Jake Mace
We first met the delightfully lurid, raucous fun duo FEVER PEACH at EdFringe last year when we caught their show Intense Goblin Nightmare Woman – which we described as “Raw, resplendent and delightfully intoxicating.” The genre-bending duo mash-up spoken word with music, storytelling, and all other forms of chaos-raising glee.
They arrive at Dundee Fringe tomorrow with their Greatest Pits show, which will then be followed by the fantastically absurdly titled You Give Me Fever When You Peach Me, Fever When You Hold Me Peach. Fever! You Give Me Fever. Also We Are FEVER PEACH. on the 21st September. We caught up with Scott Redmond from the pair ahead of the first show for a pixelated pint.
Catch FEVER PEACH: Greatest Pits tomorrow September 13th at 19:00. Also catch You Give Me Fever When You Peach Me, Fever When You Hold Me Peach. Fever! You Give Me Fever. Also We Are FEVER PEACH. on the 21st September at 18:45. Tickets are available through the Dundee Fringe Box Office.
Jake: Hi Scott! Tell us about what you’ve been up to since we last saw you, and about that we can expect from Greatest Pits.
Scott: It’s a collection of our favourites pieces from throughout our admittedly very short career. Most are audience favourites but some pieces have made it because we enjoy performing them so much. Some are songs that had to be cut from previous shows for some narrative reason, but now we’re free from the constraints of storytelling and it’s just banger after banger after banger.
We’ve done full runs at the Edinburgh and Brighton Fringes, played the mainstage at Dundee Pride and Hidden Door Festival, taken our solo show to Angel Comedy at the Bill Murray in London, released an EP and a Christmas single, and appeared on the BBC. So in the two and a half years we’ve been performing together we’ve fit a hell of a lot in.
We know how much we loved performing these songs and the audience can tell how much we love doing the and we’re really grateful to the people who have told us they like what we do. But a special shout goes out to our fan club president Grace who got a tattoo of the band logo after them after a gig last year!
Furthermore, we’re doing a work in progress this year – You Give Me Fever When You Peach Me, Fever When You Hold Me Peach. Fever! You Give Me Fever. Also We Are FEVER PEACH. – so we’ll have plenty of new greatest hits in the pipeline.
Jake: So what makes the show’s themes, poems, songs, and everything in between relevant to an audience in 2024?
Scott: It’s more relevant than ever. Charlie, Sabrina and the pop girlies spent summer letting us know you can be brat and a hot mess, so we’re spending the Autumn letting you know you can be a sweaty garbage monster and have a heart that feels ways about stuff (PEACH Person Fall?). Also because by the end of the show, we end up as sweaty garbage monsters through our high energy fast paced performance. Afterwards we have to be hosed off by a team of volunteer firefighters. They get the practice, we get that clean smell, even if our cigs are soggy by the end.
Jake: What are you hoping the audience will take away from it all?
Scott: The audience is going to feel just about every emotion they can lay their brains on. We’re a rollercoaster, we’re bringing you up then back down, then a joke about. The audience will be beaming and singing along and then we’ll make them cry, but we’ll wrap a soft blanket of melody around them and serve a steaming hot cup of bashful faux naivety. And then an impression of what Queen would be like if they were all chimps.
Jake: And now we’re gearing up for Dundee Fringe tomorrow, what are you most excited for?
Scott: I’m looking forward to the people who say “I didn’t know Dundee had a Fringe” at the beginning saying “I can’t wait for next year” at the end. We’re a big city, we deserve a festival that’s all ours. Something that’s uniquely Dundee and that’s accessible, we’re not a big wealthy city like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen so we have to be able to do things our way. So inspiring people to take part is how festivals grow and become cultural cornerstones for a city. Look at Reading, Leeds, Edinburgh- city names synonymous with the festivals they host. Dundee could have that name recognition too.
I wanna see last year’s international artists that left thinking of Dundee as a second cultural/artist home and the new acts that will hopefully leave this year’s fringe with that same feeling.
Imaginary Porno Charades. Its where we can live out secret desire to be William Shanter and have audiences ask for more.
Some of our friends are doing shows too that we can’t wait for, like Icebreaker Comedy (where we’ll be guesting on Dicebreaker and Bad Movie Night), as well as Julia Knight, Sid Ozalid, and Arms Against.
Also special shoutout to Dave Benaim, who Scott met while touring in Cambodia, and is flying in especially to do a show about Microsoft XL. That is true Fringe art.
Jake: Fitting with the themes of our magazine, if your show was an alcoholic beverage (think
cocktails, shots, beers, be creative!) what would it be?
Scott: RedBull + Guinness served in a Sports Direct Mug made on a campfire stove at 4am on the banks of the Firth.
Or just a cuppa actually thanks, we’re quite sleepy boiis.
Phoebe Bakker
