It's just Paige Wood and Steven Dies up there, the duo known as The Peach Kings. They are the center of attention during their opening performance on Cyndi Lauper's recent Detour tour at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There's no other band members, just Paige, Steven, and a guitar. There's no stage props. There's no big LED video screens. There's nothing besides Paige and Steven in front of the draping red curtain. This is their most vulnerable of performances, all eyes are on them. The only way they could be any more vulnerable is if they were literally naked on stage. But, even if in this most exposed of performances, this pair gets lost in themselves and in the music, transforming into their own theatrical story.
The two met in San Francisco after Paige made the move from New York and was looking for a place to live, and ended up in a room available by Steven's brother, who would also lend the idea that Paige and Steven should start a band together. "His brother was fast bestie of mine," describes Paige Wood. "He was one of those friends that his influence was strong, so any suggestion he made, I took to heart. He said, 'When you meet my brother, you guys should be in a band together'. We literally met and the first time we played anything together we wrote like three songs or something. After that, we started playing music, formed a band, and moved to L.A. together."
The sound of The Peach Kings is this very gritty, yet sultry vibe that can go to all these different places, but Paige's vocals are the thread that ties it all together. It's like a dance, with much of the band's influence simply from the guitar and how the vocals move swimmingly with it.
It's like the energy of Paige and Steven conjures up this new character of its own that has a story and everything. The Peach Kings' music could be the soundtrack to a movie, with subplot and character development in each song. No song is derivative to another, with each painting pictures in the listeners' mind of these characters, places, and universes set in this alternate dimension. "We had a really long drive from Vancouver to Nashville to meet up with Cyndi," says Steven Dies. "We had this new notebook that said, 'This notebook belongs to _______'. So, we're like, okay, who does this notebook belong to. Let's come up with a character. Who is this character? What do they do? Where do they come from? Just going off of that, thinking of it like a movie in someone who you'd be interested in following along."
With the sound of The Peach Kings bordering on everything from rock to funk, and from soul to hip-hop, Paige Wood and Steven Dies are a dramaturgical musical unit without being overdramatic. It's the vibe the band that hits the most emotive aspects of their music. Sometimes a dance isn't just with footsteps, and the energy of this duo takes them to another world that is real to both them and their audience, and they're connection to each is the center of their universe. "I think that if it's ever not going well or at a moment where one of us messes up," says Steven Dies. "It's like the crowd kind of disappears and we disappear into each other. We're here together. We're on stage doing this right now. Let's just keep doing this, you and me, let's just get through this song."
The Peach Kings will play The Pike Room at The Crofoot in Pontiac, Michigan on Monday, July 25th with Mobley. For more information on The Peach Kings, visit thepeachkings.com.