Meet Peach Tree Rascals: The Rising Five-Piece Collective
(From left to right) Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq, Issac Pech, Joseph Barros, Jorge Olazaba and Dominic Pizano.
You may have heard their song “Mariposa” on Tik Tok or discovered them through Spotify’s Lorem playlist that features music that “breaks the rules, just a little bit,” with their popular songs “Mango,” and their newest single, “Fumari.”
If you still don’t know who they are, their name is Peach Tree Rascals: a five-piece collective made up of producer/mixer Dom, rappers-singers Issac, Tarrek, Joseph, and creative director Jorge, who first met in high school in the Bay Area.
Inspired by Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean to The Beatles, and John Mayer, Peach Tree Rascals have the ability to combine alternative jazz, funk, and hip-hop to create a sound that is not a single specific category, but rather a “blend” of everything they put out. Many of the members are second-generation Americans with parents who immigrated from Mexico, the Philippines, and Palestine, which they say also adds to their music.
Unpublished got the exciting opportunity to ask the collective a few questions including how it all started, their cultural representation in the music scene to where they see themselves in five years.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Can you tell us how it all started? How different is today than where you were a year ago?
[PEACH TREE RASCALS - ISSAC]: We all actually met in high school, minus Jorge. We were creating music on our own, separately, and eventually connected and began working together. We would make music out of a homemade shed in Dom’s backyard after school and whenever we had free time.
A year ago… wow, we were just really getting going. We were fielding offers from labels and were totally broke needing a push to get our career started. We never stopped creating and writing and working, but having the label team to help make our vision come to life has been a game-changer.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Tarrek, in an interview with Songkick, you said the fact you all managed to come together from different backgrounds and influences to “make something special” was one of your proudest moments. What was that specific “aha” moment when you knew you had that “something special”?
[PEACH TREE RASCALS - TARREK ]: We’ve spent a lot of time, especially this year, figuring out how to take all of our sonic influences and to put them together to create something cohesive. We tried a lot of different singles this year that we loved, but felt like we hadn’t figured out what the next generation of PTR would be. We spent a week writing and working at my house in Groveland. We brought in our close friends BOYCO (Gabe Reali and Ryan Raines) and together created this amazing palette that is now going to be the focus of our rollout next year for our EP and album. When we listened back to what we made, that was a huge “aha” moment.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Social media has contributed a lot to your success. For example, your song Mariposa blew up on TikTok with 1.5 million videos using the audio and as of now has 113 million streams. Did any of you ever imagine your rise into the music scene would happen like this and that fast?
[PEACH TREE RASCALS - DOM]: No not all. We also don’t see ourselves as a TikTok/social media act. That’s actually the opposite of what we want to be. Our song Mariposa actually had come out a year before and we were super fortunate that it started hitting when it did. We love that song and it’s the epitome of us as a band. It’s great that we can now use social media as a marketing driver. Very grateful it worked out for us.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Being a first-generation immigrant myself, I find myself looking for representation in music, pop culture, and entertainment. How do you feel when you see comments from people saying you are that representation for them?
[PEACH TREE RASCALS - JOSEPH]: It’s amazing. It’s always tough being a kid and not having someone to look up to that looks like you or has the same cultural experiences. I am hopeful that as bands like us continue to come to the forefront, there will be more opportunities for people of color and the stories of immigrants to come forward. It’s so important that every kid have someone they can look up to. I’m just extremely grateful and humbled that we might be those people for some kids.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Does having Filipino, Mexican, and Palestinian influences in the band affect the type of music you all make?
[JORGE]: I think we all grew up listening to music that was culturally relevant to our ethnic backgrounds, but that being said — I think more than anything listening to that early on really just contributed to our love for music more than anything.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Listening to your discography, I notice it varies. There is no certain genre you stick to. How do you manage to remain authentic with your music? Both as individuals and as a collective?
[DOM]: The bottom line is, we put out music that we love. We don’t believe artists need to fall into one specific category. I think that we used the past few years as a growing opportunity, and as we mentioned our new stuff is a really nice blend of everything we’ve put out. I think we will continue to evolve in that way.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What is your writing/creative process like? Do you have any traditions?
[ISSAC]: Extremely collaborative. We all contribute to every song and visual in some way. It’s very much a group effort. I think our biggest tradition – if you’d even call it that – is that Dom ALWAYS makes the final call. Dom is the glue that holds us together, so if he doesn’t like something, it doesn’t make the cut!
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your songs each have different messages. What is one thing you want your fans to take away from your music?
[JORGE]: We want people to feel good, or hopeful after they listen to our songs. There’s so much bad and negativity in the world, there’s a way to tell those stories while leaving people optimistic. That’s our goal. Put a smile on someone’s face, or offer them some comfort.
[UNPUBLISHED]: As a collective you write, produce, and record your music and do the creative direction for graphics and music videos. When you’re not dedicating your time to the band, what do you enjoy doing?
[JOSEPH]: We are always creating for our music - that never stops. But we also love going to shows and checking out other artists, basketball, video games. We love being outdoors as well, that influences a lot of our music.
[UNPUBLISHED]: The visuals of PTR both as a band/brand are very distinct. Where do you get your inspiration?
[JORGE]: Honestly, not entirely sure. We were always influenced by warm tones and colors. San Jose has beautiful sunsets, and that’s always been a big part of our aesthetic. As I mentioned earlier, we find inspiration from happy vibes and tones.
[UNPUBLISHED]: What’s next for PTR? What goals do you still have yet to achieve?
[ISSAC]: We are dying to go on the road. It feels very weird to have had some success, but not been able to meet our fans. We hope to be on the road as much as possible and to continue growing our touring business.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Where do you see PTR five years from now?
[DOM]: We just want to continue to grow and be inspired. It would be great to be an artist who has won Grammys because we followed our own path and did what felt creatively right to us. We want to tour the world, see the world. More than anything, we just want to be happy and for our fans to feel the same.
