house parties I was at in Adelaide so that’s how I got into it. I’ve always loved it. I'm a sucker for bubble gum, girly pop and I wanted to do it for myself, so I did. 

You’ve always wanted to sing; you’ve always wanted to be a pop star. How does it feel now that a lot of people are knowing about you for a reason that you’ve always dreamt of, as a singer and songwriter and creative? 

I’m always appreciative that anyone knows me from anything so it’s great to be known in general. It’s so great though to be approached in person with someone saying that they love my music rather than they love my TikToks. The TikTok thing was merely a piece of fun because I was bored and it filled the time and then while I gained an audience for that I’d offer them my music. It coincided really naturally like that, it’s really nice. 

You did all the talent shows, all the TV shows, but now it really feels like you have total control and total freedom as an artist. How has your vision of being an artist changed since you were doing all those compared to now? 

I’m really thankful none of those things worked out for me back then. I thought they were good for me at the time, but I didn’t see the bigger picture of what I had waiting for me. When I was younger, I was trying to be something I wasn’t, I was trying to be this squeaky-clean girl next door image. I put so much pressure on myself to be perfect and not let anyone know about my history or be too honest about anything. That ended up being what helped me have the career I have now being open about my past with stripping, my mental health. I thought I needed to have this squeaky-clean branding or personality to achieve success, it’s crazy how wildly different it is now to what I thought it was going to be. 

You dreamt of being this sort of pop star, obviously dreaming to be famous and then, actually being famous are two completely different things. How has the dream differed from what you envisioned? How has it been dealing with literally being perceived online constantly?

It’s pretty crazy. Even today at breakfast this guy came over to the table who I would not have guessed would be in my demographic and he said he was a big fan, it’s crazy. It’s definitely more than I ever thought. I hadn’t even dreamed this far ahead when I was younger so I can’t say it was comparable to anything I thought it’d be because I didn’t even think I’d make it this far. So it’s just so surreal. 

Whenever I speak to friends who are huge fans of yours, they always say they’re proud of how amazing you are. What is the overarching feeling that you feel after being through everything you’ve been through and coming out the other side? Is it pride, is it a sense of resilience, or is it almost relief?

It’s all of the above. It’s beautiful the way that people have rallied behind me and supported me in so many ways when I feel like I may have been undeserving of the support. It’s hard to fathom that this is my reality, that people want to be proud of you and want to see you win after what I’ve been through. It’s nice to think I’ve curated a beautiful audience of people that support me but also support each other in the Peach Pit. I’m grateful those are the people that listen to my music. 

Pop music is really heading back to that mid 2000s era, maybe because the people making it and all of us grew up in that sort of music. What do you take away from the legacy of acts like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus both creatively but also from a mindset point of view?

I love the 2010s era of pop. A lot of it at the time was pushing serious boundaries in songwriting. Especially people like Kesha who didn’t take herself too seriously with a lot of her lyrics and themes and I loved how fun it was. So much of that era of music was driven by storytelling about the most random things. Like I Kissed A Girl or Kesha’s Stephen were amazing because they’re lighthearted and it’s not always just about a heartbreak or falling in love. They’re fun stories and I love that. 

That reflects so perfectly with Forever Drunk which came out most recently it’s euphoric and dancey but the lyrics are almost the polar opposite. It feels like a proper crying in the club moment. What feeling or energy did you want to evoke with the track?

I think sometimes I’m not meaning for it to be so direct, it just falls out into the song. It’s often other people that say that it’s kind of dark and I’m just like oh, true. I think because I write them acoustically first and they are heartfelt songs and then I put them over a pop track, speed up, add a dance beat, it really showcases a duality between pop and a sad ballad. 

Now turning to the summer with Falls Festival and Heaps Good. How surreal is seeing your fans in the flesh verse constantly interacting with them online. It must be such a weird, surreal experience? How does crowd interaction in real life differ from online comments and engagement?

It’s so unreal. Seeing people dressed up in all pink to see my shows is so crazy. It’s really sweet at festivals because there are people that are there to see me are right at the front and there’s always a little row of pink at the front of the festivals. It’s so cute and I look forward to it every time I perform live. Seeing a room full of pink is my favourite thing. 

What do you think performing live has taught you about your musical career? 

Seeing people sing every word back to me, even if its songs I haven’t released yet. I’m so not used to it having my career grow in my bedroom during COVID, so I got thrown in the deep end. By the time we came out of lockdown and we could do live stuff everybody already knew all the words and it was an insane experience.

If there’s an ideal way or feeling you want someone to engage with a Peach PRC song or show with, what would it be? 

A feeling of being understood. There’s someone that can relate and you’re not experiencing that for the first time as the only person in the world experiencing it. There are people out there in the world that get it.