The Memphis native melds modern pop sensibilities with an old-school soul sound. His original compositions are embedded with vocal stylings worthy of Al Green’s greatest hits, and his drumming skills are evocative of the circa-1960s Stax studio technique made famous by the legendary Al Jackson, Jr.
Yet at 21, Peel is no mere revivalist – his songs are punctuated by a modern, urban slant that plays on hip-hop and southern rap.
“I feel like it’s my responsibility to pay homage to my forefathers,” says Peel, a second-generation Memphis musician who describes the arc that swoops through the history of his hometown music scene, encompassing B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Isaac Hayes and Justin Timberlake in the process, as “a natural progression.”
“Above all, I want to appeal to people my age,” explains Peel, who, at seventeen, was lauded in the pages of Grammy Magazine as “a young Adam Levine with a twist of Kanye West.”
A riveting bandleader, Peel holds down both percussion and vocal duties, relying on guitarist Alex Kramer and bassist David Parks, both finalists on MTV’s Making His Band, keyboardist Claude Hinds, and a three-piece horn section to round out his group.
“I want to be true to those old school Memphis sounds in form, but at the end of the day, it all comes down to songwriting,” he declares.
Peel demonstrates a natural aptitude in that department. His ultra-funky, Prince-esque “Hold My Drink” employs a sly humor along with plenty of attitude, while the roiling beat of “Even If” suggestively builds upon the tension of a relationship on the rocks.
“What if I told ya/I just want to hold ya/Until the sun comes up again/What if I told ya/I’m gonna do my best/But I’m gonna mess up every now and then,” Peel sings on the latter, sounding like a seasoned lothario.
Chalk it up, he says, to his cinematic theory of love.
“I’ve been accused of aiming for something that’s too idealistic,” Peel says. “If it’s not, I get out quickly. My feeling is, if there’s no singular emotion, what’s the point? I don’t want to settle down with someone who’s fun to spend time with, but nothing more.”
That realness spills over into every facet of Peel’s career.
“Most of the things I talk about in my songs are pretty personal. I’m pretty honest with people – maybe too much so,” he muses.
“When I was sixteen, I realized that music is not gonna cheat on me, or get sick of me, and I’m not gonna get sick of music. Music will always be there to comfort me,” says Peel, who went from playing drums and writing poetry to actually singing with a band during his high school years.
Peel cracks his trademark grin. “Of course, there was a girl,” he says. “She was the first girl I was really in love with, so I decided to go the extra mile and write a song. She loved it, so I guess it did what it was supposed to do.”
The girl is long gone, but that song, “Valentine,” has become a staple in Peel’s live sets.
“Valentine” is also one of the tunes that brought Peel to the attention of Scott Bomar, bandleader for Memphis soul group the Bo-Keys, executive music producer of the film Black Snake Moan, and composer of the original score for the Academy Award winning Hustle & Flow.
For the last year, Peel has been relentlessly toiling in Electraphonic, Bomar’s analog recording studio, re-crafting his material for a debut album even as he’s lent a hand on dozens of other sessions, cutting music for the award-winning documentary film I Am A Man and the MTV series $5 Cover, and held down the drummer’s seat for a plethora of local artists, including rapper Al Kapone, hip-hop group Lord T & Eloise, and American Idol finalist Alexis Grace.
“What makes Memphis music, past and present, so real is that it’s not produced,” Peel says. “You’re hearing what happens in the studio – a real product, not some guy layering instruments with ProTools – and I want to be the epitome of that. I want to give people something really intimate, rather than just singing over a track. Otherwise, where does real stop?”
