Super-naughty wildgirl Peaches’ remarkable album I Feel Cream shows off some new sides to Canada’s favourite electroclash enfant terrible. For starters, current single Lose You shows Peaches in never-before-seen reflective and vulnerable mode, and in the hilarious video, delivering the song to two unwitting captive audience members (check out the video below).

“Last year I was involved in an artist project,” she explains, “There were 20 artists chosen and we were told we could have an apartment in this rough area of Berlin. We could transform that apartment and do whatever we liked. The stipulation was that there would be a tour of people coming through every ten minutes with an audience of only two people at a time. I decided to give people the experience of a real-life musical. I didn’t know those two people in the video and I was just singing to them and we dubbed the real song over later. Things would unfold on their faces and the reaction was just amazing because when you talk to people you know they are like ‘musicals suck!’, that never happens in real life. So I made it happen in real life!”

Peaches star has certainly risen on the back of her last two albums Fatherfucker (2003) and Impeach My Bush (2006). Her minimal beats, economical songwriting and explicitly sexual lyrics have established her as an artist on the very forefront of the electroclash genre and also, within this, as a female artist as well. Like many apparently ‘aggressive’ female performers who have gone before her (think race Jone) Peaches has, on the surface, developed a reputation as ‘scary woman’ and ‘sexual predator’.

“I think if people see it as scary,” retorts Peaches, “Then there is something that they are fearing and they can’t get to within themselves. Obviously for me, it is all about freeing yourself and fun and not defining roles which I’m sure Grace Jones would agree with in that way. I find it ridiculous if people find me scary or shocking or whatever. It amazes and shocks me when people feel that way.”

With titles like Two Guys (For Every Girl), Fuck Or Kill and Slippery Dick (among many, many others), gender identity and sexual freedom are hot topics in Peaches’ lexicon. A musical genderfuck line can be traced back to early 70’s glam rock like (Bowie, Roxy, Lou Reed), through the 80’s (Boy George, Marilyn, Divine) and then to the late 90s where we find Peaches debut (under that name), The Teaches Of Peaches and her key single Fuck The Pain Away pioneering the pop-culture sexual revolution for a new generation. Ten years on from that and we have a top 10 littered with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.

“No, no, doesn’t Lady Gaga do it all now?” counters Peaches, “I do feel like I’m a pioneer in talking about it definitely, post-1980s. But you know but if Lady Gaga says it, isn’t it mainstream now?” she laughs.

Things weren’t always this way for Peaches AKA Merrill Nisker, former folk singer and kindergarten teacher from Toronto. Hardly arriving fully formed, the evolution from these beginnings to the Peaches of today has been a long and fascinating journey.

“Well, I can tell you how it went,” she begins, “I needed a job so I started to work at a daycare centre, it was so god damn boring and the teachers were so lame that I used to take the kids in sections and develop music programs with them, do role play and get a sense of what they wanted. I know that when I was growing up there were very strict ideas of what was creativity, and also your rights and wrongs. I developed these programs using acoustic guitars and it was a way for me to learn acoustic guitar. At the same time I had a girlfriend who played acoustic guitar (solo singer and Broken Social Scene member Leslie Feist) and I was learning songs. One night she had a gig in a bar and 200 people came and we got a weekly gig. So I became a folk musician and every week we would write songs, sing them and develop our style. Then in the day, I would play guitar for kids. I did that for about a year and a half and then I thought ‘I think I’m a musician!’. But I didn’t really want to be a folk musician so I started trying to stretch my voice, write more songs, then I learnt electric guitar and keyboard. It was a really natural development.”

The turning point came out of the blue (as things tend to) when she got to form her first band with a random acquaintance from a newspaper (“a girl named Sticky!”, Peaches informed me) who had a band which reminded her of The Carry Nations, the band from Russ Meyer’s drugged out spoof-musical comedy film from 1970.

“The idea was that we would give ourselves character names and switch instruments every two songs,” she explains. “So that’s where the name Peaches came from and also the sentiment of really letting go. That band was called The Shit,” she laughs. “Then everyone moved away so I got this machine and decided to use it as a punk rock tool. I really had no idea that I was going to be a pioneer putting together electro and rock, I grew up in the 80s you know, I had no fear of disco and punk together! I decided to not actually sing on my first three records so I could develop this style of lyrical directness that I felt was missing in women – not being rappy or soul singing – just being as minimal and as direct as possible. The first album was really a DIY Bedroom Revolution, Fatherfucker was Roleplay Revolution, Impeach My Bush was… Revolution Revolution in terms of you know… I called the nation to impeach my bush!”

So now to 2009 and we have a new Peaches album I Feel Cream – don’t be fooled by the title which harks back to her more in-your-face lyrical moments, this album is easily her most creative, focused and artistically satisfying album yet.

“For this album,” responds Peaches, “I decided to bring out my secret weapon which is that I am a really good singer. And also, if I’m going to be such a strong character and go on, I really need to switch it up and also show my vulnerable side. That helped also with the harder songs and allowed space for a song like Billionaire where I am completely rapping and have a guest rapper Shunda K, that’s also new for me. And also, a song like Mommy Complex, where my total Fatherfucker ideology is mixed with Digitalism’s completely bombastic music – these collaborations are a good next level for me.”

Catch Peaches DJing around the country this month:

Sat 12 Sept – Frankly at the Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
Sun 13 Sept – Never Land Bar, Coolangatta
Wed 16 Sept – The Capitol, Perth
Fri 18 Sept – Oh My! at Home, Sydney
Sat 19 Sept – Roxanne, Melbourne

Peaches I Feel Cream is out now through XL Recordings. Check out the video below for Lose You...