Music is a powerful tool for creative expression and Atlanta-native singer-songwriter Peachy! recognizes this as he explores new sounds and storytelling through his music. Having released his Korean single “Your Love 니 사랑” on July 28, Peachy! is ready to start another narrative.
A Twist on Romance
“Your Love 니 사랑” takes a spin on an initially romantic track and will be included on Peachy’s first bilingual album coming out later this year. With this song, Peachy! was intent on sharing his personal experiences. As he sat in his music studio in South Korea, he explained the intent. “I kinda turned it around a little bit and made it about needing love or confirmation through social media, through the internet, through all these sorts of relationships people would have in solitude.” It was important for Peachy! to create a song he can relate to.
Peachy’s song “Your Love 니 사랑” has a warm melody and sweet vocals. This song is just a taste of Peachy’s coming bilingual album. The rest of the album will follow the same, touching on “real-life experiences.” When talking about the album and what kind of thought went into it, Peachy! recounted, “Just because of COVID, everyone’s been self-reflecting a lot. That’s where all my attention went to, where all my songwriting went to over the past year and a half.” As the illuminance of his laptop shone on his features, he continued to share that the album is “about myself and how we deal with things personally.”
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An Unexpected Start in Music
Although musically-inclined from the start , Peachy! began making music at the age of eight with his first electric guitar – it was a class in his freshman year of high school that brought the Peachy! we know now. It was in his music production class that the artist started his SoundCloud account to submit class assignments. Peachy! began posting his own projects, and it is the same SoundCloud page he uses to this day.
It took a while for the account to build traction. In the beginning, though, even small wins seemed remarkable. When his first EP got 100 plays, Peachy! recalls his excitement and disbelief in the feat. “That’s insane! One hundred people played my song; it might have just been my classmates, but still,” he shared with a laugh. Through consistent efforts in maintaining the account even after that first-year course, there was finally a breakthrough. Peachy’s song, “Falling for U,” received the RIAA Gold Record and blew up after the singer’s junior year of high school. The song features fellow artist mxmtoon and has amassed over 200 million Spotify streams to date. From then, Peachy! found himself telling his teachers about taking time off of school as he had concert venues to perform at.
Breaking Down the Barrier of Entry through Technology
To many, a qualm about making music or beginning any hobby is the resistance before starting. Peachy! fortunately was able to overcome that obstacle at an early stage. “I think it was once I got into [the high school] class and I started learning about music production, I saw that you don’t need to find a band of people who want to play music with you, find a label, find a place to record, a studio, and find the money, and pay these other people to distribute their music,” he said excitedly. Once this had clicked, other parts fell into place, and the potential of everything that could be became clearer. “When I found out about producing, I realized I can just do this all from my laptop. I don’t have to wait for this to happen someday.” That was a very powerful realization and gave Peachy! all the more control in his artistic expression.
Social media and technology have been a pinnacle in Peachy’s journey of creating music. “Half the knowledge I have about music production or music theory and playing piano and stuff, I got it off YouTube for free. Now that we have all these resources available from such an early age, there’s so much more room to explore what you wanna do.” As we continued our conversation, we spoke in particular of the wonder of TikTok and other phenomena that has allowed creators from around the world to grow and reach a wider audience.
Of course, social media has its vices as well. Peachy! has realized this and laid the foundation of a healthy relationship with social media apps. The singer has foremost made use of the ‘unfollow’ button. This helps reduce time spent on these apps. “I don’t need to look at my Twitter feed,” he shared with a laugh. “I already know what I posted.”
Peachy! has been able to find his safe place on the internet by using it with intention. For Peachy!, Instagram is for “connecting with people” and showing the more serious, musical components of his life. TikTok is a platform where the artist can post for fun without imparting any pressure. Twitter, for all its uses, is not really used to promote Peachy’s music at all. Thinking about it, Peachy! reached his conclusion – Twitter is for “sharing dumb things,” like texting friends in a group chat. Peachy! has reached this peace in an ever-growing social media insecurity breeding ground. “It’s difficult with social media as an artist, but I feel like I’m starting to find the right way with me,” he shared resolutely.
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The Musical Process & Fostering Connection through Language
The musical process is unique to each artist. For Peachy! it varies from project to project. For some songs like “No Room for a Nihilist in Hollywood,” Peachy! wrote and recorded the piece within a week. For other projects, a spark of inspiration can occur at odd times, like midnight. And with that, the process begins. “Maybe a chord progression or something. I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” Peachy! shared. “Slowly, more ideas started coming to me, like what if I did this song in a slower tempo, use this guitar and record something to add here, add a little rift here and there.” Generally, his music begins with an idea, and the track continues to build around it.
Sometimes, though, mental clarity is needed. Peachy! animatedly recalled a time when he rented a cabin in the woods and took the time to do – well, nothing. He explained, “I have this to-do list of things on my phone, but it’s also in my head.” With so many running thoughts, it can be difficult to sift through and find the true gems. “I have all these things to do, and once it’s quiet for long enough, I can process these thoughts. That’s when my mind starts to empty, and I have room for something fresh, and that’s when ideas start to come back.” Peachy! emphasized the importance of this event for him and the reset it provided.
On the topic of language, it was in his song “Pop Star 팝스타” that Peachy! first introduced the Korean language into his music. With his new album, Peachy! hopes to share his message most authentically through an exploration of language. “Every different language is a different voice; you have a different way of expressing things.”
Peachy! has found a new kind of artistry in the Korean language. “There were a lot of things I couldn’t say in English that I still wanted to express, so I found this new voice through a different language,” he explained. Although he does hope to explore this phenomenon through other languages, which is fitting, as he speaks seven languages – Peachy! has chosen to sing in Korean for the time being. When choosing Korean for songwriting, Peachy! believed it “would be the least complicated for me but also, the one that would reach the people that I’m trying to reach.” Having friends who speak Korean and living in Korea at the moment, it seemed a wise choice.
The other languages Peachy! is studying include Polish, Finnish, Mandarin Chinese, Thai, and French. Despite how easy it seems to come to him, Peachy! hilariously shared the problems of a polyglot. “I’ll be studying Polish, and I won’t know the phrase in Polish, and I don’t know it in English either, but I know it in French,” he said proudly. “But my teacher doesn’t speak French.”
Maintaining Authenticity in Artistic Creation
With his music, Peachy! is committed to authenticity. “It’s important to maintain authenticity all the way through because it’s very easy to get lost in that process,” he said. It’s important as an artist to maintain the direct line of an artist to the listener. When it comes to the reception of his music as well, Peachy! has chosen a more mature and stable take. “The core of it is, if I like the song, and I feel like I did my best with it, then that’ll be the most authentic me that I can put out there.” He concluded his thoughts solidly, “the art already served the purpose as the medium for you to express your feelings.”
What likely helps this relaxed standpoint is Peachy’s multi-faceted persona. He does not fall short on his long list of endeavors. He would like to get more into mixing and mastering for other artists, and in the future, Peachy! hopes to own a café. He enjoys cooking, playing video games, studying languages, and can see himself as a music teacher one day. It is ideal for Peachy! to have so many interests. “It’s so easy to take one thing away from somebody,” he explained. “But you can’t take away all these different passions.” As such, all these interests are just different avenues for Peachy’s creative self-expression.
Looking back on his music so far, Peachy! reflected, “it’s kind of like a journal entry.” He further clarified, “It’s not just a different story; it’s a different life almost from the stories I was writing four years ago.” Throughout the interview, he maintained this very introspective attitude. From making songs as part of a high school course to songwriting and producing his music every step of the way, Peachy! has come a long way from where he first started.
As an artist, one can feel a sense of trepidation over the prospects of the future, Peachy! shared at the end of the interview his unique take on the matter. “I don’t know when the day will come or if it even will come when I’ve expressed everything I need to. If that day does come, then Peachy’s just gonna be over,” he said, looking away from the computer screen. “It could be in two years, it could be in 40 years- I have no idea.” With a small pause, he clearly expressed his next thoughts. “For now, I’m just working as hard as I can to create a song in the moment and express what I feel like I need to express.”
Listen to Peachy’s new song “Your Love 니 사랑” on Apple Music, Spotify, and more!
Want to read more behind-the-scenes information? Check out our piece with music producer Isaac Han here.
Thumbnail courtesy of onepic_feb.
