Life is a moldy peach

“Underneath the rough edges of adults are young children, innocent children who are trying desperately to break free from cultural paradigms. By making their music appear to be crude and simplistic, the Peaches are mocking our own superficiality. They are simply saying, “look at yourself.” – from sleevenotes to The Moldy Peaches by Eldar

Beginnings of phone interviews rarely get weirder than this. “Kim is just poopooing at the moment. I think she is just wiping. Can you hold on a minute?” Two minutes later, the other half of the hippest wacko-folk outfit in the world today switches on her conference phone and announces; “Hey, how you doing? You caught me with my pants down!”

And in that almost shockingly surreal exchange, you have pretty much the key to The Moldy Peaches. Their self-entitled sprawling nineteen-track debut is the musical equivalent of poopooing. It is infantile, extremely indulgent, occasionally repugnant yet perversely and touchingly romantic. Their nineteen servings of squalling sonic poo unexpectedly work so well thanks to their unashamed sheer insanity and inane catchiness. Exhibit A; Boy sings: “I like it when my hair is poofy.” Girl responds; “I like it when you slip me a roofie.” The very fact that such twee stupidity lodges into your brain makes The Moldy Peaches one of the most eccentric, esoteric and damn well entertaining listening experiences that has crawled out of the Big Apple.

Probing Adam Green and Kimya Dawson on how they actually go about constructing this utter lunacy is similarly entertaining.

“We don’t have any set writing method as such,” offers Adam Green. “More often than not I’d just write a line, pass it over to Kim and she’d come up with another line and we’ll keep on doing that. I really don’t think you could call that a technique. It’s a bit like Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ where they just gelled all these different parts and random ideas together.”

Kimya Dawson’s best summation of the Peaches songwriting process is disarmingly simple: “It’s like creating our own language.”

Whatever variation of language they’ve stumbled upon, it somehow come to the attention of the world at large with a little help from the recently resurrected Rough Trade label.

“Jeff Travis was in New York checking out The Strokes and he asked someone what else was happening around town,” explains Green. “So he came down to check us out. At the beginning, we thought he didn’t like us because he just came and didn’t say anything to us that night. Then he called a few days later.”

“When we met him I felt relieved, continues Kimya. “I feel very, very scared about letting music go because it is so personal and special to me. I emailed him a lot saying that I was very nervous and he just calmed me down. He probably knows and understands the music industry better than anyone else around, and he definitely understands where I’m coming from in a very human, non-industry way. I feel like I could tell him anything that I felt insecure, wary or worried about. Basically, he is simply a very sweet guy.”

In working with Travis, The Peaches join a lineage of some of the finest and most influential artists of an indie persuasion of our times, which is a bit rich for a group whose opening album lyric is “Indie boys are neurotic.”

“I’m from Olympia, Washington which is a town full of indie boys,” explains Kimya. “While it is a generalisation which isn’t to be taken too seriously, it is also true because all indie boys seem in some way to be neurotic. It wouldn’t be fair to name any names or say exactly why. They might get very upset and threaten to kill me.”

But aren’t Adam and Kimya as indie a boy and girl can conceivably be?

“Well, I don’t even think any of the original indie rock bands have any definite influences,” believes Adam. “I really like old R n’ B. I love the idea of loose percussion that doesn’t necessarily have to be strident and keep in time. Just stuff that was played live in small clubs and lounges. There are zillions of influences I’ve soaked up over the years. I don’t think we have any obscure set of influences we could name, or badge-wearing influences if you like”.

“Unless you count the way I’m really into eighties soft rock.” counters Kimya. “Something like ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’. Total class!”

And when you allow the beautiful absurdity of the Peaches to soak in over a few listens, it is apparent that deep down at their very clownish core, Adam and Kimya are merely one of the weirdest and most wonderful pop duos you could wish for. They are even so beautifully, totally pop to the extent that the back of their album features a word game.

“There is this old American kids game called Mad Lips where you ask someone for an adjective, noun and verb and then you read them this little story with their own words in it,” explains Adam.

“So all you have to do is think of an adjective, noun, verb and band name, “ continues Kim. “And then you have your own little Moldy Peaches story. “Moldy Peaches are (adjective). They sound like (noun). When I listen to them, I want to (verb). Too bad they are just a (band name) rip off!”

Not surprisingly, Moldy Peaches live shows are rough, ready and totally unpredictable. “I wear a bunny suit,” states Kimya. “I’ve only worn it for eight months or so since we started playing concerts. I have another set of bunny ears that I wear a lot too. We have some other costumes that we sometimes wear but we’re thinking of changing them.” So, what are you going to treat us with when you play your Irish debut with The Strokes next week? “You’ll see!” Kimya deadpans, concluding our coversation in the same crude manner in which it began. “We never know what will happen when we tour. We might just shit ourselves onstage and smear it all over ourselves or we might just explode onstage.”