Success has come at a cost for Peach Pit. Since forming in 2016, the Vancouver four-piece have gone from indie upstarts to one of the city's biggest pop-rock exports: they've signed to Columbia Records, earn millions of monthly listeners on Spotify, and have a sprawling international tour booked for the spring. All good things, but it means that they've lost touch with the local scene from which they emerged.
"Those early days of our band playing all sorts of DIY shows in Vancouver — I didn't realize it at the time, but they were the best times," Peach Pit singer-guitarist Neil Smith reflects. "I really liked playing in those shows. And [now] we're a little bit out of touch, which is kind of more sad than anything."
Over the course of a half-hour Zoom call with Exclaim!, Smith reminisces about his days of seeing Jay Arner, Cult Babies and Gal Gracen at the Astoria, shouts out his friends in bands like Babe Corner and Bratboy, and extols the talents of art-folk songwriter Sam Tudor and funky soul group Schwey. He's clearly still deeply fond of Vancouver's indie scene, even if Peach Pit's reach now extends far beyond the city limits.
The band's first breakthrough came in 2016, when the band members walked into the city's Neptoon Records. Tim Clapp, owner of the local label Kingfisher Bluez, was working behind the counter, and Peach Pit invited him to their show at the Biltmore Cabaret that night. Much to their surprise, he showed up and was suitably impressed by their jangling guitars and sharp pop melodies. After the show, they played him some of their early recordings.
"We very awkwardly stood around my iPhone and listened with our ears up against the iPhone speaker to 'Sweet FA,' which is one of the first songs we ever recorded," Smith remembers. "He didn't talk the whole time. And he really just listened to our song. I didn't know Tim at the time, but that's just the kind of guy he is — he's really going to give you the time. He's going to make you feel important."
Clapp tells Exclaim! that he remembers the moment "very clearly." He says, "I could immediately tell it was fantastic. I agreed to do their records right then. Sometimes you just know!"
Clapp's instincts were spot on. In the nearly six years since then, Peach Pit have gone from one success to another, honing their hook-writing skills without losing their cheeky, lackadaisical charm. Their third album, From 2 to 3 — out March 4 — is another concise collection of crystalline guitar pop, full of Smith's tragicomic wit, Christopher Vanderkooy's wobbly guitar leads, and the sturdy rhythms of drummer Mikey Pascuzzi and bassist Peter Wilton. Their sound now has flourishes of folk and country, as heard on the rustic pitter-patter of "Look Out!" or the rootsy twang of "Give Up Baby Go," but singalong anthems like "Vickie" and "Drips on a Wire" are classic Peach Pit.
With organic-sounding production from Robbie Lackritz, who bonded with Peach Pit over '70s artists like Neil Young and Tom Petty, From 2 to 3 is a straightforward and unfussy album that relies on memorable melodies rather than razzle-dazzle. It doesn't sound particularly fashionable, but the tunes are great.
Smith is appropriately nonchalant when discussing this inherently humble music. He's not self-effacing or falsely modest, but rather talks with the casual confidence of someone making music on his own terms without any particular regard for how it will be received. He wrote the songs on From 2 to 3 in a small apartment in Vancouver's South Granville neighbourhood, where he was living at the beginning of the pandemic, strumming quietly on an acoustic guitar so as not to disturb neighbours late at night.
"I'm not writing songs because I have to, or because I'm supposed to," he says. "I would be writing songs regardless of whether anybody was listening to them or not. And that's really the end of it for me."
Peach Pit aren't following a traditional playbook for success — which explains why, back in December 2021, they showed up as the surprise guests for the charity Christmas show hosted by Kingfisher Bluez, their former label. They played for free, helping the label raise over $11,000 for Crisis Centre of BC's 1-800-SUICIDE helpline.
"As long as we're a band, we're going to be working with Tim on shows," says Smith. "It's nice when we get to play the Kingfisher Bluez show, because then we are tapped back into the Vancouver scene and get to see all the bands that we've met over the years."
So even if Peach Pit don't get to play as many small DIY shows as they used to, they're still finding a way to make Vancouver's indie music scene a better place.
Says Clapp, "The fact that they still rep Kingfisher Bluez and play the Christmas show every year means so much to me, and makes a huge difference to the show. Besides that, when young bands play the show and see Peach Pit still playing for free year after year, it instills that same ethos in the next generation of bands."
"Those early days of our band playing all sorts of DIY shows in Vancouver — I didn't realize it at the time, but they were the best times," Peach Pit singer-guitarist Neil Smith reflects. "I really liked playing in those shows. And [now] we're a little bit out of touch, which is kind of more sad than anything."
Over the course of a half-hour Zoom call with Exclaim!, Smith reminisces about his days of seeing Jay Arner, Cult Babies and Gal Gracen at the Astoria, shouts out his friends in bands like Babe Corner and Bratboy, and extols the talents of art-folk songwriter Sam Tudor and funky soul group Schwey. He's clearly still deeply fond of Vancouver's indie scene, even if Peach Pit's reach now extends far beyond the city limits.
The band's first breakthrough came in 2016, when the band members walked into the city's Neptoon Records. Tim Clapp, owner of the local label Kingfisher Bluez, was working behind the counter, and Peach Pit invited him to their show at the Biltmore Cabaret that night. Much to their surprise, he showed up and was suitably impressed by their jangling guitars and sharp pop melodies. After the show, they played him some of their early recordings.
"We very awkwardly stood around my iPhone and listened with our ears up against the iPhone speaker to 'Sweet FA,' which is one of the first songs we ever recorded," Smith remembers. "He didn't talk the whole time. And he really just listened to our song. I didn't know Tim at the time, but that's just the kind of guy he is — he's really going to give you the time. He's going to make you feel important."
Clapp tells Exclaim! that he remembers the moment "very clearly." He says, "I could immediately tell it was fantastic. I agreed to do their records right then. Sometimes you just know!"
Clapp's instincts were spot on. In the nearly six years since then, Peach Pit have gone from one success to another, honing their hook-writing skills without losing their cheeky, lackadaisical charm. Their third album, From 2 to 3 — out March 4 — is another concise collection of crystalline guitar pop, full of Smith's tragicomic wit, Christopher Vanderkooy's wobbly guitar leads, and the sturdy rhythms of drummer Mikey Pascuzzi and bassist Peter Wilton. Their sound now has flourishes of folk and country, as heard on the rustic pitter-patter of "Look Out!" or the rootsy twang of "Give Up Baby Go," but singalong anthems like "Vickie" and "Drips on a Wire" are classic Peach Pit.
With organic-sounding production from Robbie Lackritz, who bonded with Peach Pit over '70s artists like Neil Young and Tom Petty, From 2 to 3 is a straightforward and unfussy album that relies on memorable melodies rather than razzle-dazzle. It doesn't sound particularly fashionable, but the tunes are great.
Smith is appropriately nonchalant when discussing this inherently humble music. He's not self-effacing or falsely modest, but rather talks with the casual confidence of someone making music on his own terms without any particular regard for how it will be received. He wrote the songs on From 2 to 3 in a small apartment in Vancouver's South Granville neighbourhood, where he was living at the beginning of the pandemic, strumming quietly on an acoustic guitar so as not to disturb neighbours late at night.
"I'm not writing songs because I have to, or because I'm supposed to," he says. "I would be writing songs regardless of whether anybody was listening to them or not. And that's really the end of it for me."
Peach Pit aren't following a traditional playbook for success — which explains why, back in December 2021, they showed up as the surprise guests for the charity Christmas show hosted by Kingfisher Bluez, their former label. They played for free, helping the label raise over $11,000 for Crisis Centre of BC's 1-800-SUICIDE helpline.
"As long as we're a band, we're going to be working with Tim on shows," says Smith. "It's nice when we get to play the Kingfisher Bluez show, because then we are tapped back into the Vancouver scene and get to see all the bands that we've met over the years."
So even if Peach Pit don't get to play as many small DIY shows as they used to, they're still finding a way to make Vancouver's indie music scene a better place.
Says Clapp, "The fact that they still rep Kingfisher Bluez and play the Christmas show every year means so much to me, and makes a huge difference to the show. Besides that, when young bands play the show and see Peach Pit still playing for free year after year, it instills that same ethos in the next generation of bands."