CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS 084: PEACH PRC ON BEING FOREVER DRUNK, TOURING WITH YUNGBLOD, AND TIKTOK STARDOM

Words by Brooklyn Gibbs.

Peach PRC has been dancing over silver cans, pretending they’re adoring fans!

The breakthrough hyper-pop sensation has blessed our ears with a melodramatic, dance-while-you-cry, anthem, Forever Drunk.

Forever Drunk marks the first collaboration between Peach PRC and Grammy-nominated pop songwriter Bonnie McKee, who has worked with international pop icons Katy Perry and Britney Spears.

This heartbreak anthem is Peach’s reflection of her first heartbreak, when at the time she thought the teenage relationship was all she had in her life. Futuremag Music caught up with Peach PRC to discuss the release!

“I had no family, I hated school, I didn’t think I was smart or talented,” Peach said about the new release. “So once I lost this person, I went into full-on teenage melodramatic devastation, groveling on my hands and knees, begging to be taken back. I thought I would never get over it at the time.”

Peach PRC and Bonnie McKee have shared so much in common both musically and personally, that this collaboration made them the perfect fit for this teenage, heartbreak anthem!

“Back when Stay High by Tove Lo came out. I remember thinking ‘omg, I’ve got to stay high all the time and forever drunk because this person left me’ and this high school heartbreak. I thought it was so funny that I really, really believed that and I wrote this song from that really melodramatic teenage perspective and I told Bonnie. We collaborated that way from our young, dramatic selves,” Peach said on the collaboration.

Writing about a teenage perspective from an adult life where new love has been found, and new experiences have been made, Peach wouldn’t tell younger Peach PRC a damn thing!

“I would love to tell her that you won’t be forever drunk and you’re not going to be heartbroken. I think that I would probably just let her think that because I have to go through that to overcome it and be able to learn the lessons that I did, to be able to be the person that I am now. So, I probably wouldn’t tell her anything (laughs).

Originally, Forever Drunk, was a much sadder song, and Peach even shared snippets of the original sound on her TikTok - what a change of direction! Now, it has been recreated into an anthemic, dance-while-you-cry bop, which I can’t stop playing on repeat!

“That’s how I write all my songs,” Peach said on the rhythmic change. “Even Josh, well actually, all my pop songs, were written like that as that’s the way I can journal and get the words out; by doing it slowly and making it feel really dramatic and sad. Then, I’m like, ‘okay, I can speed it up with the tempo and pitch it up.’ So, I write them sad first and then pump them up. I guess it just happens to be a more sad bop-anthem (laughs), but I’m really happy we did it.”

If releasing new music wasn’t exciting enough, Peach PRC recently embarked on on Yungblud’s Life on Mars Australian tour, the very person who inspired Peach to start making music again after she felt like giving up. Unfortunately, Peach’s support gig was short lived when the singer caught Covid mid tour! I was able to empathise with Peach over this and I could image how gutted she must have been.

“I was. I was so devastated,” Peach added. I was bawling and I tried sooo hard not to get sick leading up to it. I got invited to things that I didn’t go out to. I stayed home for weeks, thinking, “Okay, I have to make sure I don’t get sick and I don’t get Covid, because it will all get cancelled,’ and it was all planned well. But, this kind of thing is really unavoidable because there were so many people there. It was beautiful; there were so many people there to see me and they had posters, and they were all singing my lyrics. So, I wanted to go out there and hug them all and say hi and meet them, but that was happening from state to state, so I did get sick, unfortunately. But, I’m really glad to do the shows that I did get to do.”

While bummed about having to cut the tour short, Peach was able to reflect on the good times, and overcoming her first-show nerves.

“I was so nervous. I really thought I was going to go out there and smash it. Yungblud have high energy, so I though, ‘Wow, I’ve got to get the crowd up and ready and bring the energy. During the first show, the second I walked out there, I just froze. I couldn’t dance. I couldn’t move. I was just shaking and everyone was singing my words. But people are so sweet! People were writing little notes and holding them up saying, ‘You’re doing great!’ which was beautiful.” It sucked that I got Covid, but the last show I did get to do before that, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m having fun. I’m loving this. I’m gonna dance.”

After recovering from Covid, Peach PRC was back on the stage for Be Social Fest and brought the energy with her! Watching Peach’s social media stories, and seeing how many people were wearing pink and singing her lyrics word for word was something else!

“I LOVE when people do that,” Peach said. “I love when people wear all pink and you can spot the Peach crowd. I’m like, ‘Omg you’re one of me,’ and they know my lyrics, and I love when people do that. It was shocking to me that on the tour with Yungblud, there were people wearing all pink. Someone told me in the comments, because my fans call themselves the Peach Pit, and Yungblud’s fans are the Black Hearts Club, someone from the Peach Pit said that they were giving out glitter to everyone in the Black Hearts Club who were dressed a bit more goth. They were sharing glitter and it was like the two worlds colliding, which was really sweet.”

Peach PRC unveiled her debut gold-selling single Josh, only last year and has been unstoppable ever since! Josh has already gathered 27 million-plus combined streams, and received widespread critical acclaim. Earlier this year, she released her most controversial single yet, God Is A Freak. Before it was even released, it attracted the attention of pop music titans Billie Eilish, Finneas, and Justin Tranter. Peach has always shared snippets of her music and personal life on TikTok where she has now reached 1.9 million followers, and Peach anticipates this will only grow.

“I think with Youtube, there’s always been activity on social media platforms and people sharing their music, even before TikTok”, Peach said on the rise of TikTok artists. “I think TikTok has really been a driving force for a lot of artists and I think it’s the new direction of where the music industry is going to find artists and to promote artists and find new music.”

Peach has gained so many followers on the platform for her vulnerability. People feel they can relate to her, and they feel like they know who the singer is deeper than what she lets out in her music.

“It comes naturally to me [being vulnerable in a public setting]. I didn’t realise that was what I was doing at first (laughs). I was just posting what I thought I was able to share. I don’t really have a concept of what is oversharing, until people said something and I was like, ‘Oh wow! Maybe I shouldn’t have said that,’ (laughs). I wasn’t trying to be vulnerable, I was just sharing a story. Now, I just have this attitude where I’m just like, ‘Whatever!’ I don’t care. If people want to view me a certain way, as crazy, or she’s doing this or that, it’s funny (laughs). I enjoy it. I enjoy laughing at myself and my own mentality. Like, that’s hilarious!”

I love watching Peach PRC’s TikToks. It’s incredibly hard to imagine that platform without Peach’s diaries on it. It makes you wonder - where would Peach PRC be today if she didn’t open that TikTok account and share her lyrics and her stories?

“Yeah, it’s hard to say, I have no idea,” Peach recognised. “It’s definitely been monumental for me and I it’s shown me that there are people who think what I say is interesting, that maybe I am a good person, and maybe I am a good songwriter, and I do have a talent worth sharing. It’s given me a lot of self confidence and I’m really thankful for TikTok.”

TikTok is the same platform Peach PRC used earlier this year to come out as a lesbian, so it only makes sense that the LGBTQ singer is a proud Wear it Purple ambassador for 2022.

“It means a lot to me [being an ambassador] because I’ve seen that cause for a long time. I’ve been following them for a while and when they reached out to me about being an ambassador, I was like, ‘No question; of course.’ The matter is something that I speak about a lot and something I am still working through myself, so it’s really beautiful to be a part of that community and represent that for other people.”

Forever Drunk follows Peach PRC’s recent tour debut, supporting international artist, Yungblud. The Sydney-based showstopper will take to the stage once again for Australian Festivals Split Milk and Falls 2022, with more shows to be announced soon.

Forever Drunk is out now. Go take a listen - it would be much ap-PEACH-iated!