PEACHES + DREAM

WORDS BY ABI SLONE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENNIFER ENDOM

There have been reams written about the game-changing performance powerhouse Peaches.

So we already know what her born name is (Merrill Nisker), why she chose Peaches as her moniker (so that Nina Simone would be signing about her in “Four Women”), where she has been living for the past two decades (Berlin) and that her music has appeared in films (including Lost in Translation) while her songs have been covered by bands big and small, including the 2020 Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin "Fuck the Pain Away" Hannukah homage.

What you may not know, although she certainly isn't shy to share, is that she feels like the youth today are more conservative, with age comes hair loss and that wine time, is the right time.

THE CRONING: Okay. Hello. How's it going? 
PEACHES: Good. So it's wine time here and wine time is the perfect time. 

TC: I wish it was wine time here. So, it turns out we have a ton of people in common. (conversation devolves into a trip down memory lane). Back to the magazine — it's called The Croning. The time before you hit crone. When you finally get to a place where your body does all sorts of things that you don't have control over. And at the same time, it's when you just get down to it, even though everything from our sleep patterns to our creative process is changing.  
P: And my hair hair thinning. 

TC: Really? 
P: Yeah. It's just so much thinner. Just doesn't cover as much ground as it used to.That could be all the dying... 

TC: There are so many women who've done such incredible prolific things in their careers and continue to make culturally significant work during this like 20-year period where historically women become invisible. 
P: It's interesting. I don't know if you watched The Feud. It was the story of Betty Davis and Joan Crawford. The amazing thing is that because they were washed up, nobody wanted them… and they're like washed up at 40 years old. Right. But Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon are 20 years older [than the women they're playing] — they’re playing younger people who are washed up from the '50s, which I thought was fascinating and really good. Like positive croning.

TC: We've had an interesting response to the name The Croning. Like some people have been taken aback by the idea and they don't see themselves as old, Which is totally cool. You see yourself however you want to see yourself. But the reality is is that we're all aging regardless of whether we want to see it or not. 
P: I feel like because I never had children, the idea of older is different because I don't have the next generation to sort of take me from my perpetual infancy. 

TC: I feel like in the media, we really see this particular picture of a woman at a certain age. My cohorts are smoker whiskey drinkers in their forties, fifties, sixties plus, right. 
P: Yeah. Same people, same people — maybe a bigger pants size, but same people. 

TC: We need to bring those people to life! Where do we see those people reflected?
P: I don't think you really do in this time. And I think that actually young people today are more conservative in a way. 

TC: You think so?
P: Yeah. But in a healthy way for them. I think they take care of themselves more. Maybe like the ideas of mental health and taking care of yourself are more accepted. 

TC: I feel like showing up at work hung over was self-care when I was younger...

TC: I just watched the Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin cover. It's so satisfying. 
P: Yeah. It was really cute. 

TC: And 20 years after the original release.
P: Yeah. Dave was working with Greg Kurstin and so he was like, ‘Let's not do Christmas this year.’ So they decided to do Hannukah. 

TC: It's just nice to see the things that you experience when you're younger that were super radical, still being brilliant. Have you found over the course of your career that you reflect back on anything and think, wow, that was amazing. Or I did I really do that? 
P: I think sometimes, why did I do that? 

TC: Are things that you did that you wouldn't do now 
P: Probably. My notion of spontaneity and structure are different. 

TC: Are you are more spontaneous or less spontaneous? 
P: Less. Like there is a structure now. It's not just like, let's go. There's more of a hesitation sometimes... or a little bit. Maybe it could be caution... or the croning...

TC: Caution?
P: Or second guessing maybe. 'Cause it's also, you still have the same movements and energy, but it is different. The body moves different. Like if you were going to recreate a video, or a live show or something you did, it would be different. You see it in performance. It's just, the body moves a little different unless you're... even, even Madonna who works out every day. The body is different. 

TC: Less flex?
P: Well, less the spontaneity of the movement.

TC: Was there ever a time in performance where it was not measured, where you were not conscious, where you just did whatever came to you and has that changed over the years? Was it always calculated? 
P: It was never calculated. And I think that the more it became conscious to me from what the reactions were. I would not pull away from it, but lean into it. 

TC: And are you finding the reactions to your performance the same? 
P: No, because people have the internet now, and people can read about it before. 

TC: Do you receive less from an audience because of that, do you think? 
P: Um, it's different, but no, I don't. I think that somehow I'm privileged in that way that I always receive a lot because I give so much… and I'm not giving less. 

TC: So… we've talked about hair loss, and spacey memory. 
P: Should we talk about menopause?

TC: Are you there yet? 
P: Oh my God. I've been here for years. 

TC: Are you fully done (bleeding)? 
P: I do estrogen cream. ‘Cause I was sweating and it was so dry — like the desert — I had dry mouth, a southern dry mouth. I tried to wean off, but I just started sweating again. So that was like, after six years… I literally did not go to a gynaecologist until I was like, oh, I think I'm not having my period anymore. It kind of stopped at like 39.

TC: Whoa.
P: Yeah. But then when I finally did go to a gynaecologist, I found out that I had an egg stuck in one of my ovaries… I should have found out earlier. Maybe it wouldn't have been so early, but it was 

TC: And when you were no longer bleeding, was it like a relief? 
P: Yeah, I just, but I was just like, yeah, it was just like whatever. Okay. 

TC: I do have night sweats…
P: Yes. Yes. I remember them well. I would be on tour and every time we got into the backstage, I'd just be like opening the mini fridge and sticking my head in.

TC: Do you think estrogen cream and other tools and tricks saved your sanity? 
P: Yeah. I mean I stopped sweating and stuff like that. Physical things. 

TC: Yeah. You know, you hear the horror stories.
P: But then I've also talked to like some women. I remember I was visiting actually in Nova Scotia and these women were like 50-something and I asked them if they were menopausal ‘cause they seemed so chill? And they're were like ‘yeah.’ And I'm like, ‘wasn't it crazy?’ They apparently were fine and had no side effects.

TC: They're like magical unicorn women.
P: Yeah. In the full countryside, just like living their lives. 

TC: Maybe they didn't see anybody. And nobody said, you're acting like a lunatic. 
P: Right. It's just like, that's how we are… And we have room to do it.