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Merrill Beth Nisker (born 1966 in Toronto, Ontario), better known as Peaches, is an electronica musician whose songs are concerned mainly with sex.
Before she became "Peaches", Nisker was an elementary school music and drama teacher. She plays almost all the instruments for her songs, programs her own electronic beats and produces her records. In Toronto before rising to fame, she was the roommate of fellow recording artist Feist.[2] Her songs have been featured in movies such as Mean Girls, Waiting..., Jackass Number Two, My Little Eye, and Lost in Translation. Her music has also been featured on television shows such as Showtime's The L Word and Ugly Betty, and has been used for the promotion of Dirt. Peaches performed guest vocals on Pink's album Try This, on the song "Oh My God", and on the Chicks on Speed album 99 Cents, on the song "We Don't Play Guitars". For her third album, Impeach My Bush 2006, Peaches enlisted guest musicians Greg Kurstin, Josh Homme, Samantha Maloney, Beth Ditto, Feist, Dave Catching, Brian O'Connor and Radio Sloan to perform on several of the tracks.
The Herms (short for hermaphrodites) were formed in spring 2006 as Peaches' live backing band. "Herms is a reference to 70's duo Peaches & Herb and blending of words her and him. Peaches and Herms was the opening act for Nine Inch Nails and Bauhaus during the second half of their 2006 summer U.S. tour.
Peaches' music is preoccupied with genderchange identity, and she often plays with traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender presentation. Her lyrics and live shows self-consciously blur the distinction between male and female; she appears on the cover of her album Fatherfucker with a full beard. When asked if she had chosen the title for shock value, she commented:
“ Why do we call our mothers motherfuckers? Why do we stub our toe and say, "Aww motherfucker!"? What is a motherfucker? ... We use it in our everyday language, and it's such an insanely intense word. I'm not one to shy away from these obscene terms that we actually have in our mainstream. Motherfucker is a very mainstream word. But if we're going to use motherfucker, why don't we use fatherfucker? I'm just trying to be even. ” She disputes accusations of "penis envy," preferring the term "hermaphrodite envy" since "there is so much male and female in us all". She does not shy away from identifying herself as a sexual being.