Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Peaches

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Peaches

In my own personal big gay church there are many wings. In one such wing reside those who have forged careers by marching to a beat only they can hear. They are originals - unlike any other. Their styles created archetypes upon which many careers were built, but it all began with them. They created it. They own it.

One such sexual warrior?

Peaches.

Visceral. Imaginative. Gut-wrenchingly honest.

Confrontational - but in the manner all great art should be. 

She pulls no punches. It's been that way since day one. 

Her path, uniquely sexual in nature, hasn't always been received well.

To this day, she continues to battle ageism, sexism, and people's fear of sex. 

Her best videos/songs are available on YouTube, but I can't share them with you because they are blocked from being shared by the site. 

Fuck The Pain Away is the one that actually set it off. For her legions of fans, it remains a rallying cry. It's also been covered many times by other artists and has become part of our cultural landscape. 

Visually, she continues to stun. She's intensely creative, as she presents human kind's biological imperative from her very personal and unique perspective.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips. 

The topic? Being Peaches

"Even when I started out, people had so many different opinions about me. Like, I was a feminist; I wasn’t a feminist; I was obsessed with sex; I wasn’t sexy at all; I was super angry; I was too funny. I was like, ‘Wow, how can all these super opposing things come from one direct line from me?’"

"You know, when I played my first NME show (at London’s Astoria in 2001) I opened for The Strokes – and then it was (…And You Will Know Us by the) Trail of Dead and Rocket from the Crypt. I was 33, and the headlines were like ‘Grandma, You’re Scaring the Kids’. It’s amazing. I noticed (ageism) at the beginning and then it was just like, forget it. I’ve never drank the juice of all of that, anyway. I found out I was ugly from becoming Peaches too, 'her ugliness is what’s so great about…’ I was like, oh, I’m ugly? Ok!"

"I beat myself up all the time. I tell myself bullshit all the time. And the minute I wake up, I tell myself, ‘You're doing something wrong. What are you doing? Why are you still in bed? What are you doing lying around? You should get up. You should be doing something. Go outside. Take a walk. Why don't you read something? Why don’t you learn something?’ And this is still when I'm in bed. I haven't even had a chance to get up, to take a few breaths, to say good morning to myself. ‘Good morning, Peaches’. I don't say that to myself. I don't even open my eyes. I just tell myself, ‘What the hell are you doing?’"

"Sometimes when you bring humour into it people can laugh for a second, and let it in a little more. I find those situations that are serious quite absurd, in a way. When I generate other absurdities – and people are like, oh she’s just being absurd – it’s like, actually, look at the real situation! You know how people say ‘you couldn’t make this shit up?’ It couldn’t be more absurd than the reality of it."

Set It Off - Peaches

Billionaire - Peaches

Vaginoplasty - Peaches

And one last parting shot...

"It’s good for me to have contact with the next generation of thinkers because it keeps evolving."

"I was so obsessed with infiltrating everywhere. I was like, this is the moment, I have to do it. I don’t think I would change that. The beginning was a light switch moment, and that light switch has just been on ever since."

"I didn’t want to move towards the mainstream, I wanted the mainstream to move towards me."

"I’m going to do whatever the fuck I want"