Song Exploder - Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her

Episode Date: April 6, 2022

Peaches is a musician, producer, and performance artist. She’s released six albums and in 2015, she won the Polaris Heritage Music Prize. Her fourth album, Impeach My Bush, came out in 2006, and features the song “Boys Wanna Be Her.” She produced the song with Mickey Petralia, whose other production credits include Beck, Ladytron, and Flight of the Conchords. “Boys Wanna Be Her” has become kind of an anthem since it came out. It’s been used in a lot of film and tv. To name just a couple examples, it was in the season 2 finale of ‘The Boys,’ and it’s the theme song for ‘Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.’ In this episode, Peaches tells the story of what inspired the song originally, and how she made it, with a few thoughts from Mickey Petralia. Peaches will be on tour throughout 2022. Visit teachesofpeaches.com for tickets. For more info, visit songexploder.net/peaches

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Keshirwe. Peaches is a musician, producer, and performance artist. She's released six albums, and in 2015, she won the Polaris Heritage Music Prize. Her fourth album came out in 2006, and it features the song Boys Wanna Be Her. She produced the song with Mickey Petralia, whose other production credits include Beck, Lady Tron, and Flight of the Concords. Boys Want to Be Her has become kind of an anthem since it came out. It's been used a lot in film and TV.

Today, I'm just a couple of examples. It was in the season two finale of The Boys, and it's the theme song for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. In this episode, Peaches tells the story of what inspired the song originally and how she made it, with a few thoughts from Mickey Petralia. My name is Peaches. I think I've always been very fascinated by male-driven rock music because that's what the go-to pop music was when I was growing up.

So I think in the back of my head I was like, I want to be that, but I don't want to be that. I want to have that feeling and I want to be able to express myself in a fun and flirty and sexual way. And I was listening to ACDC. And I was focusing on a particular song called TNT. I really love their approach musically. With those riffs and very straightforward drums, they actually are like a very minimal electronic band. I was listening to that song a lot.

And it was the song about the hero coming to town and that lock up your daughters, lock up your wives. the boy is back in town and then I started thinking of all the other rock songs that say that the boys are back in town whatever you know like just it was always a guy in town that the girls want to worship and the guys are like oh man you're the coolest

but it's always really gendered and then I thought I want to make an anthem like that where everybody wants to be that person I just wanted to propel the queer concepts out of it and bring queerness to this very minimal, very straightforward rock music. I started as a guitar player, but now I was working on the Roland Groovebox MC505. It's like a sequencer. It has all the synth sounds that Roland made at the time. It has all the 808, the 909s. It has early techno drumbeats.

And that appealed to me because this way I could be the drum. I could be the bass player, I could be the synth player, and also I could mix it really easy because it was all in the same box. So in 2005, I went to L.A. and I actually was working with Mickey Petrelia, and it was actually the first time I decided to work with a producer. My name is Mickey Petralia. We were all in awe of her as, you know, just what she was able to do with her 5.05 drum machine. and it was really cool.

And not a lot of people were doing it. Not any, no one I remember was doing that style then. I had a bunch of demos and I brought all my electronic beats. But it just seemed like it should go bigger. It was all very minimal, lo-fi. And so when I heard that, I'm like, why don't we use the real 909? I want to use the real 808. And Mickey had the idea.

He said, I know this synth genius. And I bet he could recreate every. you've done, just so that we could have these more powerful recordings on the original instruments. And so in walked, Greg Kirsten. Greg Kirsten was a keyboard player. I met somebody we were using for a lot of sessions back on the day, records and films. It was always great working with Greg. By the way, Greg Kirsten is now one of the biggest producers and songwriters in the world. He's been nominated for producer of the year at the Grammys four times and won the award

back to back in 2017 and 2018. But this was 2006. And Greg just sat down for a day and then would play exactly every mistake or every little unique rhythmic way that I was working. He recreated all my demos in analog fidelity. But one day I went in there and I was like,

I have a riff. I've got it. And I just went, I just made the riff right away. I just made the riff right away. I feel like I have that 70s guitar sound in my head, but I hear it electronically in the way that I want it very tight and not clean sounding, but clean in its place.

The minute I did that rift, I'm like, this is my ACDC moment coming together. This is me putting Pitch's Spin on ACDC and loving it. Then I was like, Greg, I just need a kick really forward to the floor. and a bass really just like one-note bass. It's just kind of a synth bass that's really robotic and deep and drives the song to me.

The drums are pretty minimal. I know we even wanted to do the old deaf leopard trick of the programmed kick and snare and then a live hat to give it a little more feel. So we did that on that one. And then I said, this is called The Boys Want to Be Her, the Girls Want to Be Her. Once I have the chorus,

I use that as an anchor lyrically to build the verses. You got them all by the balls causing waterfalls. Stone walls, bar brawls, climbing stalls at concert halls. You got them all by the balls causing waterfalls, stone walls, bar brawls, climbing stalls in concert halls. I just wanted to rhyme all the all doll ball, doll, and it worked. To you they crawl, body sprawls, smoking pall malls, close calls, stand tall, doll, you make them feel so recording the vocals I had for the first time in my life and I've never had it again crazy sinus infection for like three months you hear it's a bit like you got that I'm plugging my nose right now because it was like you got them all by the balls causing waterfalls I hear it that way I hear me with a sinus infection but I had to record it the way you rock non-stop girl you got the chops flip-flop she bob self-top your licks are hot I like you to listen to the recording where you think my voice is way too close to your ear.

Somehow it comes off really dynamic, but you're not screaming. Kids receive crawling up the sleeve. Parents peeped can't conceive that her deed will never leave. It's just me breathing. It's like that fist pumping like, like, wah, wah. You know, like the ACDC has the oi. The bridge? I love it that it's like this buildup

Listen up Listen up Listen up Listen up Listen up But it's also Kind of building a revolution Listener ooh

Listener ooh Listener Listen up voice is scatter Listen up Listen up Listen up Listen up voice How you tell

It's a great song If you can get away With a kick snare and guitar I'm We call it a classic now right Here we are 16 years later It's still out there And people still dig it

It's just been a power gift, I have to say, in terms of every time I play it or even in a DJ set, it crosses over to so many crowds and so many people. And the way it's been used, you know, for trailers of like some of my favorite shows or movies. Like I remember when Fleabag used it, you know, for a trailer. And I was like, oh my God, yes, this is so perfect. Yeah, it always brought this special moment of empowerment because it brought a place for women to have this riff. It's got this energy to it, this badass energy that rock and roll has,

that is beautiful, that is not toxic or anything like that. It's just beautiful. I love rock music. And now here's Boys Want to Be Her by Peaches in its entirety. Or malls, close call, stand tall, doll, you make them feel so small. Yes, I do. Deed will never leave. Or visit songexploader.net slash peaches.

You'll find links to stream or download Boys Want to Be Here. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length. And this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh, her way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making music, talking to other artists. And it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that.

It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Weinrobe. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April. And I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city. Like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzuchas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin, Clion, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage.

And then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, Rishikesh.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Song Exploder is made by me, along with the show's theme music. I produced this episode along with Craig Ely and Casey Deal, with artwork by Carlos Lerma, music clearance by Kathleen Smith,

and production assistants from Chloe Parker. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at Radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Rishi Hereway, and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi-Kesh-Hirway.

Thanks for listening. Topia.