Camp Nowhere

For their debut EP, Peach Tree Rascals went back to their home away from home in Yosemite National Park, California. “Being out in Yosemite and away from LA and everything else really helped us get in that state of mind where we can just be free,” singer-rapper Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq tells Apple Music. “We've been going there as a creative getaway for the past four or five years. Our mindset was to go in and try to make the most timeless, best piece of work that we could possibly make—especially for our first project.” After the success of their singles “Mariposa” and “Glide,” the LA-based collective, originally from San Jose, set up camp in singer-rapper Issac Pech's family vacation home to get their creative juices flowing. With their colorful, mood-lifting blend of pop, R&B, and hip-hop, the group drowns out all the outside noise and invites listeners to do the same. “Your Camp Nowhere is your safe space,” Pech says. “It is where you can do whatever you want to do. It's a place where you get away from all the bullshit.” Here, Pech and Abdel-Khaliq, alongside producer-mixer Dominic “Dom” Pizano, rapper-songwriter Joseph Barros, and honorary sixth member Jasper Barros, guide us through their peaceful retreat in this track-by-track guide.
OOZ Joseph Barros: “It’s basically about falling in love, and how it's kind of like a drug that you want to keep taking. Kind of like LSD. It takes you on a different experience, different trips. The feeling of it is really overwhelming, and you don't want it to go away.” Dominic Pizano: “For the intro, I really wanted the listener to anticipate that something great is about to happen. Like when it goes into Jasper's great-ass chord progression, and Tarrek killed the verse.”
LEAVE ME Joseph Barros: “It started out in my bedroom, and like most of the songs I create, I usually start off with guitar and just freestyle melodies onto the voice memos. I was messing around with some chords that were familiar to this one Filipino song that me and Jasper would always listen to as kids. When I wrote the chorus, it was during a time in my relationship with my girlfriend when I had self-esteem issues—which is why I say, ‘Please don’t let me go.’”
JoJo Issac Pech: “My lyrics touch on my family life at home. My parents and how their relationship is going, and how my mom and my older brother's relationship is going too. I go into the family business stuff that doesn't really leave the house as often, but you have to get it off your chest somehow.”
Change My Mind Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq: “Me and Issac freestyled the whole song in probably 15 to 20 minutes. It’s about not wasting your days anymore. And whatever’s bothering you, you just want to say ‘fuck you’ or ‘fuck that.’ Just go and have fun, jump around, and chill. That was the feeling we were going for from the start. It embodies that Camp Nowhere feeling in the most energetic and free-flowing way.”
Doing Fine Tarrek Abdel-Khaliq: “A lot of the times when we write, we don't really write with a concept. Whatever is on our mind, we just let it out and put it into our melody. It was during the pandemic, where everyone's just stuck inside but there's all this shit on my mind. If you're going to ask me, we're doing fine. That's kind of the feeling you get from the song. It has a flow and an energy to it, but at the same time, it's still laidback. So you're not really sure if you are actually doing good or doing fine, but you're showing that you are.”
papá Jasper Barros: “I was playing a multiplayer game on PS4. I was playing the guitar while I was waiting for the round to start. Me and EJ were in the room and looked at each other, and we're like, 'Fuck it.' And then the round started, and we're like, 'I don't even care about this game no more!' The chord progression just came out from that. It was so crazy.”
Pockets Joseph Barros: “I was in my car driving to the gym and I was freestyling some melodies. I already knew how the song felt and how it made me feel. It was basically about a time in my life where everything felt like it was going wrong and I was really depressed. Shit wasn't going my way and I was kind of lost. I would use substances to basically hide all the problems. In the verse, I talk about how the substances can't subdue any problem forever.” Jasper Barros: “When I was making the solo on the track, I thought to myself, ‘Would this make John Mayer happy?’ If I took this to him, would he like this solo?’ I think he would.”
Oh Honey! (I Love You) Joseph Barros: “The song was initially about my dad, because he has Alzheimer's, and for me it's a big weight on my shoulders. The production stems from The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, the Carpenters. A bunch of that era. Musically, my dad is the biggest influence on my life. He's the one who showed me all those great artists and bands. I wanted to bring that same feeling from those songs that I heard as a child, that my dad introduced me to.”