Roy Peak is an American punk
rock, folk, and rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter.
He is primarily a bassist but also sings and
plays acoustic guitar during live performances.
Preferring old beat-to-death P-basses with flatwound strings
tuned down a whole step, Roy's bass playing has been described
as "orchestral and driving" and "Entwistle's
style with
Klaus Voormann's tone."
Peak grew up in Louisville,
Kentucky, the oldest of four siblings. His
father was a Marine and Roy was born on base at
a military hospital. Before his mother passed
away from cancer she bought him a Kay electric
bass and he took lessons from a country guitar
player by the name of Sonny Forest. After moving
to Jacksonville, Florida, where he still
resides, Peak became a bassist for hire with
several bands.
Peak was instrumental in the
North Florida original music scene in the early
1980s and ’90s, playing bass
in more bands than
he cares to remember for more years than he can
remember,
including Soul Guardians, Radio Berlin, 86
Love, Nerve Meter, The Problems, and several
others. He was part of the crew that produced
the series of Bubbapalooza concerts in
North Florida during the 1990s, and worked as a
soundtech at many local concerts for touring
bands such as L7, the Dead Milkmen, Corrosion
of Conformity, Don McLean, Frankie Valli, John
Lee Hooker, and countless others. Roy has helped design and build sound systems and equipment for
numerous area churches, clubs and local sound companies as well
as for Lucas Arts Films and
Ringling Bros. Circus. If you've played on stage in any
North Florida club or church in the past thirty years you've
probably used something Roy built.
In 2001,
after working as an engineer in several
recording studios, he opened up his own studio
(Radical Recording) in a spare room in his
suburban home. He engineered and produced albums
by Lauren Fincham,
Troy
Lukkarila,
Terry Whitehead,
The Have Nots, Shattermat, Willie Mae, Powerball,
Status Faux, Tamara
Colonna,
Jerry Maniscalco, and Vann Hardin, as well
as the come back album for seventies legend
Robert Lester Folsom,
titled
Beautiful Nonsense.
Around 2008 Peak began writing
and playing his own material, mostly in an
acoustic—but not necessarily laid back—format.
In late 2014 he released his first solo album,
All is Well,
described as a “punkish folk-rock tromp through
twelve songs about love, death, and birds,”
which received praise from critics in America as
well as Europe.
He wrote the theme song for the Utica, New York radio show
Get Off
My Lawn which airs several times a week on WPNR, and is a
frequent contributor to the show.
In 2016 he released a cover of
the Gillian Welch classic song, “Look at Miss
Ohio,” which was picked by the noted blog
CoverMeSongs.com as one of the best cover
songs released that year.
His
second solo album, An Ever
Darkening Sky,
was released in a digital streaming format
on his own label, Music for Monsters, in the
winter of 2019.
A Wolf at the Door, a
7-song EP was released in fall of 2020.
Performing at the Riverside Arts Market with
Spiral Bound. Beau Halton on drums.
Photo by Dori Whitehead.
Performing with Tamara Colonna at Suwannee Music
Fest, 2010
Photo by Thommy Berlin
In the studio. Photo by Debbie Peak
Photo by Gary Becka.
Radio Berlin, 1994. L-R: Matt Morris, Tim Wester,
Thommy Berlin, Roy Peak
Springing the Blues, 2013 with Linda Grenville.
Photo by Frank Allen Sr.
Wedding gig, 2015. L-R: Roy Peak, Robin Soergel,
Lauren Fincham, Sean Jones, Mark Williams, Mike
Pearson.
Mark Williams and Blue Horse at the Riverside
Arts Market. L-R: Chris Casey, Mark Williams,
Roy Peak, Noel Millan on drums behind Mark.
Photo by Gary Becka.
