Peach Tree Rascals are a band that knows what they want. From music, they create to live show set lists and merch. They know exactly what they want, as evident in their latest release, EP ‘Does A Fish Know its Wet?’
Having made music together for years. Peach Tree Rascals are a collective, dedicated to collaboration and community. They are a brotherhood, coming together to be more than the sum of their parts. Comprised of producer/mixer Dominic “Dom” Pizano, rappers-singers Issac Pech, Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq, Joseph Barros, and creative director Jorge Olazaba, the group started as a teenage “do-it-yourself” attempt at music, based out of a shed in San Jose, California. As the band grew, they added Jasper Barros, the mastermind behind some of the guitar tracks on their biggest hits and EJ Atienza, Jorge‘s right-hand man assisting him with all things creative.
“We started in a shed in Dom’s backyard, just vibing together and making music.” As Issac puts it, “The future of PTR depends on what we wish to accomplish. It’s totally in our hands and work ethic, but we know we want to be as big as possible.”
16 songs and a debut EP later, the group has accumulated over 300M streams and have received certified gold for their track, “Mariposa,” which also reached #1 on the Alternative Radio Chart in the US after it went viral on Tik Tok.
“With every song we’ve ever released, we always expect the best, making meaningful music that connects with people however it reaches them. But personally for us we never even used Tik Tok until Mariposa started to happen. So that was our first time using it. So no we didn’t expect it to happen on Tik Tok the way it did. But I’m grateful that it did because of all the platforms, especially when it blew up during covid, it’s like Tik Tok is a platform where you get to see people, to see their faces, see them smiling creating their own things with our songs.” Isaac comments on Mariposa going viral.
Mariposa going viral started a whirlwind for the band that saw them sign with a label and release their second EP ‘Does A Fish Know it’s Wet?’ and do their first ever live show.
“We did 3 shows back to back and it was so cool to see fans singing all the words to our songs back to us.”
The band’s biggest show to date was a set shortly after their first few live shows, at Lollapalooza in Chicago. “That was crazy. We were performing on the main stage to like 15 maybe 20,000 people, who didn’t really know who we were but really got into our music and were dancing along.”
2022 has seen them do a whirlwind tour of Europe performing shows in Norway, Sweden, France and a sold-out headline show at London’s Omeara.
Though they have been making music together for many years it feels like with the release of ‘Does the Fish Know its Wet’. the band are just getting started. “It’s a metaphor for how we see ourselves in the industry and a reminder to keep making the music we want to make so it reaches as many people as possible.‘ says Tarrek.
Peach Tree Rascals are a band, they are also a collective of individuals who are on exactly the same page when it comes to everything to do with their career. The music, they know their sound, even the merch which has been designed by them after Jorge ( who does all the bands visual designs for merch and videos etc) had a job working in a print company. They know how to keep costs down to keep the products affordable for fans.
“With shirt designs. It’s like the less detailed it is. if it’s a one-colour shirt design then that will be the cheapest to produce. If there are like 5 colours on a T-shirt the price is going to really multiply. So the fewer colours you have, the cheaper. It matters a lot what material you use too. Some blank shirts the quality isn’t as nice but like people deserve to be to get what they want.” Jorge says “We try to get the best quality for the best price. We also try to have different options. So there is the higher quality stuff for the people that can afford it. Then the stuff that isn’t as high quality, the designs are still there but are for people who wanna support us but may not be able to afford the other stuff. So we always try to have options.
“We recently did a restock of items that fans had been asking for, for like months and they sold out really quick. Then there was a bunch of fans that said they couldn’t afford it and I spent like $600 out of my own pocket just getting them merch that they couldn’t get themselves. They were loyal fans and feel like you have to put them first as they are the reason we are here and get to grow.” Tarrek and Isacc explain. ” We feel like if we are there for them then they will be there for us and that’s the most important thing in this business and with this career.”
You can find out more about Peach Tree Rascals and shop their merch on the website!