FEATURED FINDS: PEACH PRC TELLS STORIES THROUGH HONEST SONGWRITING AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Sydney indie popstar Peach PRC reminds us that even while things radically evolve, some things never change.
Younger musicians, artists, and creatives of all types are in an interesting moment of transition. It's all too common to focus on superficial trappings - changing technology, shifting slang, and evolving moralities. To do so is about as deep as dropping a beeper into a scene to signal "1990." Peer a little deeper, read between the lines, and you'll realize that there's always been art about unrequited love, flirtation, anxiety about aging, or any other universal human anxiety.
If you don't focus on the TikTok terminology, you could probably find the same stories in Jane Austen to Cyndi Lauper.
“i’d actually rather just take you to dinner ”
To pretend that things are exactly the same, however, would be burying your head in the sand. There's no denying the impact that mobile technology, constant connectivity, and a sea of endless potential connections is having, even when we can't say, specifically, what those changes are. The FOMO is real, and it's turbo-charged certain youthful tendencies like fear of commitment.
Sydney, Australia's Peach PRC is right there, straddling that divide and annotating the seismic shifts. In the process, she offers a potential thread for navigating today's pop music scene.
Take "Heavy," Peach PRC's beautiful new single, in which she opens up about fears and anxieties of being "too much" for not only love, but even friendship. Stories of youthful alienation and loneliness are as old as writing yet anyone who's ever run aground of today's Culture Of Toxic Positivity can tell you horror studies of becoming radioactive overnight, a pariah and social leper if you let the mask drop for even a second.
HEAVY - PEACH PRC
It's unusual to find this level of candor and vulnerability is unusual in Pop Music. It's beyond refreshing.
Or consider "Josh," a single from earlier this year, with its manchild namesake. While worthless, toxic boys with chiseled jawlines, 6-packs, and poor impulse control are a tale as old as time, the modern overgrown adolescence, snorting up their paycheck while their Mom continues to do their laundry, does feel like a modern invention.
PEACH PRC - JOSH
Looking beneath the surface, Peach PRC's stories of love, longing, self-doubt, could come from the '30s, '40s, '80s, '90s - all wrapped up in lip plumper and hair extensions and a pretty millennial pink bow. The sound is decidedly now, though, Swiftian synthpop and Adele-like piano ballads. Timeless and timely, We Are: The Guard cannot recommend her highly enough!
Arielle Tindel is from Cleveland, Ohio. She recently graduated from Berklee College of Music with degrees in Music Business Marketing and Songwriting. In her free time, Arielle can be found gardening or playing bass.