Peach PRC is building her pop world from fairy gardens and freak shows

PHOTOGRAPHY Cybele Malinowski

“Welcome to my garden,” says Peach PRC when I log on to our call. She’s not speaking to me from some lush oasis or outdoor hangout, but from her bedroom. The “garden” she’s referring to is the one she’s designed on her face: jade leaves, dainty flowers, and pieces of cactus, all arranged across her cheeks like a living, breathing extension of the world she’s been building around her. “I’m inspired by nature and how beautiful it is, and I want to find my own way to display that,” she explains. “I want to show other people the beauty of it, because we see it all the time, and I think we become blind to it.”

That instinct runs through Porcelain, her recently released debut album, where diaristic songwriting cuts through glossy, Europop-style production. It’s a record built on balancing her emotional directness with a new expansive sound, showcasing intimacy and scale without flattening either. The thread is her perspective – candid, meticulously observed, and shaped by a distinctly queer lens – even as the songs shift from heartfelt ballads to pulsing electro-pop.

“I’ve been dying to release these songs,” she reveals. “I had all these songs from years ago that never got released as singles, and that was going to be the album. But by the time we were ready to finalise it, I felt like it didn’t represent me at all, and I changed so much.” Replacing much of the album after so many years of work was a risk, but one she says was vital. “It now feels more in line with who I am today.”

At the time of our conversation, the Adelaide-born pop artist was gearing up for her Wandering Spirit tour, a seven-stop run across Australia and New Zealand featuring her biggest ever headline shows. While previous live shows have garnered the kind of anxiety she tries to block out until the day itself, this time around, she’d been plotting these shows for months. “I’m building props in my basement,” she teases in the days leading up to her departure, her floor lightly coated in spray paint. She cites Chappell Roan and FKA Twigs’ dramatic set builds as major inspiration for her own stage design, leaning further into theatrical world-building and immersive performance.

Below, Peach PRC shares how children’s fairytales, guided meditations, and historical queer coding inspired her debut album.

On-set inspiration & leaving her past selves behind

Peach took her album’s title from her former stage name as a dancer, Peach Porcelain. “That was originally where the title came from, but it’s evolved into something totally different now,” she explains. The record features songs written over several years, with some taking on new meanings as the concept developed. “I chose the title, and then as the songs were written and the album unfolded, I had so many people around me ask if it was called Porcelain because of this reason, or that reason. Truth is, there are so many reasons. It really does symbolise so much; it’s a man-made material, and I imagine it being taken over by nature.”

The album’s artwork took a similarly fluid approach, starting as hand drawings by Peach. “I had one where I was lying in the grass, and I wanted my hair to be braided into the dirt, as if it were a root. There was another where it looked like vines were taking over me.” The final image wasn’t part of the original plan; instead emerging in the final moments on set as her team were packing up. “We found this little patch, and it started to rain – there was a storm coming – so we had to shoot really quickly, the light was changing, and the equipment was getting soaked,” she recalls of the shoot day with photographer Cybele Malinowski. “I was meant to be looking up at the camera on my back, but at the last second, I turned to my side.” The rain started to fall so heavily that she was unable to see what they had captured until the shoot was over, but the team all agreed they’d captured their cover shot.

I had so many people around me ask if it was called Porcelain because of this reason, or that reason. Truth is, there are so many reasons. It really does symbolise so much; it’s a man-made material, and I imagine it being taken over by nature.

Fairy gardens & old Discmans 

Despite its botanical roots, much of Porcelain was recorded in less natural spaces; between hotel rooms, the back of tour buses, and a rental apartment in Sydney. To take breaks from the familiar four walls, she would seek out green spaces to ground herself. “We’re very lucky in Australia that, no matter what suburb you’re in, you can always find some sort of Bush reserve or nature reserve nearby,” she explains. “I would find the nearest one and hang out all day there.” 

These afternoon excursions into nature led her to visit local bookshops and thrift stores, where she uncovered another unlikely inspiration. “I’d look for fairy books,” she shares, recalling that she used to collect them as a child. “I found one that was about a fairy garden, and it felt very spiritual.” She says this led her “down a rabbit hole” that included listening to guided meditations on an old Discman, bought for her by her partner, as she wandered through the same stretches of suburban green.

Vaudeville freak shows & bubblegum pop

The album’s lead single, “Miss Erotic”, provides it with a pulsing energy. Ahead of the album’s release, she released its music video, a triumphant homage to the showgirls she spent her 20s with. To create it, however, Peach admits that it took “months of stress”. “I was so adamant about being a centaur,” she laughs, thinking back to the high-pressure environment of music video pre-production. They tried multiple iterations of the transformation in latex and body horror-style prosthetics, before finally partnering with Maris Jones, a renowned Philadelphian set designer and artist, to bring her vision to life. “I wanted it to feel like a Vaudeville-style freak show,” she explains. “Like an uncanny valley-type strip clip, because the strip club I worked at was called the Crazy Horse and it had a Gatsby theme, and there were horse motifs all over the walls. It was so strange, but it felt like a fever dream, so I wanted to create my own.”

The song and video pay homage to Peach’s time working at the Crazy Horse, and the sisterly bond she felt between the dancers. “We were like a family,” she remembers. “When I was writing the song, I was imagining my best friend, who I lived with at the time and worked at the club with me, and the music we used to love dancing to.” She says that some girls preferred slower, more traditionally sensual tracks, but she preferred something more sickly sweet, like “Bubblegum Bitch” by Marina and the Diamonds, “Break My Heart” by Hey Violet, or “Sweet But Psycho” by Ava Max. “I made this song purely for Peach Porcelain in the club. She would have loved it.”

I made Miss Erotica purely for Peach Porcelain in the club. She would have loved it.

Victorian poetry & queer coding

There’s little mystery in Peach’s lyrics, and this isn’t just deliberate; it’s instinctive to how she writes. “When I’m songwriting, I often write lyrics so literal that they’re genuinely narrating my actual life,” she shares. She references her hit “God is a Freak” and the lyrics “enjoy your red carpet”, which was a reference to an old maroon carpet someone purchased from the church she used to attend. “I find that the more specific I am, the more relatable the song becomes. If I try to make it vague, I find that people don’t really resonate with that.” 

Recently, she’s been finding songwriting inspiration in Victorian poetry, another find in the charity shops she would troll on her days off. “I’m really into reading them by women, because I found a lot of the women who wrote poetry in the Victorian era were queer, so they would code their poetry, signalling to other queer people,” she explains. “Even now, 200 years later, as a queer person, I can pick up on those hidden cues. It’s crazy to feel that, even reading things from 200 years ago, I can relate to them. It’s taught me that, no matter how specific you are, there are always universal experiences.”

Even now, 200 years later, as a queer person, I can pick up on those hidden cues. It’s crazy to feel that, even reading things from 200 years ago, I can relate to them.

Celtic harps, Europop & stepping into production

While recording, Peach wove these historical references into her sound. “I got really into Celtic music,” she shares, even buying a lyre harp and learning to play. Other inspirations came from similarly abstract places, choosing not to listen to her favourite artists to avoid mental comparisons, and instead leaning into Europop and botanical music. “I have this device called a PlantWave, and it has a little electrode you can plug into a plant, and it’ll translate its electrical signals into a synth. I’m always using it to write and play covers, it’s so fun,” she explains. “I’ve always loved blending technology and nature.”

Her current favourite track is Piper, the record’s opener, and the first time she’s received a co-production credit for her music. “Listeners can really hear my soundscape and what I envision, and I want to do more of it,” she says. In this new role, Peach had to understand a new language, one that would translate the ideas in her mind into a studio suite. “That was a real challenge, honestly, because I have such a weird way of describing sound. I’m a very visual person in how I think, so I’ll say, ‘I want it to be blue and sparkly’. I think most producers have more mathematical brains, so they look at me like ‘what the hell does that mean?’ but I knew I wanted the record to sound botanical.”

Enjoyed this story? Help keep independent queer-led publishing alive and unlock the BRICKS Learner Platform, full of resources for emerging and aspiring creatives sent to you every week via newsletter. Start your 30-day free trial now.

The post Peach PRC is building her pop world from fairy gardens and freak shows appeared first on BRICKS Magazine.