The Peach Tree is the unsigned, independent artistry of musician/writer/producer Angus Maiden, from Melbourne, Australia. He believes in the free sharing of copyable information and all his work is available for free download and streaming.

The project began circa 2003 as the concept of a band that would break genre barriers and reach across the music spectrum to touch a whole host of different individuals. Members of the band at one point reached five members, but they never got around to recording anything together. The Peach Tree has since morphed into Angus's solo project, who has moved away from his dream of forming a band, towards the pure pleasure of writing and recording music, and releasing it on the net. He has released three albums and two EPs under the name. His sound derives from the massive range of influences he is exposed to, and includes everything from pop melodies to dance tracks, death metal epics, and rockin' blues tracks.

Angus's latest album, "The Ghost Of Muses Past" is an incredible journey into the dark abyss, seeking out ghosts that once were bright, burning flames of passion. Ghosts have real power, even ghosts of muses - feelings, thoughts, people, places and experiences from long long ago. This album was recorded in an intense two-week period of serious contemplation and reflection on the past, yielding powerful songs that are shaded by the darkness that occupies Angus' thoughts and emotions in the present day.

The first album by The Peach Tree, released in 2005, was titled "The Gus Sessions", because although there was still some semblance of a "band", it was written, recorded and played by Gus entirely at his home studio using a synthesiser, guitar, mic, a mixer and Cakewalk Homestudio. Low on production values, it leaps about from slow moody pop to dance to techno and then back to some more moodiness, making it inaccessable for some but a delight for many.

In 2006 he released a 6 track EP entitled "The Dichalcitryde EP", a made up word that has a meaning similar to "running through the night sky tiptoe-ing on clouds whilst being persued by a pack of wolves playing nintendos who's half-arsed attempts at biting you in the bottom leave you falling about in rapturous laughter whilst gazing at the moon waning at the speed of light." No further explanation of this EP is needed.

Also in 2006, Angus released an EP titled "The Vases EP". He cites reasons for this name as: "It sounds cool; The bass on some of the tracks will break all the vases in your house if you turn it up loud enough; Like a vase, each track is beautiful and formidably tangible, yet so fragile it feels like it will crumble at more than the slightest touch; Like a collection of vases, these tracks may be seen as tacky by some but a work of genius by others."

Later in the same year he released "Fabric", a full length album that swings from sweet synth-pop to metal to bluesy rock. The idea behind the name is that the album is like a fabric tapestry, each different style weaving in and out in a pattern to make a beautiful piece of artwork. The Peach Tree's demo "Metal Epic", which later was fleshed out into a single from Fabric, "Mind Soul Dark Light", has been described as "a graphic dirge ... that borrows from the leaders of the early doom metal movement" by Metal webzine Harm.us.

In October, 2007, Angus released one of his best received efforts yet, the tantalising techno-frenzy that is "Psychosis": a sophisticated and epic journey into the furthest corners of a fragile mind. Armed with much more advanced recording equipment and techniques, the album is hard hitting, fresh and eccentric.

The first album off the slate for 2008 was "A Darker Shade Of Tao", an epic journey exploring the balance between the forces of Light and Darkness, of Yang and Yin. Tao is the Chinese philosophical concept of "The Way", the unification of these two opposing yet intertwining forces. "A Darker Shade" recognises that one can never truly see both sides of the coin at any one time, and thus the album falls on the darker side. It is a fantastic tale, exploring these intermingling, juxtaposed forces and the myriad of themes that spring from the dance of Yin and Yang.


The Peach Tree by Angus Maiden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License.