Peach Club: Katie Revell (interviewed below), Rebecca Wren, Charlie Hart and Amanda Mackinnon.

Why did you start Peach Club?
We’re an activist punk band. We’re hoping to revive the riot grrrl scene from the 90s but make it way more inclusive since it was pretty racist/transphobic back then. We started, PROPERLY, as a four in January 2016 and it’s been pretty crazy since then! We started this because we care a lot about spreading a positive, powerful message about equality and empowerment.

Who are your musical influences?
Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Hole, Black Honey, Deap Vally. I’m personally really influenced and inspired by disco/electro acts too and if I wasn’t doing punk I would definitely be doing that.

How did you decide on the name?
It’s a bit silly really, but when I was solo I had peach coloured hair and adopted the nickname ‘Peach’ and was Peach Hex. When I started the band with the original drummer she said she wanted to keep the peach element as she saw it as kind of a metaphor, like the band name is all cute and soft (like a peach) but our music is raw and rough. I love it, it’s like ‘this is what you expect us to be: cute and soft, but actually we’re fucking badass’.

You had four releases in 2016: ‘The Bitch Diaries’ EP, ‘GR8’, ‘White Girl’ and ‘Mission Impossible’. Could you talk us through the tracks, what sort of subject matter were you exploring?
‘The Bitch Diaries’ is a whole EP mostly about empowerment. ‘Equivocator’ and ‘I’m A Bitch’ are definitely about exploring female sexuality and owning it and not being afraid to use it. I love the idea of making female sexuality, masturbation and orgasms completely normal, because it’s pretty ridiculous that they aren’t anyway, right? So being able to sing about wanting someone to fuck me is pretty empowering. ‘Go Away’ is just about being left alone to make your own decisions. I’m sure everybody has had SOMEONE tell them ‘you shouldn’t do that because you’re *this*’ and it’s SO frustrating. For us, this song is about the way people try and tell us what to do with our music and lives and bodies because we’re women. Simple as. ‘My Best Friend’ is a celebration of female solidarity.

• “There is something so sacred about female friendship, it’s so special to me which is why I adore being in a band with three other fantastic and beautiful girls.”

‘Gr8’ is essentially about being so cool nobody will ever forget your name/face haha. To be honest, it’s a bit of a silly song but I love it! ‘White Girl’ is about women who believe feminism isn’t necessary because they, personally, have not faced any sexism. ‘Mission Impossible’ is about all the men in bands who have told us how difficult it’s going to be for us and that we have to ‘keep practising!’. There’s a few bands in our home town who’ve said this to us and at a gig recently one of them told us he was shocked at how much we’ve improved. I should have told him to go fuck himself but unfortunately I’m too polite and just wrote a song about it instead.

What has your experience been as women in the punk/DIY scene? 
We have met a fair few sexist pricks in our short year as a band. On the other hand, we’ve also met some absolutely amazing bands who are so supportive and not in the slightest patronising. The main problem we face is people not taking us seriously because we’re a young band, not because we’re girls. I definitely do not think the punk scene is as bad as the pop scene, and we’re hoping we can help that in some shape or form.

What are your plans for 2017?
We’re really hoping we can gig more around the country and less in our home town [Norwich]. In fact, our first gig of the year is [LOUD WOMEN!] in London which is super exciting. We’re probably going to write and record some more next year, we’re always writing new material and working on new stuff so no doubt there’ll be new PC material next year!

Peach Club will be playing a LOUD WOMEN/Parallel Magazine night at the Hope & Anchor on 20 January.

Find Peach Club on Facebook here.