MAGICAL man’
Remembering Stefan Pruett of electronic pop band Peachcake
Stefan Pruett of Peachcake was what Katherine Amy Vega, a longtime friend who often photographed his concerts, describes as “an undefinable, magical man who offered support, escape and illumination to those around him.” ● The Carefree native had been living in Los Angeles for several years, releasing music as the Guidance, when Pruett was discovered unresponsive the morning of Sunday, June 14, by friend and producer Jeremy Dawson of Shiny Toy Guns. ● He was 35.
Pruett died of apparent heart failure. He had a congenital heart condition and had three open-heart surgeries throughout his life.
According to buzzbands.la, Dawson said that Pruett’s pacemaker “was due for a tune-up earlier this year but that his appointment kept getting pushed back due to the COVID-19 crisis.”
‘His art dared you to let yourself experience joy’
Long before he moved to LA, Pruett was a major presence in the metro Phoenix music scene.
He was 19 when he landed on the cover of the local independent weekly Phoenix New Times with Peachcake, a quirky electronic pop group he started the previous summer with a friend he’d known since sixth grade, John O’Keefe.
It was 2004 and by that point, Peachcake’s energetic shows were drawing “hordes of giddy young indie rock hipsters ... who sing along and dance like maniacs,” as New Times summed up the excitement the band inspired on the local scene.
Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World recalls that energy well.
JEREMIAH GRATZA
As Adkins told the Republic Wednesday morning, “Stefan had a cosmicevent level of infectious enthusiasm for music. His art dared you to let yourself experience joy. And if you came along with him for the ride, you always found yourself in a happier place.”
What Peachcake meant to the Phoenix music scene
Phoenix concert promoter Jeremiah Gratza did go along for the ride. He managed Peachcake from 2002-07 and traveled with them as they took their electronic gospel on the road.
“Stefan idolized Flaming Lips,” he said.
“Here was this band playing 250-capacity rooms, and we had full-blown confetti cannons, balloon drops, costume changes, inflatable balls that we’d throw into the crowd. It was it was a fullon spectacle that no one else was doing at the time on that level.”
That’s not the only thing Gratza felt set them apart here in the Valley.
“They were the first band out of Arizona to embrace electronic music,” he said. “And this is right when all that blog house stuff was coming out, like Bloc Party and LCD Soundsystem and the Rapture. This was right when bands were doing DJ sets and it just happened to fall in the right time.”
The personality Pruett exuded onstage was a natural extension of his offstage personality.
“He was definitely one of the most eccentric people you would ever meet,” Gratza said. “For Stefan, being punk rock wasn’t about, like, let me have a mohawk and wear spikes. He thought it was punk to wear pajamas out in public all day every day. And that’s what he did for five years.”
‘Their shows were therapeutic’
Vega was in her late teens the first time she saw Peachcake, not long after they started.
“Their shows were therapeutic,” Vega said. “When I was in my late teens, dealing with a lot of angsty growing up stuff, they were there to help us escape. There were times that I would really not feel good and have to force myself to get out to the show, but I always knew that once I went out to one of their shows, I would leave really elated. They really made it possible for us to let our inner children out.”
One thing Vega enjoyed was seeing people who didn’t know what to expect during their first Peachcake show.
“They go through that kind of awkward phase of ‘Am I supposed to think this is cool or will I totally embarrass myself if I participate in this?’,” she recalled, with a laugh. “And to see them cross that line and let themselves free and play around was always just a really magical experience.”
Watching Pruett onstage, she said, “I could tell that he was putting his whole spirit into his performance. I don’t know, it had a strange genius to it.”
As she and Pruett got to be friends, he retained an air of mystery for Vega.
“I’m someone who really likes to figure people out, what makes them tick,” she said.
“Any time I got into a really deep conversation with him, I was surprised at how how wise he was. And other times it would just be utter nonsense coming from his mouth. But was really an authentic person. And really heartfelt.”
‘He really wanted to make music his life’
Gratza was working at Modified Arts, an all-ages venue in downtown Phoenix, when Peachcake approached him about working with them.
“They had this little demo, and they had booked a tour using the old website, Book Your Own (Expletive) Life,” he said. “And honestly, I was really impressed that a local band at that time had booked a tour and was serious.”
Some of their earliest shows were at the downtown Phoenix venue Paper Heart, where JRC, who went on to operate the Trunk Space with Stephanie Carrico, was struck by Pruett’s drive, especially after one ill-fated Halloween show.
“No one came, but Peachcake did their scheduled set to a handful of us and, as it was one of their earliest gigs, sounded terrible,” he said, with a laugh.
“But the energy was what got through. Right after they finished Stefan was on his cell phone trying to find a house party or other gig they could hop on last minute. He was always pushing to grow his audience and make it ... He really wanted to make music his life, and dedicated his hustle to it.”
Peachcake’s first release, 2004’s “Chain Letter EP” laid out their musical template in synth-driven highlights with titles as loopy as “I Fell in Love With You While Listening to My Favorite Morrissey” and “I Hope We Don’t Get Exploded.”
They released three subsequent EPs — including a split with kindred spirits Less Pain Forever on Western Tread Recordings, a label run by Adkins and Charlie Levy of Stateside Presents — and two full-length albums, 2008’s “What Year Will You Have the World?” and 2012’s “Unbelievable Souls.” They also toured a lot.
Gratza said, “One of our first tours was with Hellogoodbye. We did South by Southwest. We did North by Northwest in Canada. We did Bamboozle out in California. We toured with Ozma, Cute is What We Aim For, all these, like, emo Myspace bands back in the day.”
Jeremiah Gratza
‘An exuberant and at times overzealous amount of love’
Henri Benard became their drummer in 2011.
“I was at the Rhythm Room,” Benard
Peachcake in Norway, about to perform at the Slottsfjell Festival.
recalled. “At a Peachcake show. And Stefan said, ‘We got an invite to this festival in Norway and we’d like to take a drummer.’ I was like, ‘Totally. I will totally do that.’”
They spent about eight months rehearsing twice a week for that headlining set at the Slottsfjell Festival in July 2012.
Then they flew to Norway, took the stage and proceeded to have their opening
song derailed by a series of technical issues beyond their control.
“I’m like ‘Oh God, our band is bombing. We came all the way from America. So much hype behind this show and we’re one of those festival bands that’s just bombing.’”
That’s when Pruett intervened. “He stops the show,” Benard recalled. “And he says ‘OK hold on, everybody. We’re gonna start over. We came a long
“For Stefan, being punk rock wasn’t about, like, let me have a mohawk and wear spikes. He thought it was punk to wear pajamas out in public all day every day. And that’s what he did for five years.”
way and we want to have a great experience together.’ It gives me chills thinking about it. He said, ‘On the count of three, we’re all gonna yell ‘reset’ and we’re gonna start this show over. And it’s gonna rock.’”
So he counted to three, 5,000 people shouted ‘reset’ and the show went off without a hitch.
“If he had made a different call or just not been the dude he was, that might have gone totally different,” Benard said. “And I think that situation just kind of spoke to who he was as a person and definitely as an artist. He was a weird guy. But at the end of the day, it just stemmed from an exuberant and at times overzealous amount of love.”
‘It’s like he was trying to be as alive as he could be’
PEACHCAKE
Peachcake played their final show at Crescent Ballroom in 2013.
Pruett had been performing with Peachcake for more than a decade at that point and Gratza feels the band had simply run its course.
“Obviously, Stefan still loved music and was still heavily involved and decided to go at it solo,” Gratza said. “We actually had him open for She Wants Revenge at Crescent last year. That was actually the last time I saw him.”
That Crescent show was part of a U.S. tour the Guidance did in 2019 with She Wants Revenge and Dawson’s project MXMS. And Pruett had just released a Tommie Sunshine and MureKian remix of “Overs” on June 12.
“It’s like he was trying to be as alive as he could be,” Vega said. “He had to be aware of his mortality his whole life, being born with a heart condition. So it’s really inspiring that he made sure to do something that put so much positive energy out there and was so uplifting to others.”
Phoenix concert promoter