Peaches (musician)

Merrill Nisker, also known by the stage name, Peaches, is a Canadian electroclash musician and producer.
Peaches has been described as a "feminist and queer icon" by ''Variety.''

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Early life

Merrill Nisker was born in 1966 in Toronto, Ontario. Her family was culturally Jewish, though not religious. Her maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada from Ustrzyki Dolne in Poland. Her paternal grandparents were from Galicia in what is now Ukraine.
Growing up, she experienced antisemitism from students at nearby Catholic school who would throw stones at her and call her a "dirty Jew".
As a teenager, Nisker appeared in two plays alongside future Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page, including a musical, My Brother's Keeper.
Before becoming a full-time musician, Nisker worked as a teacher.

Career

1990–1999: Mermaid Cafe, ''Fancypants Hoodlum'', The Shit

During the early 1990s, Nisker was part of a folk trio called Mermaid Cafe. The name was taken from the Joni Mitchell song "Carey."
In 1995, Nisker released her first solo album, Fancypants Hoodlum. Later that year, she joined The Shit, a four piece band Jason Beck, bassist Sticky Henderson, and Dominique Salole. Every member of the band had a moniker and Nisker's was Peaches, inspired Nina Simone's song "Four Women" in which Simone screams at the end, "My name is Peaches!"
In Toronto, she lived above the sex shop Come as You Are with her roommate, Feist. Feist sang back up at Peaches' shows, using a sock puppet and adapted the stage name "Bitch Lap Lap." The two toured together in England from 2000 to 2001, staying with Justine Frischmann of Elastica and M.I.A. 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.

2000–2002: ''The Teaches of Peaches''

After creating a six track EP, Lovertits, Peaches moved to Berlin, Germany, where she was signed by the Kitty-Yo label. The label offered her the chance to record a new album, The Teaches of Peaches, back in her hometown of 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. The album contains her signature song "Fuck the Pain Away".
Peaches appeared on the British TV show Top of the Pops, but her performance was not aired.
Nisker signed a European contract with Sony following the release of The Teaches of Peaches. She later made a music 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.
In 2001, Nisker's 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.
In 2002, Peaches appeared in "Hideous Man", a short film directed by John Malkovich. The short film was created as a showcase for clothing designed by Bella Freud and featured poetry from Gary Sinise.

2003–2005: ''Fatherfucker''

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 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."
For her album Fatherfucker, Peaches was nominated in the "Outstanding Music Artist" category for the 15th GLAAD Media Awards.

2006–2008: ''Impeach My Bush''

Peaches was nominated for her album Impeach My Bush in the category of "Outstanding Music Artist" at the 18th GLAAD Media Awards.
Peaches' song "Boys Wanna Be Her" is featured in an online teaser for the live-action feature film Bad Kids Go to Hell. It also serves as the theme music for the late-night television series Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. It was featured as well in an episode of Orphan Black.

2009–2012: ''I Feel Cream'' and other work

Peaches' fourth album, I Feel Cream, was released on the 4th of May 2009 in Europe and the 5th of May in North America. The first single from the album is a double A-side of "Talk to Me" and "More". Peaches enlisted some of her contemporaries to co-produce a number of tracks, including Simian Mobile Disco, Soulwax, Digitalism, and Shapemod. Long time collaborator Chilly Gonzales co-wrote some of the songs on I Feel Cream and Shunda K sang on the track "Billionaire."
In 2010, Peaches and backing band, Sweet Machine, toured Australia performing at the sold out Big Day Out festivals and at a series of sideshows, with Shunda K as her support.
On 14 March 2010, Peaches won the "Electronic Artist of the Year" award at the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards held in Toronto, Canada.
In March 2010, Peaches performed a one-woman version of Jesus Christ Superstar at Berlin's HAU1. Gonzales accompanied Peaches on piano during the shows. Travis Jeppesen stated in his review for Artforum, "Not only did Peaches set it off, she managed to surprise us all by showing off an expansive vocal range, a musician's natural sensitivity to the dynamics of Andrew Lloyd Webber's score, and an emotive prowess that is rarely if ever displayed in her own, less holy, music."
Peaches appeared in a film called Ivory Tower, directed by Adam Traynor and produced by Nicolas Kazarnia. Ivory Tower was given a limited theatrical release in August 2010.
In May 2010, Christina Aguilera announced that Peaches was among the collaborators on her fourth studio album, Bionic. Peaches is featured on a track called "My Girls". The song was co-written and produced by Le Tigre.
On 30 August 2010, Peaches released a single titled "Johnny", part of a tribute series to Alan Vega of Suicide. Other musicians who have released tribute singles as part of the series include The Horrors, Primal Scream, Klaxons, and Bruce Springsteen.
Peaches also appeared as a guest musician on R.E.M.'s 2011 release Collapse into Now, contributing vocals to the song "Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter".

2015–2021: ''What Else Is in the Teaches of Peaches'' and ''Rub''

Photographer Holger Talinski collaborated with Peaches on a book of photographs, What Else Is in the Teaches of Peaches, released on 2 June 2015. The book, published by Akashic Books, also includes text written by Peaches, R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, artist and singer Yoko Ono, and actor Elliot Page.
Peaches' sixth studio album, Rub, was released on 25 September 2015. It was produced by Vice Cooler with Peaches in her Los Angeles garage. In June 2015, it was announced to contain guest vocal appearances by Kim Gordon, Feist, and Simonne Jones.
An unused track from the Rub sessions titled "Bodyline" was released by Adult Swim on 20 July 2015. The Vice Cooler-produced track features Nick Zinner on guitar and was described as "a heavy, chugging guitar line over which Peaches half raps, half sings a high-octane space jam." In May 2016, Peaches appeared in a fourth-season episode of the Canadian TV series Orphan Black as herself, performing "Bodyline" in a club. She performed "Boys Wanna Be Her" at the Not the White House Correspondents' Dinner on 29 April 2017. In February 2019, Peaches made her debut with the Staatstheater Stuttgart, co-directing and performing as Anna I in Kurt Weill's/Bertolt Brecht's Die sieben Todsünden.

2022: Documentaries and upcoming seventh studio album

In 2022, Peaches went on tour to mark the 20th anniversary of The Teaches of Peaches. The tour was profiled in the documentary film Teaches of Peaches, which premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival. In the same year, she was the subject of Marie Losier's documentary Peaches Goes Bananas. Peaches described the two films as very different from each other, stating that "one is more of a documentary of a certain album at a certain place in time, Marie’s film – well, I don’t even consider it documentary. It’s more of a painting, a portrait. Marie gets excited about an artist and then goes her own way."
Peaches' song "Boys Wanna Be Her" is featured in the 2022 film The 355.

2025: Featured Artist, ''In the Garden''

In March 2025, it was announced that Peaches is featured on In the Garden, a concept album and musical by the artist Boyfriend.

Personal life

Peaches is bisexual.
In 1999, prior to recording her debut album, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which was treated with surgery.
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.

Art

Peaches opened her first institutional solo art exhibition, "Whose Jizz Is This?" at the on 10 August 2019.

Themes

Gender identity is one theme of Peaches' music, often playing with traditional notions of gender roles representation. Her lyrics and live shows consciously blur the distinction between male and female; for example, she appears on the cover of her album Fatherfucker with a full beard. When asked if she had chosen the title for shock value, she commented:
She disputes accusations of "penis envy", preferring the term "hermaphrodite envy", since "there is so much male and female in us all."
Age is another theme of Peaches' music. The lyrics from several songs from her 2009 album I Feel Cream tackle the issue of age, including "Trick or Treat", "Show Stopper", and "Mommy Complex". Peaches has criticized ageism directed against her, telling the New York Daily News that "I'm going to make aging cool."
Nisker has criticized the "censorship" of pro-Palestinian progressive Jews in Germany. She believes that many Germans "can't separate Israeli politics from Jewish feelings" and that diverse Jewish opinions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict are not "honored" in Germany, telling The New York Times that "for any progressive Jewish person who is thinking about what is going on, and understanding the history of what is going on, to be called antisemitic — by Germans — is ridiculous. Never did I think in 2024 that I would be thinking about that."

Discography

Albums

Fancypants Hoodlum The Teaches of Peaches Fatherfucker Impeach My Bush I Feel Cream Rub

''No Lube So Rude''