Courtesy of the Beggars group

It would be easy for the unenlightened to write off bawdy electro punk Peaches as a raunchy rapper, shock rocker, kinky club queen or just a plain old nihilist. After all, she famously penned the rap “F**k the Pain Away,â€� which was recently featured on an episode of “South Park.” She has also donned a Lincoln-like beard on an album cover, titled an album Father F**ker and covered an endless array of sexually taboo topics in her lyrics.

But the Toronto-born Peaches was also nominated for a GLAAD award, has worked with artists as diverse as Pink, Iggy Pop, Joan Jett and Marilyn Manson and has been commissioned to perform “Jesus Christ Superstar” as a one-woman show in her current hometown of Berlin. She is not merely a shock rocker, she’s a bona fide, dedicated performance artist.

Peaches can count Perez Hilton and Madonna among her legions of gay and straight fans, not to mention that Drew Barrymore handpicked her song “Boys Wanna Be Herâ€� to be on the soundtrack for her directorial debut, “Whip It.”

And her fanbase will continue to grow as her naughty, yet mature and artfully produced new album I Feel Cream gains momentum. After all, it’s the album that showcases her surprise “secret weapon.� She describes her current tour as a “dream live show� complete with illuminated props and a live band best described as “eye candy.� Fans and fans-to-be will get a taste of the Peach when she performs at the Rialto on Wednesday, Oct. 28.

Subbacultcha caught up with Peaches from her home in Berlin and discussed the new album, tour and what it’s like to be a popular culture “infiltrator� over the wail of European police sirens.

What else is in the teaches of Peaches? Read on…

You’ve brought on a notable posse of producers and guest performers that add to your new album’s glossy, yet gritty feel. Was this a conscious effort to create a certain sound or was it just a matter of you gathering friends to work with?

It’s all of that. I wanted to make a dance album and I wanted to collaborate with people who are producers like myself, instead of on the other albums where I collaborated more with musicians who were playing on the album or singing guest spots or playing guitars.

It was also a way to challenge myself to work with other producers as a producer. And to challenge myself to more of a variety and to highlight my secret weapon, which is that I can actually sing.

That brings me to my next question – though you still exercise your signature sultry snarl on the new record, there are parts of it where the vocals are downright pretty and delicate, even Madonna-esque. Was it just time for you to stretch yourself vocally?

I wanna be Madonna (laughs). No, not at all. That’s funny, I didn’t really think of Madonna at all. But I grew up on Donna Summer…

That would explain the connection between the album title I Feel Cream and Summer’s dreamy disco hit “I Feel Love.�

I always loved (her) and “Talk to Me� (from I Feel Cream) is like straight up soul singing. It’s nice after establishing myself in such a hardcore way for three albums and knowing I can expand on that and have those (rougher) elements in it and still bring in more… something that would be obvious that you think that you would put forward at the beginning of what you were doing. But I consciously did not use that because when I started Peaches it was this conscious effort to have this missing link that I thought was in music for me. So now it’s a way to expand.

You’ve performed by yourself, armed only with your beat box, as well as with a live band. How does the experience of performing with a live band differ from your solo shows for you? What are you more drawn to and what will this tour be like?

I (performed) alone for about five years. I can perform alone with basically just my underwear on and you will have a very entertaining time, you know? And that’s what’s weird about what I think I can offer to a live performance. Because I can rock the sh*t out of it with basically nothing. But now I have a band and specific costumes made for the show that are usable things, they’re not just fashion items. Like one of the items is a “p*ssy lightâ€� – it’s LED and it’s linked in 120 BPM. I have a lot of things that light up and a laser and a wanker rod that lights up. It’s a MIDI-controlled instrument that you can put sounds into and you control it by sliding your thumb along it.

So there’s a lot going on and my band is eye candy and they’re also amazingly talented. We’ve been doing this show for five months now and we love it. It’s fantastic; everyone who sees it, it blows their minds. And it’s really a treat to go into a city and blow people’s minds and know you are going to do it the next night too.

I’ve seen you in Austin and Los Angeles when it was just you and the beat box and the crowds went crazy. It will be interesting to see how the Tucson audience reacts to your new, bigger live show.

I’ve played Tucson once. I think there were 40 people there. Oh wait, that was Phoenix. And they had a big bar for the underage kids – like a big, steel fence. And there were three kids on that side and the rest were on the other side. I remember going into the underage pit and saying, “You can come here, but they can’t go there. Come on over!â€�

Don’t worry, at the Rialto the kids can mingle with the grownups.

Oh, that’s fantastic.

You have such an admirable, brazen confidence about who you are. You unapologetically embrace your sexuality, your age (which is 42, incidentally), your looks – things many women traditionally feel uncomfortable about, unfortunately. Where does that kind of confidence come from? Was it your upbringing or is it something that just evolved within yourself as you grew up?

I think everyone goes through a period of feeling uncomfortable. It’s just a part of your questioning. I think I was kind of a spaced-out kid and I always had a problem (with) authority. So I think it started from there. “I don’t want to do that. Why do I have to do that?�

So that kind of leads to the next question.

Provocation?

It seems like often critics want to dismiss an artist if they do something considered “shocking,� like the horror of (gasp!) visible body hair on a woman. Have you always behaved in ways that people considered “shocking� and how do you use shock value in your music and performances?

I have my own personal shock “values.� I mean, I’m shocked by the Jonas Brothers. One person’s shock is another person’s comfort zone. I’m shocked at how people are shocked.

If all of your artistic and creative dreams could come true, where would you like to be in life tomorrow?

I feel like I’m doing it. This is a fantastic tour and I feel like I’m building a dream live show – the toys, the people… not discounting what I had before.

I’m also going to be doing “Jesus Christ Superstar” myself next March in Berlin. And I’m trying to do more film and video work. I put my whole heart into making music and performance and recording the albums.

Wait, you are performing “Jesus Christ Superstar” by yourself? Is it a musical revue?

I’m going to play all of the roles – Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Pilate. It’s a one-woman show.

Did you see any of my videos? One of them is an actual five day performance – “Lose You.â€� That was part of an art project where eight artists were in different people’s apartments in this area in Berlin and people would come on a tour and visit every 10 minutes, two people at a time. And the artists were told to do something and I decided to do “Lose Youâ€� as a musical. I did that every day for five days, so I did 135 performances of that.

Watch the video here

What inspired your move to Berlin? How do you find yourself fitting in with German culture?

Well, German culture is a little bit different from Berlin culture. It’s more of an international city. I hardly speak any German, to be honest with you. But of course there are a lot of creative people here, but I don’t get the chance to hang out and be a part of that lately. A lot of galleries are moving here and a lot of the art scene is moving here. And of course it is the mecca for electronic musicians here, there’s cheap space and… it’s cold! It’s cold! Even today, it’s freezing. It’s already freezing!

So had you been there several times before you moved there and it just seemed like an obvious choice?

I visited the year before I moved here and I sent my demo to a small label (kitty-yo records, s.i.c.) that I met when I was visiting and they wanted to sign me. I wasn’t obsessed with the idea of Berlin in the 20s or reclaiming my Jewish presence in Berlin, even though that’s all really a part of me. I’m just glad I’m here.

It’s probably safe to say the fashion world has embraced your music because it is everything designers want their clothes to be. It’s sexy, it’s bold, it commands attention and makes a statement. Was it a surprise to you when you found out how popular your music was on the runway?

Yeah, sure it was. I’m not really like a fashionista in the way that I knew designers or followed fashion. But now I know a lot of people who are very creative and make great things. Actually I’m in a room right now with two people who are making two outfits for my next show. They’re very talented and it’s really exciting. I really like that right now fashion is all about extreme posture. It’s perfect!

Peaches continues talking about fashion and trails off mumbling, but suddenly brightens up.

I was on “South Park” last night! They played “F**k the Pain Awayâ€� in an episode last night (the episode is titled “Butter’s Bottom Bitch”).

What does it feel like hear yourself represented in a pop culture giant like “South Park”?

I love South Park, I really do. And I’m flabbergasted.

I have this special place in pop culture where I am like… “the infiltrator.�

Of course I’ll show up on “South Park” or of course I’ll show up on “The L Word.” I’ll show up on “Gossip Girl” or a Gap ad. Or you will see an article on me in Hustler magazine or I’ll be on the cover of (feminist hipster woman’s magazine) Bust.

So it’s going in all directions in a really good way.

Ironically, Peaches’ final words summed her whole personae rather well.

Raunchy rapper, shock rocker, kinky club queen or just a plain old nihilist? Maybe.

Golden-throated D.I.Y. diva, political and cultural provocateur, boundary-pushing performance artist? Definitely.

At the core of it all, after getting to know her even for 20 minutes, it’s clear that Peaches lives to create and provoke thought – whether it’s onstage, in a flat in Berlin, in a recording studio or in front of a camera. And there’s no more surefire way to provoke thought and command attention than through sexuality. Peaches gets this. And the world seems to be getting this.

And as a result she is going in all directions… in a really good way.