Peaches is a longtime troublemaker.

The Canadian-born, Berlin-based artist, producer, and general iconoclast has been exploring the body for its revolutionary potential since the ‘90s. After an early foray into folk, Peaches found global notoriety for minting enduring hits like “Fuck The Pain Away” from her seminal album The Teaches of Peaches, as well as “Boys Wanna Be Her” and “Operate,” always combining propulsive production with an invigorating sexual chutzpah.

Peaches has spent the last decade since releasing her 2016 album Rub working on eclectic creative projects, but the global rise of fascism and the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, inspired her to return to music. “The world is really going to shit,” she said with a devious smile, as if she’s envisioning the rabble-rousing to come. “I have something to say and I want to physically engage with people and mobilize them to understand that fascism will not take over our lives.”

On her new album No Lube So Rude, out February 20, Peaches continues to skewer the powerful through an artistic vocabulary that is crude, rude, and sexy. On “Not In Your Mouth None Of Your Business,” she screams defiantly in the face of anti-queer and trans legislation: “Orders won't make us lie down and die / We will stop you fucking up our lives.” On the title track, she combines kinky seduction with a call for more inclusive politics (“There's no guest list here / Take a piss in here”). The album is funny, brash and ultimately very, very Peaches.

Ahead, read a conversation with Peaches as she discusses discovering her signature sound, mobilizing her audience, and creating art as a progressive Jewish voice living in Berlin. Catch her on her forthcoming world tour with Cortisa Star, Model/Actriz, and Pixel Grip.

The FADER: I was delving into your early musical days in Toronto when you were making music with Feist and Chilly Gonzalez. Why do you think so much creativity came out of Toronto in the ‘90s?

Peaches: For me, it was just a moment I had to reinvent myself. I was going through a bad breakup and finding a new place to live. I had thyroid cancer, which didn't affect me physically, but mentally I was like, I want to focus. This is what I want to do with my life. I had this fire in me and was starting to realize how to explore music on my own. I had always worked with bands before. I acquired the Roland Groovebox 505 and realized I could be my own producer, drummer, and bass player. I was living with Feist, and there were a lot of visual artists, filmmakers, and other musicians around.

How did you land on your style of rapping?

I never really saw it as rapping. My influences were Lil' Kim and Missy Elliott, but also Chrissie Hynde. She had this swagger of talking and using her voice in a way that would reflect the lyrics. People would judge her vibrato [if she was singing]. If you’re female-identified, you’re identified as a “chanteuse.” I wanted the lyrics to be more important than how I sing them.

What was the initial reaction to your music as Peaches like?

I started playing acoustic guitar and got a weekly gig at a club [with my band, Mermaid Cafe], so I became a folk musician… I didn’t set out to be a folk musician. Then I started to learn electric guitar. It was a progression. Most shocking was when I stopped doing folk music and started making “post-wave” music. I started to work with an improvisational jam band called The Shit with a woman named Sticky [Henderson], Chili Gonzales, and Mocky. We had this jam where we got super stoned and started yelling things about each other. After our first jam, we felt like we found a new kind of music. I really found myself in that music and in that sexual directness. I carried on that torch [with my music as Peaches]. I just felt it in my gut when I started to do the Peaches stuff. A lot of people hated it, a lot of people loved it. But I didn’t care. It was a purpose for me.

How would you describe that purpose?

I had a lot of questions about how music was made and what was expected of me as a 30-year-old woman trying to make music. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I had a lot of questions and I wanted to manifest the answers to them by flipping the script.

This is your first record in 10 years. Since then, you’ve been busy doing performance art and different projects. Why get back in the musical ring?

I could continue as a review act, but we need more artists that use their platform in the way they feel is necessary. This is a very important time. It’s not about me, but it is about how I feel. We really have to mobilize … that’s the key word.

Was it easy to express yourself musically after taking all of this time off?

It’s stressful. It’s always easy for me to express my ideas [through performance]. But at the beginning of writing and recording, it's tough. You have your own fears about whether it will resonate with people or be relevant. Things change so fast. Just because you did something that resonated with people 10 or 25 years ago … it’s important to understand where people are today. It takes time [to understand], but you don’t want to take too much time, because there are things you want to say. When I wrote a song like "Not In Your Mouth None Of Your Business," I wanted that to come out yesterday.

How is being in the States at this moment hitting you?

It’s completely paralyzing, but you have to find a way to get through it and continue to talk about it. In Berlin [where I live], things are also changing so much. That’s a place that I thought was so open. There’s a lot of cracks everywhere and a lot of lies we have to reckon with. We’re only going to be safe if we’re all safe.

What have the past few years been like for you as an artist living and working in Berlin?

It's been a wake-up call. There's been a lot of censorship in the last few years. It's not the Berlin I thought it was. Germany is one of the biggest supporters of the genocide [in Gaza] and it’s really hard for them to reckon with progressive Jewish people without calling them "self-hating Jews." It’s shocking to see how Germany can’t reckon with the past and the future, and see the connection without feeling like they’re wrong. It’s tough. Arts funding has been cut for people whose projects are centered around [Palestinian] issues. Those are the first fundings to go.

The title of the album is No Lube So Rude. Can you talk about what lube may mean as a metaphor here?

We don't talk to each other — even people who have the seemingly same point of view. There are so many nuances. People are having such a hard time discussing issues with each other. We're not going to get anywhere if we don't. I’m hoping there’s this "magical lube" that can help smooth things out so we can all talk a little bit more.

We start the album with the song “Hanging Titties.” What do you want younger fans to understand about aging and sexuality?

That it’s okay. That you can enjoy sexuality [later in life too] too. Enjoy your body when it's young and please express yourself from your point of view, whatever age you are, but understand that it’s going to continue and it’s okay, and you're going to enjoy yourself.

I was taken by the closing track of your album, "Be Love". I’m curious to hear what "be[ing] love" means to you?

So much of this fascist bullshit is built on hate. And it's so hard not to just go with the hate. That's what they want. They want hate and fear. Yes, you can be angry, but you have to have love in it and you have to have joy in your revolution. [The song is] about reckoning with myself too. There's a lot of really dark feelings in [that song] and I'm trying to get over them.

Pre-save No Lube So Rude by Peaches here.