Peaches (Merrill Beth Nisker)

Websites:  https://www.teachesofpeaches.com/
Origin: Toronto, Ontario
Biography:

Merrill Beth Nisker (b. 1968; Toronto, Canada), better known as Peaches, is an electroclash artist. Her songs are mainly concerned with sex. She lives and works in Berlin. Before she became "Peaches", she was an uncertified private elementary school teacher and librarian. She plays almost all the instruments for her songs, programs her own electronic beats and produces her records.

Her songs have been featured in movies such as Mean Girls, Waiting, Jackass 2, My Little Eye and Lost in Translation. Her music has also been featured on Showtime's The L Word television series. Peaches performed guest vocals on Pink's album Try This, on the song "Oh My God", and on the Chicks on Speed album 99 Cents, on the song "We don't play guitars". She has been invited to lecture at the Contemporary Music Academy in Berlin. Her most notorious song, "Fuck the Pain Away", is also the name of an electro night club in Brighton.

Peaches' music is preoccupied with gender identity. Her lyrics and live shows self-consciously blur the distinction between male and female; 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:

Why do we call our mothers motherfuckers? Why do we stub our toe and say, "Aww motherfucker!"? What is motherfucker? ... We use it in our everyday language, and it's such an insanely intense word. I'm not one to shy away from these obscene terms that we actually have in our mainstream. Motherfucker is a very mainstream word. But if we're going to use motherfucker, why don't we use fatherfucker? I'm just trying to be even.

She disputes accusations of "penis envy," preferring the term "hermaphrodite envy" since "there is so much male and female in us all". Nevertheless, she does not shy away from identifying herself as a sexual being, although she rejects the sanitized portrayal of women in popular music.

For her 2006 album, Impeach My Bush, Peaches enlisted the help of musicians JD Samson, Radio Sloan, and drummer Samantha Maloney whom she affectionally calls the Herms. Together, Peaches and (the) Herms is a direct reference to 70's duo Peaches & Herb. Peaches and Herms was the opening act for Nine Inch Nails during the second half of their summer 2006 U.S. tour.