Seoul-based ambient musician Peachy! offers escape from rat race at 'empty airports'

Peachy! / Courtesy of Peachy!

Peachy! is a musician with a shocking amount of versatility. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, the artist and audio engineer has already produced pop hits and critically acclaimed chill-hop, all while being the guitarist of a hardcore band. His recent album, “The Third Story: Empty Airports,” yet again, explores new territory — the quiet reflection of minimalist ambience.

Peachy! has spent the last several years building a life and a career in Seoul, running a small studio, producing records for other artists and carving out a sound that resists easy categorization.

He first started taking music seriously as a teenager in Atlanta, teaching himself Ableton and attending Controllerise, a local event for hip-hop producers and DJs, instead of doing homework. "I wasn't the best or very creative," he admitted, "but I had fun."

At 16, things moved quickly. A collaboration with singer-songwriter Mxmtoon on the song "Falling For U" found a large audience, and suddenly, there was pressure.

"My music first blew up when I was 16, and things escalated so fast that I never really had the time to figure out who I was," he said.

The speed of it all left a mark. "I spent years trying to fit into the box of 'musician-influencer,'" he said. "I'm 25 years old now, and I've learned that I don't even enjoy singing."

After finishing high school, Peachy! traveled extensively through Europe and Asia, recording in Airbnbs in Paris and Helsinki, visiting musician friends like Slchld and Oceanfromtheblue in Seoul, and Limbo in California. He visited roughly 11 countries over the course of the trip.

"I traveled by myself, so it was lonely and very scary at times," he said. "I wasn't going to let my anxiety be the only reason I don't see all the beautiful places in the world, though."

He looks back on that period with mixed feelings. "It was a very chaotic and scary life, but one worth living," he said. "I don't think I could be a nomad again, though. I'm a completely different person now than the anxious energy-fueled, hype-chasing kid I used to be."

Peachy! visits western Seoul's Club SHARP in 2023. Courtesy of Peachy!

When he eventually settled in Seoul at 20, during the pandemic, it stuck. He is currently working toward long-term residency. His path into Korea's extreme music scene came through Instagram, of all places. He discovered End These Days as a fan, and when the band posted that their lead guitarist had left, he sent them a cold DM asking about joining. He even bought a new guitar specifically for the tryout, which paid off as they offered him the spot the same day.

"That night, we went out for drinks with Synsnake, another band that was in town that day," he recalled. "I'm very grateful for them and all the friends I've made through them."

Playing in a band has been its own education.

“When I make music, I’m used to having full creative and executive control, but now I'm among four other people on a project that had been running long before I joined," he said. "It was frustrating at times, and I admit, it's still hard when my creative decisions are voted against or when I fail. When I work alone, I never have to explain myself."

But he has found value in the friction.

"It helps to remember that we all fail and succeed together," he said. "We all work hard. We keep each other in check and balance each other out. It's a necessary lesson in patience and perseverance."

"Empty Airports" arrived as something of a departure from the pop-leaning work that he built his name on. The album is sparse and electronic, influenced in part by Brian Eno's "Ambient 1: Music For Airports," and shaped by a very specific kind of sensory experience.

Peachy! has autism, and in most crowded public spaces, he relies on earplugs or noise-canceling headphones to stay calm. Airport terminals early in the morning are an exception.

"When you take a really early flight, it's pretty empty, quiet, and I don't need my earplugs anymore," he said. "My favorite is the Helsinki Airport. It's got high ceilings, no flashing lights or bright colors, and generally very clean. I made most of the songs on the album with this experience in mind. I wanted it to be minimal and spacious."

The album also represents a conscious pulling away from the grind of pursuing a career in music.

"I stumbled my way through the rat race that is the modern music industry and decided to drop out sometime after releasing my single 'Your Love' in 2023," he said. "I especially don't want to make music with the goal of being put on Spotify playlists. I just want to make something worth listening to."

He is also open about having spent years chasing the wrong things.

"I wanted to return to my roots, in a way, making peaceful music," he said. "I wanted to make background music for the listener as they go about a life worth living. I knew it wouldn't be a popular album, but I don't care anymore. I'm happy with it. I made this album knowing that it wouldn't be commercially successful, but it's one of my projects I'm most proud of."

For all its quiet surface, the album carries genuine emotional weight. Asked whether it is his saddest record, Peachy! is cautious of this framing.

"It wasn't my intention to make a sad album, but I suppose it's inevitable when trying to make my most honest album," he said. "I spent so many years making music with the unspoken goal of being 'marketable' and memorable. This time around, I made no effort to hide or filter the emotions that drove the album."

A highlight is his duet with longtime friend Kudasaibeats, recorded remotely by exchanging audio files across several months. Peachy! even broke out his seven-string guitar, normally reserved for End These Days, to record his parts.

"Kuda and I have been friends since my early days, and he's great at creating atmospheric tracks," he said.

His dog Youngwoo, named after the lead character from the Korean drama "Extraordinary Attorney Woo," napped under his desk throughout the sessions. "No matter the song or location, there was one helper with me," he joked.

The approach he takes when recording and producing others’ work contrasts with his mentality when writing Peachy! material.

"If it's not my song, I take the passenger seat," he said. "Everything I do was either in service of the sound they want or directly requested by them. When I work alone, I rarely have a clear direction. I figure out the song as I go."

He speaks warmly about his work with Reisha, an Indonesian singer-songwriter now based in Australia, for whom he has produced tracks including "Evangeline" and "Life of the Party.”

"Every time she sends me something new, my priority is preserving the magic," he said. "I hope she goes far. Anyone with the ability to communicate emotion through music as well as she does deserves to."

Being a non-Korean in Korea gives him a particular vantage point, and it can be both lonely and creatively fertile.

"It's very isolating being a foreigner here, no matter how well you speak the language," he said. "Many people have already made up their minds about you before you interact with them."

But Korea has also given him material of a different kind.

"I love seeing the mountains around Seoul and the beaches in Busan," he said. "It inspires my more peaceful work, like this last album. Native Koreans are often used to the scenery of their own country, as I am used to the U.S. Looking at it with fresh eyes grants a different kind of appreciation. In that way, being a foreigner in Korea has helped me write happier tunes as well."

For now, a live return as Peachy! is not in the cards. His last show under the name was in 2019, and he describes it as "a pretty rough departure." He was 18, without guidance, and not yet equipped for the weight of it.

"I think it was just too much pressure and attention for an 18-year-old to handle without anyone to guide me," he said. "If there were demand for another Peachy! show all these years later, I would do things much differently. I'd like to do something much more relaxed and low-key."

It is hard not to feel like that description fits the whole of "Empty Airports": relaxed, low-key and completely itself. After years of chasing something louder, Peachy! seems to have found the frequency he was looking for.

Follow @heyimpeachy on Instagram for more information, or listen at peachy.bandcamp.com.

Jamie Finn is chief editor of Debaser Magazine.