Peach PRC: Porcelain Princess
Embracing change has been key to the Adelaide superstar’s anticipated debut album.
Words Sosefina Fuamoli // Image Cybele Malinowski
It doesn’t take much to illustrate the prolific rise Peach PRC has had since her major label debut ‘Josh’ landed her on radars in 2021 – the numbers speak for themselves.
Over 230 million streams. More than 2.8 million followers across social media platforms.
All of this, coupled with the faerie pink aesthetic that has spoken to a unique approach to pop music, it’s been hard to miss the Peach PRC whirlwind that hurricaned its way through Australian music in recent years.
Yet behind the different shades of pink and jewels, there is a young songwriter who has been on her own journey of self-discovery and identity realisation. For Shaylee Curnow, the evolution of Peach PRC into the artist we hear on her debut album, Porcelain, is one that has mirrored the transformation she has experienced in her real life.
“In the year of making the album, my whole life did a complete flip,” she explains. “I feel like I’ve gone from night and day, when I consider the person I am now. That bleeds into my art and music.
“I feel like I’m now taking a totally different approach to how I write music and how I create. How I think about art and where I get my inspiration from and how I want to be involved. It’s all totally different now. It’s totally changed me as a person.”
If a debut album is meant to be a statement of intent or introduction from an artist, then Porcelain shows us Peach PRC’s careful balance between fantasy and a reality embraced with optimism.
The album title in itself brings fragility to mind; a piece of art that needs to be handled with care. As Peach describes, the process of making the album wasn’t linear and in the moments where momentum stalled, or the inspiration wasn’t hitting, she really had to lock in and find the essence of why she loves to create. It’s why Porcelain lands with added emotional weight and in ways, a level of elevated maturity that may have been hinted at on previous releases but not fully explored.
Peach had to go through it to get through it, as it were. And as a result, the album is a defining collection of music.
“That’s why I wanted to call it Porcelain; the last time I was fully changed as a person was when I changed into Peach Porcelain, my stripper persona,” she says. “That’s who I was for a little bit, even when I was being Peach PRC. I think I was still in that persona for a while. Now, I’ve grown up a bit. I’ve had some time to change.
“I didn’t have an original vision or central idea for the album. I was just making the songs as I went, I really wanted them to be their own thing,” Peach adds. “I didn’t want to have any sort of parameters or theme to fit into, because I feel it really limits me. I let each song come out in the way it wanted to. Halfway through, I hated half the songs! I decided to go and do a bunch of new ones as a result. Half the album is old songs, half the album is new. It did its own thing.”
Arriving at a place of peace with her music is something Peach admits is always a hard route to navigate. Any record or project determines where an artist is, creatively, at a particular moment in time. The singer is candid about her relationship with the craft, and the struggles that can sometimes come with being completely satisfied with the work once it’s done.
“It’s really scary, my tastes change all the time,” Peach explains, noting that once she is finished making a song or a batch of work, the connection she had for it at the beginning of the process might not exist upon its completion.
“It might be something I currently don’t love, but it might be something that someone else really, really does love and really does need right now. It might not be where I’m at anymore, so I might not want to release it. It’s hard to think about that, like…did I just take something away from someone else who needed it? Maybe I just got rid of something really great, I don’t know.”
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Throughout the creation of Porcelain, Peach admits that she can now understand more artists’ perspectives when it comes to this inner struggle. With a full album behind her now, she understands the complex relationship an artist can have with their work on a whole new level – without taking away her overall appreciation of it.
“It’s interesting, I’m noticing it with other artists as well. I’ll notice that for most people when they create a body of work that represents their inner world, they release it and move on; they grow into a new person,” she says. “With an album, though, it’s like, I’ll release it and put it out…but now I’ve got to spend a year staying in this world, promoting it and pretending like I’m still in it and living it. It’s hard because I want to grow up and move on. It’s conflicting.”
As she ponders where music has taken her and how her artistry has changed, a smile makes its way across Peach’s face: a mixture of pride and quiet confidence now this creative hurdle has officially been jumped.
“I am proudest of where I’m at now. It sounds vague, but I think I’m really embracing the artistic side of things. Who I am deep down, who I have truly been the whole time,” she says.
“In the beginning, I was just really excited and wanted to do stuff that was fun and bright; a bubbly, sparkly pink fairy world. That was really true to me and authentic, and I loved it. I still love it. Now, I can show people a more serious, artistic side of me. I don’t feel like I need to feel silly about that. I don’t feel like I have to be this clown all the time. I’m proud of that.”
Porcelain retains the sharp wit that her #1 charting EP, Manic Dream Pixie, proudly espoused; poignant lyricism weaving through multi-layered pop music that feels modern and forward-thinking.
The album urges the listener to dance and to find their own meaning in Peach’s words, strengthening the community built between artist and audience in an organic way.
“I sometimes feel like they’re a concentrated version of myself, they reflect me in certain ways,” Peach says. “We’re really similar in some ways. It’s really cool. I’m wondering who the new people will be to come into the fold with this album.”
Growing up and finding her identity on stages that are only escalating in size and renown these past few years has taught Peach resilience as a performer. It has also provided a way for her to create a space for those who share a similar outlook on life and art.
“I’m excited to connect with people who will hopefully think similarly to me. I’m keen to see if the way I see the world and think about things in some of these songs resonate with people,” Peach says.
“I learn a lot from my fans and from people who engage with my music. I find the way they interpret things helps me then interpret things in a good way, it helps me grow. I am excited to hear what people think of the songs; maybe they will give me a new perspective and inspiration to write new stuff.
“We all have journeys. We all have transitional phases, we all have phases of not knowing who we are or what we’re doing in between,” she adds. “I think that’s what this album is for me, it’s an in-between state. There’s no final arrival and there’s so much beauty along the way too.
“That’s when I find the most magic and write the best songs and meet the coolest people; it’s when I’m in these transitional phases where I don’t know who I am, and I don’t really have anything to lose. That’s where I find the most magic. I’m actually really grateful for those transitional phases.”
Catch Peach PRC AEC Theatre on Friday 13 March. Tickets on sale now at ticketek.com.au.
