Cyberia
October 1996

Take a smattering of jazz, a few drops of goth and a pinch of pop and what have you got? Peach of course. Peach, so named because their sounds are apparently 'fruity and juicy', are tipped to topple the charts this year. The band are already on every major radio play list in the country, being courted by the media and almost dead cert to take the support role on Erasure's European tour this autumn. Not bad for a chance meeting in a Turkish bath in Istanbul!

Looking at past lives you can't help wondering how the hell the two guys and a girl, formally known as Peach, manage to get on, let alone write catchy pop songs. Paul Statham used to spread doom and gloom about bats and belfries with the dour lord himself, Pete Murphy in Bahaus. Murphy incidentally is apparently still alive spreading his gothic hymns around Turkey of all places.

Lisa, the blonde art student turned jazz singer, brings along the glam element. Culture comes in the form of bespectacled Belgian Pascal Gabriel, a talented songwriter and producer who has been involved with Bomb The Bass's 'Beat Dis' and S'Express's 'Theme from S Express'. He is a self-confessed popster and cyber-traveller.

The band's first single 'On My Own' is a heartbreaker if ever there was one. It flows with a confusing mix of emotions between kitchen sink dramas and high camp. Think Pet Shop Boys, think Carole King, think eurotrash with laddered stockings and you're there. Pretentious, yes, but annoyingly catchy. Artificial definitely, but they've clung onto their sense of humour since they met, according to Pascal.

Although the record company blurb has it that they all met getting steamed up, Pascal in fact met Lisa at the Gilbert & George exhibition of 'Naked Shit'. "There were all these poohs floating around and everyone was so po-faced, I had a fit of the giggles and looked around and saw Pascal trying to stifle the same," laughs Lisa. "We could see the funny side then and we still do. We've been exploring as many avenues of pop as we can and as far as we're concerned it is still fun and accessible," she adds.

Peach collaborate on all the music and lyrics, which they claim 'grow organically'. Funny concept for a band that is more at home with sequin shorts than cheese-cloth kaftans. Although there is some live sound, practically all the band's work is computer based. The computer whiz behind all this is Pascal whose been into computers for as long as he can remember. Pascal has been an avid user of the internet for several years and plans it to use it extensively to push Peach out on a global level. "I used to be on the Performance Artist Network really early on the Net," he says. 'The Net gets a bit trainspotter-like and very busy now, but there is still some really interesting stuff happening."

Peach are planning an ambitious official Web site (they already feature on the Mute Records site) with links to sites that "are life minded and reflect our lifestyle," according to Pascal. "It will be a great place to get feedback from our fans," he adds. "The next big step will be to show some of our gigs live over the Net, hopefully in the spring when the album comes out," says Pascal. "But technology isn't always easy to work with, so we want to take it one step at a time and make sure its right."

Pascal quickly switches the conversation back to genres. Peach are very big on genres and how to create them. Guess we could expect little else from a band whose first album's working title is 'Audiosyncratic'! Helpful hint - read a few books on existentialism before you try getting your head around this one.

HASI HOWELLS