From TikTok Star to Breakout Musician: An Interview With Peach Martine
Miami-based singer-songwriter Peach Martine has been absolutely taking the world by storm. Over the past two years, she has amassed over 1-million TikTok followers and 67,000 monthly Spotify listeners with her vulnerable songwriting and spunky personality. Her extreme talent, advocacy for feminist issues, and kind soul have made her the perfect role model for her younger fans. There’s no doubt in my mind that her upcoming album has the potential to dominate the world of younger Gen-Z for years to come.
On February 9th, I had the chance to sit down with Peach over zoom and I was completely enchanted by her energy. She absolutely radiates excitement and positive energy. You can tell the depth of her passion for music through her words:
[UNPUBLISHED:] So, tell me about your TikTok! When did you start and how do you use it as a creative and marketing tool for your music?
[PEACH MARTINE:] Well, I started… I think I joined TikTok in August 2019. And I love it. I spent so much time on it, I love the app so much. And then I started posting on it when I was really bored during the pandemic. I think I started posting probably a few weeks into the pandemic in, like, March 2020. I post every song I write on TikTok and every cover and every funny thing that pops into my head. And it’s the funniest thing ever because I get to read everybody’s comments on it. I literally pick which songs I release based on what my followers like best.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Has there been any songs that you absolutely love that maybe didn’t do so well on Tik Tok that you’d consider releasing? Or do you strictly invest in the songs that do well.
[PEACH MARTINE:] Oh, absolutely! I’m working on an album and I’m going to throw in some songs that I’ve just been dying to release that haven’t done quite as well on Tik Tok. So I’m excited to see what fans think of those.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Where did your musical journey begin?
[PEACH MARTINE:] Well, it’s… I’ve really been making music my whole life. My mom likes to say I was singing before I could talk. I’ve been writing songs since I was like three or four just like making up songs about horses and stuff. Oh, and I taught myself how to play a few instruments. And then as soon as I started playing little shows and like choirs or talent shows or whatever. I would just sing in front of an audience as much as possible. And I really, really, really fell in love with it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] What instruments did you teach yourself? Will we hear any of them on the upcoming album?
[PEACH MARTINE:] Piano. If you hear a piano, it’s me playing it. But my producer, Sammy, who’s working with me on most of the songs, is like one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard in my life. So, he’s really taken on the guitar, even though I would say those (guitar and piano) are my two best instruments.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Now, you have a few songs out and an EP as well. Let’s start with your most recent release. Tell me about “I Would Have Given You The Moon” and the process behind it from songwriting to production to TikTok to release.
[PEACH MARTINE:] Alright so that song just came out on the 28th and it’s gotten a really great reaction so far. I’m thrilled! I think that’s because the day I wrote it, I was extremely heartbroken. I wrote the song literally from start to finish in just a few minutes. And I was like, ‘I’m not even editing this, this is as good as it’s gonna get.’ I literally throw everything I write up on Tik Tok just to see if anyone likes it. You know, you never know what’s gonna make someone’s day or if someone gonna enjoy it. So I threw it up on TikTok and it wound up getting like over 100,000 views the first day. And I was like ‘wow, okay.’ And then it just kept going up and up and I had a few, literally a few 1000 people telling me, ‘hey you need to release this immediately so I can cry to it.’ And I was like ‘alright, I’ll get on that.’ So, I recorded the vocals and the piano in a studio in Miami and it didn’t come out great. It was like I’d gotten over it (the heartbreak) I guess. It didn’t sound as emotional as the wording. I could definitely do better. So, I wound up recording it again the next time I went to LA.
I think it was a lot better then because I had just gotten my heart broken again. So twice in one year. Then I worked with a producer and we got like 90% there and then I brought it to another producer just to kind of wrap it up because I kept changing my mind a lot. Like I wanted to add drums and I wanted to add strings and I wanted to have this part sound different and like I cut the intro and the outro. I was shredding it up and pasting it back together over and over again. And then I finally came out with a perfect version of it about three days before it was released. I was right on time because I had been talking about the release date for about a month and a half on TikTok and gotten a lot of people excited for it. Because I am like, marketing savvy, I would say. You know because nobody is going to do it but me so I might as well, you know, talk about it to get people excited for it. And then I think I finished the song about like, within 72 hours of the release. The first day of the release was such a disaster because my distributor posted the first draft of the song onto streaming platforms instead of the final. But, somehow, it’s still gotten a great reaction. You know, it’s been out for like, what is today? Wednesday? It’s been out for a week and a half and it’s got about 150,000 streams.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I’ve been stalking your Tik Tok a bit and I saw a video you posted just yesterday talking about another song that’s on the horizon with this description: “The next single I’m releasing is given 2000’s pop-punk, musical theatre, Disney, sexual innuendos, Green Day, Blink 182, and Shakespeare’s drunk texts,” Care to elaborate?
[PEACH MARTINE:] Yeah it is a lot. It’s definitely a lot. It’s really going to be something I think, that’s gonna give people whiplash after this next song. So that’s why I spaced out the release dates so far apart, even though the songs are leading up to the album. The song is coming out on March 11 and it’s called “Romeo and Juliet.” I just announced the release date for it. I’m really excited about this one. It’s been a very at home kind of project. I worked on it with one producer from start to finish the whole song. I wrote the song by myself. Like 100% by myself on my piano. I brought it to a fantastic producer named Kinder who’s literally our age, you know, he’s a kid. He’s awesome. He’s a great guitarist as well. He played the guitar on the song. And the lyrics are pretty chaotic. IT’s kind of making fun of like, it’s just saying ‘we’re so much better me and you in this relationship than Romeo and Juliet. And we’re the best, we’re so sexy, and we’re so cool.’ And like we’re having such a fun time and it’s like very sarcastic/
[UNPUBLISHED:] Now you directly reference Green Day and Blink 182. Are they the primary influence in your music, just like 2000’s pop-punk? Or what else influences you sonically?
[PEACH MARTINE:] Well, I would say for this song, those are definitely the main influence, lyric-wise because I like how almost purposefully cringy some of their lyrics are. Especially Blink-182. It’s definitely influenced by Weezer as well, just because the vibe of it works. I did write it on the piano and I know the melodies are almost more musical theatre than anything, which I’m like, obsessed with. Like Les Mis and Mamma Mia and stuff. I think you can tell it’s really got that theatricality. And the bands I listen to the most like Queen are very theatrical. So the song is too and I think people are gonna like that.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Now I took a bit of a listen to your EP, which is a less traditional EP and more of a letter to yourself. I’m really curious about that and just how you came up with the idea for it and the process of creating it.
[PEACH MARTINE:] It all started last year, no, I’m sorry, two years ago when I wrote this song, or I should say poem called “home.” I released it under the name “Home Monologue” because I couldn’t get the lyrics to fit any melody no matter how hard I tried. I was like ‘these are good lyrics.” So I’ll read the poem with some piano chords, whatever, I’ll figure out the rest later. And then I posted it. As things go, sometimes I get lucky, and it just blew up on Tik Tok. So, I would up releasing the song and people were like “this is so different. This is like nothing I’ve ever heard before.” And it was like this complete accident. But I was glad they were liking it. And then they were like “oh, you should make more of these.” So I was like, well, I have all these songs that I was never able to set to a melody. And I’m like, this is probably my chance to get the things I really want to say out there rather than my regular love songs. Most songs that blow up are like love songs or breakup songs. But I have so many other topics that like, if I’m not singing them and just speaking to a camera, people just don’t pay attention. But set it to piano and they do. So I talked about feminism, global warming, recovering from trauma, having anxiety, and societal pressure on girls - just a lot of deeper topics that I wouldn’t usually talk about in regular songs. So I took that opportunity. I was just like hoping it goes well. And then each individual song got over 100,000 likes, so I just released them all and put them out into the world and set them free.
[UNPUBLISHED:] My last big question for you is how do you want people to feel when listening to your music?
[PEACH MARTINE:] I think it really depends on the song. But, overall, I want people to feel understood. I want people to feel accepted. I want people to think “Oh, someone else is going through or having the same thoughts that I am, and that comforts me.” And, at my live shows, I just really want to give people something to look forward to. Because, you know, when you buy concert tickets a few weeks in advance, and that just becomes what keeps you going. You’re excited about something cool. I want to give people something to look forward to and when they get to the shows help them have an amazing night. And I want to do the same thing that my favorite artists have done for me. They motivate me. They keep me happy. They inspire me. And I like to think that I’m a pretty decent role model for all my younger fans because I do have a lot of younger fans and that makes me very happy. Especially because most of my listeners are younger girls, it just fills me with joy. So yeah, I think the different topics like grief and feminism tht I talk about resonate with people. I think more people should write songs like that because it should be talked about in all different forms of art.
