The Peach Kings

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The Peach Kings are an American rock band that formed in 2010 by Texas-born Paige Wood and Los Angeles native Steven Dies.

Early life and influences[]

Wood was raised by a Louisiana-born mother, whom she cites as giving her a gospel influence, in addition to listening to Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Aretha Franklin, Robert Plant, Françoise Hardy, and PJ Harvey, and singing jazz and playing jazz music on the piano. She is a former solo artist and Warped Tour alum who performed in New York City before relocating to the West Coast. Dies learned the guitar from listening to blues albums including Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, along with Tom Morello, Neil Young, Tony Iommi, John Frusciante, and Wes Montgomery, and went on to study music at UC Berkeley and on exchange in Argentina, where he met Luis Alberto Spinetta of the 60s band Pescado Rabioso whom he cites as one of his biggest musical influences and a "guitar genius/weirdo/psychedelic",^[1] along with The Dead Weather. They have both acknowledged Juliette Lewis, Billy Bob Thornton, Abbe May and Trent Reznor as artists they would love to collaborate with.^[2]

The duo met in San Francisco when Wood became roommates with Dies' brother, who suggested that the two of them form a band. Wood and Dies met up, began playing together and quickly formed The Peach Kings. They discovered that Wood's grandmother had taught Dies' mother seventh-grade English in Texas, despite never having met previously.^[3] They chose the name The Peach Kings after sharing a peach the first time they met.^[4]

The band has a self-described sound of "gypsadelia"^[5] and has cited PJ Harvey, Nancy Sinatra, The Cramps, Lou Reed, Lee Hazlewood, and Portishead as musical influences in addition to the vibe of cult films and directors David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, and Paul Thomas Anderson. The band describes it as "everything cool about film noir applied to rock n roll."^[6] The also describe themselves as being "all over the place" in terms of drawing their inspiration, including Little Dragon, Led Zeppelin, Roy Orbison, Tom Waits, and Devo, but only getting that "LA Rock" sound from "time-to-time."^[7] Both band members love spy novels and mystery thrillers, in addition to James Bond theme songs which Wood says they drew inspiration from for some of their lyrics. Both Wood and Dies write the lyrics for the songs in either structured collaboration or bits and pieces at a time, with Dies writing the Spanish lyrics. Wood is also influenced by her love of things that have a "rich history and a story behind them" and describes herself as "a very visual person", with her surroundings and environment helping set the mood while she writes lyrics.^[8]

The Huffington Post described their music as "so damn infectious"^[9] and "bordering on everything from rock to funk, and from soul to hip-hop" with a "very gritty, yet sultry vibe that ties it all together."^[10] AXS praised Wood, saying, "She can ooze alto ardor or belt bluesy ballads with equal lung power and conviction, veering from torch singer to lounge vixen to arena-rock goddess in the course of just a couple of songs."^[11]

Wood and Dies are a real-life couple and many of their songs revolve around love, intimacy and relationships. They make it clear that when writing love songs, they "don't pretend that love is so black and white, like all kissy or all misery." They see their music as "the most immediate representation" of their intimacy but told Music Matters Magazine that they are "pretty private people" and many of their songs are "exaggerated and even flat out fiction" so even though people think they may know the couple through their songs, "they'd be wrong."^[12]

When asked about the message of their music, Wood and Dies said, "That's the thing about music, the listener can do whatever they want and they want to interpret what it means to them. We don't presume for people to take away anything specific from our music, we try to play what we hear in our heads and let people decide on their own."^[13]

Use in media[]

The Peach Kings have had music featured in several movies, TV shows and online media spots including tracks Fisherman and Like A Stone on season 4 of the Showtime series Shameless and Thieves & Kings for the full run of season 4 of HBO's Boardwalk Empire.^[14][15] The band was also filmed by AUDI for the digital campaign for Audi Connect. Wood says, "Hearing your music on the big screen is great, the fact that directors like to fit your song to something they envision is a huge honor."^[16]

The band was hand-picked by Drew Barrymore for the V Magazine Playlist in 2012, also featuring Mayer Hawthorne, Mac Miller, M83, Spank Rock, Warpaint, The Drums, Lord Huron, and .^[17] Drew Barrymore was quoted as saying, "The Peach Kings are my little love couple, and I adore the romance of a man and woman who make music together."^[18]

Additionally, The Peach Kings have had tracks featured in FOX's Gotham, MTV's Catfish: The TV Show, NBC's Do No Harm, VH1's Mob Wives, CW Network's Arrow, United States's Necessary Roughness, the Lions Gate film , and the films Deserted, Free Ride, and online for Red Bull Media House.

Concert tours and residencies[]

Headlining tours[]

The Peach Kings completed an eight-week national headlining tour "Night Sweat" in the summer of 2016, beginning in July in Phoenix, Arizona. The band previously set up meet and greets in coffee and tea shops with fans on tour in hopes of making the tour "bigger yet more intimate than just playing shows" and wanting to meet fans.^[19]

Supporting tours[]

In 2015, while recording the studio album Lover's Leap, The Peach Kings performed live with Reggie Watts at El Cid in Los Angeles.^[20]

In 2016, The Peach Kings performed at the SXSW Festival for the second year in a row in March,^[21] and toured the US West Coast with The Heavy in April and May.

In May, the band toured across the United States as the opening act for Cyndi Lauper's Detour Tour in May and June, starting at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.^[22] The Examiner called the "forty-minute set of smoldering rockabilly" "Sleazy... but sexy," adding "Paige Wood and Steven Dies wowed... the former mesmerizing onlookers with her smoky voice and pinup figure and the latter with his Link Wray six-string slight of hand." In Atlanta, The Peach Kings opened with Thieves and Kings and Mojo Thunder before joining Lauper, who Wood has cited as one of her idols, on stage for a "rousing" rendition of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". Reviews said they "cannot get enough of" The Peach Kings and noted the "searing" chemistry during their act.^[23]

Residencies[]

The Peach Kings have had residencies at The Bootleg Theater,^[24] Harvard & Stone, and Echoplex.^[25]

They performed at the Make Music Festival in 2013,^[26] the Sunset Strip Festival^[27] and to sold-out audiences at Arlene's Grocery for CMJ in New York City.

Their performances have garnered rave reviews and praise, including:

"Onstage, Dies is the spark to Wood's vocal live wire, his no-nonsense grooves and catchy riffs setting the framework for their reverb-drenched songs. Wood's smoldering tones can explode into flames with the twist of a syllable." - Pasadena Weekly

"The Peach Kings' brand of Americana noir gets headier with every EP, and if there isn't a brand of liquor called Mojo Thunder yet, somebody better get distilling." - Buzz Bands LA

"Together they make an inspiring live act: fun, dynamic, engaging, rockin' and personal. Every member of the audience felt like a close friend." - Best New Bands

"... the title track off of [Mojo Thunder] EP features Paige's hypnotic alto while the raw guitar riffs create a vibe that would be easily found in a Tarantino movie." - Indie Shuffle

Discography[]

The Peach Kings released their first independent EP Handsome Moves on September 6, 2012. The album featured tracks "Fisherman", "Do It For Me", "Lonely", "Like A Stone", "Soon Will Be", and "Thieves & Kings". The album has also been available on vinyl since 2012. KCRW called Handsome Moves "a perfect calling card, alerting the world that the Peach Kings are a force to be reckoned with and that they are ready to mount their throne."^[28]

They released their second independent EP Mojo Thunder on June 3, 2014. The album featured tracks "Mojo Thunder", "Hold On", "Say What", "Be Around", and "Mojo Thunder (Kent Rockafeller Mix)".

Their debut full-length studio album Lover's Leap is due to be released in 2016.^{[29][needs update]}

They have also released several singles, garnered acclaim for their music videos, earned multiple Vimeo Staff Picks and over half a million views on YouTube and Vimeo, in addition to multiple "Today's Top Tune" honors on LA radio stations.^[30]

Their track "Easy" was featured on "Playlists by Alexander Wang".^[31]

Awards and nominations[]

In 2010, The Peach Kings won "Unsigned Artist of the Year" in a competition by Paste Magazine and .^[32]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• The Peach Kings on SoundCloud