The Peach Kings

The band: The Peach Kings, former San Franciscans seeking a SoCal throne.

The sound: The duo dubbed their debut EP “Trip Wop,” and the influence of sultry down-tempo acts such as Portishead and Zero 7 certainly leaves a mark on tracks such as “Little Things” and “By Your Side.” But the occasional drum machine runs second to the interplay of Steven “Dies” Trezevant’s salty guitar work and singer Paige Wood’s lightly toasted alto, which run deft melodic circles around each other. The result is 21st century blues, recorded with a 2011 budget.

The random: The band fulfilled their 2011 trippy quota with a promo clip for an October show, which found them pictured as purple-shaded candle-bearers, levitating over a golden railroad. Hey, where they’re going, they don’t need roads. Or electricity.

The details: The “Trip Wop” EP is available for free download now at ThePeachKings.com.

The music: Download “By Your Side” below.

The Peach Kings -- "By Your Side"

-- David Greenwald - Los Angeles Times

ACTOR, DIRECTOR, AND DEVOTED AUDIOPHILE DREW BARRYMORE HOLDS A CAMERA UP TO SOME OF TODAY’S MOST AU COURANT ACTS AND PUTS PEN TO PAPER ON WHAT MUSIC MEANS TO HER
Photography Drew Barrymore
Text Drew Barrymore
LAUNCH SLIDESHOW
When I was about 7 I discovered the Go-Go’s. I went out and bought their album Beauty and the Beat, and as the vinyl twirled, my whole world changed. I stared at the girls on the cover like they were a gateway to cool. The fact that they were girls made me feel not only invited but more important—like I could be a badass too. I looked over to my Pippi Longstocking poster on the wall and thought, Yes! I like girls who rock!
Although I have no gift of music, my gift would be that I wanted to give it to people. Show them. Turn them on. I used to go through painstaking days trying to make the absolute perfect mixtape (as in cassette) for those I longed to reach. I wanted the playlists to say something to someone. They had to start and finish with perfection. No cutoffs. And they had to be eclectic.
We have to find music. We have to search. Shazam. Share playlists. From satellite radio to the almighty record store. For me, the word “discover” is synonymous with “music.” I am so swayed by music that I can’t actually stay mad if something awesome comes over the speakers. All of a sudden my mood shifts as well as my body. I still am very much that same girl who wants to rock out. I want to be in the pit at a Girl Talk show and I want to feel my heart swoon to Best Coast songs. I can’t help but have a swagger when I’ve got my big old headphones on. I still get sad if a sad song comes over me. I come down to the melancholy of the song until it’s over. I feel music to the core of my being.
The day we did this shoot, Mac Miller’s album went to number one on iTunes. He also ruled the beer pong table with Warpaint—talk about foxy ladies with utter style. I loved taking a picture of M83 and his girlfriend at sunset as we were all winding down. Lord Huron made fun of me for chasing him around with my camera, but I told him it’s gonna look great. The Drums and Spank Rock were a clique all day, whether on the roof or on the dance floor. The Peach Kings were my little love couple, and I adore the romance of a man and woman who make music together. Mayer Hawthorne was super social and supercool—he even brought me some vinyl for my collection. And with a voice that knocks me out, there was Audra Mae, with her whole band that looked like they were from another era. And everyone got along brilliantly. Just set up the vibe and away they went, talking, drinking, and hanging out, pumping the keg to a great playlist floating out of the speakers and making the whole day sound as good as it felt.
I will always put music all over everything I do. I feel like it’s one of the most profound ways to convey emotion. Just like when I was 7, music makes me feel like anything is possible—the drum intro to “We Got the Beat” will always make my body and soul know it’s all about to happen—that something rad is kicking off, and that I, too, in my small way, can rock for as long as I shall live. These bands that I feel privileged to have shot are amazing and current and all over your world. I hope you enjoy them as they fill your space. And hopefully—the way only music can—transport you somewhere truly moving.
Los Angeles, November 2011
Photo assistant Aaron Lippman
Equipment Rental Smashbox Studios, Los Angeles
Processing and printing Richard Photo Lab, Los Angeles
Special thanks Brian Greenberg and Kelly Smith - V Magazine

Riff-heavy, with silky vocals from former solo artist—and Warped Tour alum—Paige McClain Wood, San Francisco-born, LA-based duo The Peach Kings have found a bi-coastal following with their take on the two-piece, boy-girl blues outfit. They're not ones to limit themselves to just one genre, though. Remixes of songs like "Thieves and Kings," originally a sultry, uptempo blues number, venture into heavy electronic territory, while "Easy" and "Little Things" are 21st century takes on doo-wop. The pair has been gaining speed since their debut EP—fittingly titled Trip Wop—dropped last year, and starting August 7, they'll play a Tuesday night residency at LA's Harvard and Stone. In September, their new EP Handsome Moves drops on vinyl and iTunes, a release they'll celebrate with a set at Union Hall in Brooklyn.

We recently spoke to The Peach Kings about their unlikely Texas connection, the sounds that inspire them, and why their songs are never really finished. Plus, we're excited to exclusively debut the video for their newest single, "Fisherman," by Whole Buffalo Productions (Jace Armstrong and Andrew Porter), below.
THE BAND'S FORMATION: Paige McClain Wood: I moved from New York to San Francisco.

Steven Trezevant Dies: This is like three years ago.

Wood: My friend and I were looking for a cool spot, and we ended up finding this awesome warehouse, and my roommate ended up being Steven's brother.

Dies: I was living just across the bay, going to school at UC Berkeley, and my brother was like, "This girl moved in and she's a musician and you need to be in a band with her." And I had never met her before, so I was like, "Yeah, okay. Yeah." And then I finally met her at his place, the warehouse in San Francisco. We started playing and it was pretty obvious from like the second we started playing music that it was working.

Wood: We wrote like three songs in an afternoon. It was pretty cool, too. [Steven's brother and I] met on Craigslist, but we later found out that Steven's mom is from Texas and my grandmother taught their mom seventh-grade English.

PRE-KINGS: Wood: I was a solo artist for a while, and Steven's played in a few other bands.

Dies: Paige was way more serious about it before we met, in terms of the music business. She was in New York doing music there, and she's been on Warped Tour and stuff like that under her own name. So she's kind of been there. It was nice to start a band with someone who has been there and isn't just like, "Well, what do we do next?" She's like, "This is the person we need to call, and I have this person's name."

ON THEIR INFLUENCES: Dies: Currently, I would say we've been listening to a lot of Little Dragon, stuff like that.

Wood: We have a lot of similar older influences, like anything from Led Zeppelin to psychedelic rock.

Dies: Roy Orbison. Tom Waits. Devo... We don't really have that LA sound. We're so all over the place in terms of where we're drawing inspiration from.

Wood: But I think it's always from the same place between us. I always think of LA rock as a little bit surfer, and I think we get that from time to time, but it's never like all that.

JUST THE TWO OF US: Wood: After I toured for a number of years as a solo artist and had to hire session players... we really wanted to try to do it [on our own].

Dies: We didn't want to focus our energy on finding a third person when what we were doing just the two of us was sounding so good. Let's make these songs epic... Before we lived together, just getting the two of us in the same room to play or rehearse or write was like it wasn't happening enough as much as we or as I craved it, so it was just really frustrating at that point, and we couldn't imagine brining a third person into that.

THE PROCESS: Wood: It's always different.

Dies: So many of those riffs would have never been kept if Paige hadn't been like, "Oh, keep doing that!" You know what I mean? Like, "Oh, I can feel something on that track; let's write something to that." I do riffs. I learned the guitar listening to Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Paige, all of these iconic guitar players who were from this riff-driven era; and now that's totally coming back with The Black Keys and stuff in a huge way. The riff is like the chorus to a song sometimes. And Paige is able to capture the sexuality of the guitar with the vocals. There's nothing inherently sexual about the guitar, but when Paige picks it up...

Wood: I disagree with that. It's really fun, too. Steven had his own riffs on a loop pedal, and one morning I woke up with the "Thieves [and Kings]" riff in my head and I was going to meet Steven at the studio in Silver Lake. We were staying at his parents' place at the time, it was right when we moved [to LA] and we didn't have our own spot yet. I literally wrote all of the lyrics to "Thieves" while walking down the street...

Dies: Three blocks away.

Wood: ...in Silver Lake. I should have been paying attention to where - Interview Magazine

The Peach Kings – Trip Wop
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September 16th, 2011 | by Elizabeth Walker | published in female vocalists, folk and acoustic, shoegaze, soul | Comments


Click image to download full album
Sounds like: Kimbra, Lily Allen, Lucy Rose

What's so good?
Music offers an escape from that which we call normal life. Eyes closed, Daft Punk transports us to an instant dance-crazed planet, while Bon Iver lights a bonfire and brings us decadent hot chocolate. No matter the genre, almost every person on the planet responds to and gravitates towards some type or function of music. It is one of the defining characteristics of each and every soul; it is subjective and criticized; but most of all, it is loved by someone, somewhere, no matter it’s style.

Self-described as “gypsydelic,” The Peach Kings are an up-and-coming two member band out of L.A., and have just dropped a new EP entitled Trip Wop. Three tracks (plus a bonus remix) complete the EP on paper but audibly, facet upon facet proves themselves worthy of repeated listen.

In writing this review, Trip Wop has been looping in my headphones until I came to the realization of where exactly these tracks take me: to a place of innocent happiness. It is a simple land, yet not one that is easily reached in this modern world. Female vocalist Paige Wood emits the most effortless bluesy embrace with each note, as if she’s lackadaisically singing on a swing set in midsummer (obviously wearing culottes). Guitarist and friend Steven Trezevant pairs quite nicely with each floating stroke of his guitar.

Of the tracks the EP, “By Your Side” is my favorite; mature and introspectve lyrics, layered vocals, soulful guitar, and some drum machine for depth all make for a memorable four minutes of your life. I’d have to say that the inherently grabbing quality about The Peach Kings is their transcendental, vintage vibe that makes their music enjoyable for all ages and genres.

Trip Wop is available for free download on The Peach Kings’ Bandcamp site here. Grab it before it’s gone.
- Indie Shuffle

The Peach Kings – Trip Wop
Share on Tumblr
September 16th, 2011 | by Elizabeth Walker | published in female vocalists, folk and acoustic, shoegaze, soul | Comments


Click image to download full album
Sounds like: Kimbra, Lily Allen, Lucy Rose

What's so good?
Music offers an escape from that which we call normal life. Eyes closed, Daft Punk transports us to an instant dance-crazed planet, while Bon Iver lights a bonfire and brings us decadent hot chocolate. No matter the genre, almost every person on the planet responds to and gravitates towards some type or function of music. It is one of the defining characteristics of each and every soul; it is subjective and criticized; but most of all, it is loved by someone, somewhere, no matter it’s style.

Self-described as “gypsydelic,” The Peach Kings are an up-and-coming two member band out of L.A., and have just dropped a new EP entitled Trip Wop. Three tracks (plus a bonus remix) complete the EP on paper but audibly, facet upon facet proves themselves worthy of repeated listen.

In writing this review, Trip Wop has been looping in my headphones until I came to the realization of where exactly these tracks take me: to a place of innocent happiness. It is a simple land, yet not one that is easily reached in this modern world. Female vocalist Paige Wood emits the most effortless bluesy embrace with each note, as if she’s lackadaisically singing on a swing set in midsummer (obviously wearing culottes). Guitarist and friend Steven Trezevant pairs quite nicely with each floating stroke of his guitar.

Of the tracks the EP, “By Your Side” is my favorite; mature and introspectve lyrics, layered vocals, soulful guitar, and some drum machine for depth all make for a memorable four minutes of your life. I’d have to say that the inherently grabbing quality about The Peach Kings is their transcendental, vintage vibe that makes their music enjoyable for all ages and genres.

Trip Wop is available for free download on The Peach Kings’ Bandcamp site here. Grab it before it’s gone.
- Indie Shuffle

13 SEPTEMBER 2011 695 VIEWS COMMENTS (0) BY: MARIO COTTO



The Peach Kings’ Paige Wood and Steven Dies won an unsigned artist competition thrown by Paste Magazine and Alternative Apparel late last year and – even though I’m yet to see them live myself — I’m sure it’s due in no small part to the sweetness of their self-described “gypsydelic” sound and their reported on-stage chemistry. In the time since, they’ve moved to Los Angeles, toured extensively, and have put together an album called, “Trip Wop” (which you can sample via their Soundcloud page.)

A fitting name as one could give them, Peach Kings has a sound has a tart, rootsy twang that’s made stars of The Black Keys but simultaneously has a soft, warm downtempo beat reminiscent of Quadron. They’ve been drawing lots of other very favorable comparisons but, like any good thing, better to allow the music to speak for itself and experience these new artists on their own terms. They perform at the Bootleg Theatre on October 1st.

Little Things by thepeachkings

– Mario Cotto - KCRW

The Peach Kings emanate a sound long thought forgotten. With their down-and-dirty country beats and sinfully sexy vocals, The Peach Kings are best served with a shot of whiskey and a slap to the face. Having recently won Alternative Apparel’s Best Unsigned Artist, The Peach Kings are slowly entering the musical circuit playing numerous gigs up-and-down the West Coast.

FruitFlyLife chatted with the duo in preparation for their March 12th show at Viracocha (998 Valencia Street) in San Francisco. Paige Wood and Steven Dies discussed the storybook tale behind their band name and their romantic fantasy of playing music amongst ruins.

FruitFlyLife: Paige, I know you have been in music for quite a long time, but how did you two meet and form The Peach Kings?

Paige Wood: I’ve been touring for a while. When I moved to San Francisco I was living with Steven’s brother for a while. Before I met Steven, his brother Nick thought that we would be a good match for a band. I met him and we played some music --
Steven Dies: We both lived in Berkeley so we were around the same area in The Bay. Paige: Right away we started writing music as soon as we jammed and hug out together. From there, I guess it was a month later that we came up with the band name --
Steven: The two person, boy-girl, Bonny-Clyde thing. We went with that vibe for a few songs with traveling. We don’t consider ourselves tied to any one city. Music for the road sort of stuff.

How did you decide on the name Peach Kings?
Paige: We were in Healdsburg and it was really hot and we didn’t have any water. We took a bite of this peach we were offered at one point. [We needed] to hydrate. We had this awesome conversation about --
Steven: Time travel. If we were to go back in time and give a king a present -- like a European king, who had all the power in the world but lives in Europe so they don’t have all the wonderful things the world has -- what would we give him? We would bring a fresh peach to a king somewhere.
Paige: I’m a super visual person so I just imagine the line of people with all these gifts. I thought this was awesome, especially since it was summertime.
Steven: People with treasure chests filled with gold and us with a single peach! He takes just one bite and realizes that we have the most awesome gift and gives us a land, or something like.
Paige: I was thinking about it one night and I got up, got on the computer, and told Steven that we were the Peach Kings. A lot of bands or my friend’s bands will wait to pick a name. They will record a whole album without even picking a name. It must have to with branding or image of their sound. The name becomes more than it is, rather than being a part of it.

It seems odd. It’s like naming your kid a year after birth!
Steven: Or letting your kid name itself!

How would you define your genre?
Paige: We play more organically sometimes with acoustic and mandolins --
Steven: My guitar playing tends more towards blue scales and chord progressions because that is what I started playing, but more and more I am trying to figure out way to switch it up and not do anything formulaic.
Paige: Our band is cohesive and comes together. I have done some weird genres. Sometimes the music manifests itself when you start playing. We might start with a blues rift, electric --
Steven: We made up a word for the genre, which we have been using a little bit: gypsydelic. Not that we are playing gypsy jazz, but there is an electronic sound with guitars and drum machines. There are a bunch of different sounds. The fact that there are no drums in a lot of the songs causes us to fill out the space with what we can do with guitar and vocals.
Paige: It’s a really simple formula. The other night we had a show where I was wearing these awesome new vintage shoes that I got and I wanted to start writing music in these shoes on hardwood floors because I couldn’t stop dancing. Sometimes we start a song that I want to keep on working on because it makes me want to move. I don’t want to only rehearse in studio and produce a track that sounds like The White Stripes.
Steven: What she means, is that a lot time we play with other musicians and the drummer’s style brings out a more rock n’ roll set or a jazzier set.
Paige: I think it is cool to having a revolving door of musicians coming in-and-out. Steven: It keeps things fresh.

Your music obviously has a vintage appeal, but it also seems very well educated. Did you both study music?
Paige: In different ways. I studied theory for a while and I also trained with different vocal coaches for a while. If you train your vocals one direction, it’s hard to tap into other genres vocally. I kind of steered away from that and ironically started teaching music lessons for a while.
Steven: I’ve been playing guitar since elementary school and bringing in songs and having the teacher teach me the song. That’s what I wanted to play. I didn’t want to play scales and learn scales. I - Fruit Fly Life

Sometimes advertising mixes with what we media types call “content” in ways that are genuinely beneficial. Recently, I had a chance to judge, American Idol-style, the finals of an unsigned artist competition hosted by the Atlanta-based clothing company, Alternative Apparel. Of course we had to head to NYC’s Le Possion Rouge—a terrific venue, but still.

Four young acts had a chance to up their games and get some good feedback. And I look forward to hearing more from three of them.

After online voting narrowed the broad field down to four, we gathered for a set of live performances—two songs from each band, an original plus a cover the Paste-blessed Aqualung song “Brighter Than Sunshine.” And then, the moment I wasn’t waiting for: the mic getting passed down to each judge to give their critique to each band while the audience listened. Do I go the Ellen route or the Simon route? Definitely NOT the Randy route, DAWG. Fortunately, it was easy to find something helpful to say.

And the winner (the judges were pretty unanimous about this):

The Peach Kings.

Sort of a mashup of The White Stripes and, as others have said, a Bridget Bardot/Serge Gainsbourg vibe. Fellow judges Vh-1 reality star Kelly Cutrone, former Epic boss Charlie Walk, Columbia Records talent-finder Jay Harren, Alternative Apparel founder Gregg Alterman and little ol’ me were totally impressed by the level of chemistry shown by the duo. Expect to hear them on a Paste Sampler sometime soon. - Paste Magazine

Late last week, Alternative named The Peach Kings the Grand Prize Winner of its first ever Unsigned Artist Competition. The August 5th event, which took place at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City, featured our four phenomenal finalists, including the Peach Kings, The Lighthouse and the Whaler, Button Willow Locomotive and M.anifest. While the performances were stellar all around, the California-based Peach Kings' immense talent and creativity, along with the support of their fans, has earned them the Grand Prize--which means they walked away with $1500 cash, an Alternative Apparel wardrobe, two Epiphone Hummingbird guitars and a spot in Paste magazine's fall music line-up. The duo will also be featured in an upcoming Alternative Apparel campaign. Thanks to our panel of judges and all who voted--your voices have been heard!

Check out more photos from this event in our Facebook photo album!

About The Peach Kings
The Peach Kings have been described as a modern-day Bridget Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg. With Paige Wood on vocals and guitar and Steven Trezevant on guitar, their sound is an organic blend of gypsydelic, rootsy soul, which can be described as "heist music in Technicolor." Keep your ears to the ground for their summer EP release, Polyester Moon.

×Melissa Metcalf - Alternative Apparel Blog