B-Side Guys

Twenty minutes to document the collision between fantasy and reality—PEGGY makes it work. The Michigan-born, LA-based artist uses COMING OF AGE to examine what happens when you finish college, relocate across the country, and discover adulthood functions with rules nobody explained. Raised on her father’s rock and punk records and shaped by Taylor Swift, dodie, and Sara Bareilles, PEGGY blends literary drama with pop accessibility, creating songs that feel like conversations with someone who actually gets it. This six-track EP isn’t escapism—it’s recognition that sometimes escape is the only honest response to circumstances that make no sense.

PEGGY describes writing this collection during the year she moved to Los Angeles, exploring “mental health themes and the experience of feeling like an alien in adult world.” That specific framing—alien rather than outsider—captures the EP’s particular anxiety. Outsiders observe from the margins; aliens don’t understand the fundamental operating system. When she mentions waking up feeling like everyone else is in on a joke she doesn’t get, leading to life experiences she hasn’t had, the imagery cuts deeper than typical coming-of-age narratives. This isn’t rebellion or refusal; it’s genuine confusion about what the instructions are.

“CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT” opens the EP establishing this disorientation immediately. The title itself functions as meta-commentary—treating real life like narrative arc, searching for plot coherence where none exists. PEGGY’s storytelling approach draws from her literary influences, structuring emotional experience like chapters rather than diary entries. That technique creates distance that paradoxically enables intimacy, letting listeners recognize their own confusion in her careful observations.

“PANIC ATTACK” delivers guitar-driven catharsis, translating internal chaos into external sound. The track demonstrates PEGGY’s range beyond the bedroom pop that initially built her TikTok following—millions connected with songs like “Fictional Men” and “LOVE,” finding comfort in her ability to articulate specific emotional territories. Her fanbase includes what she describes as “cool fangirls” and queer creatives, communities drawn to artists who create sanctuary rather than spectacle. That community-driven approach shows in her intentional content strategy, fostering genuine conversation instead of chasing viral moments.

“FRIENDS TO LOVERS” and “BUILD A BOY” examine relationship construction from opposite angles. The former deals with the messy transition from established friendship into romantic territory, while the latter takes the fantasy route—literally imagining ideal partnership from scratch. The juxtaposition reveals PEGGY’s central tension: recognition that real humans disappoint versus the irresistible pull of imagining better alternatives. “Build a Boy” particularly showcases her imaginative world-building, the same quality that made her catalog track “ALICE” resonate so strongly it continues generating momentum for new releases.

“TALK SHIT!” brings in Thomas Sanders for collaboration that adds different energy to the EP’s second half. The exclamation point in the title signals intentional attitude shift, permission to stop being understanding and just express frustration. After several tracks of careful emotional mapping, the bluntness here provides necessary release. Sometimes growth requires saying what you actually think rather than processing it through literary metaphor.

“Written By a Woman” closes the EP examining how romance novels distort expectations and standards within dating. PEGGY describes it as the older sister to her song “LOVE,” both exploring avoidant attachment styles and the gap between fictional romance and actual relationships. The realization that “people are people and men aren’t ‘written by a woman’” might sound obvious stated plainly, but arriving at that conclusion requires dismantling years of conditioning. The music video draws inspiration from The Knight and the Moth, exploring the symbolism of falling for the idea of someone—the knight—only to regret it when illusion fades and the helmet comes off.

That knight metaphor extends across the entire EP. COMING OF AGE documents what happens when you remove various helmets—the fantasy of adulthood making sense, relationships functioning like fiction, mental health challenges being temporary rather than ongoing. PEGGY doesn’t offer solutions or triumphant transformation. She just maps the territory with enough specificity that listeners recognize their own geography.

The EP’s twenty-minute runtime works because PEGGY understands the difference between complete thoughts and overstaying. Six tracks provide enough variation to demonstrate range without requiring filler. Each song occupies its own emotional space while contributing to larger thematic architecture. The project establishes foundation for what she’s building—live performances, immersive visuals, storytelling that extends beyond individual tracks into constructed world.

PEGGY’s approach combines tenderness with biting humor, refusing to choose between sincerity and wit. She takes her subjects seriously while acknowledging the absurdity of existence—that everyone’s pretending to understand rules they’re mostly improvising. The EP title itself captures that duality: “coming of age” as both milestone and ongoing process, achievement and perpetual arrival. For an artist whose breakout came through creating comfort and connection on TikTok, COMING OF AGE proves she can sustain that intimacy across larger projects. The fairytales she makes listeners believe in aren’t about happy endings—they’re about finding company in the confusion, discovering you’re not the only alien trying to decode adulthood’s impossible instructions.