Stefan Bennett Pruett

Stefan Bennett Pruett, a.k.a. The Guidance, Peachcake (born March 8, 1985, - June 14, 2020) was a frontman/singer, also songwriter, producer, performer, DJ and recording artist for Peachcake band as well as The Guidance. He also wrote, produced, and performed projects under his name Stefan Pruett., especially electronica, from the early 2000s.

Stefan Bennett Pruett
Born	March 8, 1985 Evanston, Illinois
Died	June 14, 2020 Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Education	H.S. Cactus Shadows High School, Cave Creek, AZ Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale AZ
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, producer, and recording artist
Years active	2002-2020
Known for	Frontman and singer - Peachcake band (2003-2012); The Guidance (2013 - 2020)
Parents	Steven Pruett (father) Paula B. Pruett (mother)
Website
www.TheGuidance.com

Early Life and Education

Pruett was born in Evanston, IL, raised in Arizona, and moved to Los Angeles in 2013. He was born with a serious congenital heart condition and underwent several experimental heart surgeries as a child and teenager. His last large surgery resulted in a pacemaker being inserted, which Pruett was dependent on for his remaining life. Pruett turned to music as a source of comfort. His heart condition pushed him out of basketball, so his mother encouraged him to pursue music. As a teenager, he began promoting and booking bands in local Arizona venues. He attended Cactus Shadows High School in Cave Creek, AZ, and later went on to study the business of music at Scottsdale Community College. He was self-taught on guitar and drums, but in attempts to find a singer and frontman for his bands, he decided to take vocal lessons with the late Anita Bakey from Fountain Hills, AZ.

Career

Peachcake

In 2003, Pruett formed the group Peachcake with his childhood friend, John O’Keefe, who subsequently left the group for other endeavors. Peachcake developed into a national touring band and released their first EP, Chain Letter, in 2004. Pruett, with Peachcake, garnered local success in Arizona, including landing on the cover of the Phoenix New Times with a featured article. They toured from 2005 and 2006 all throughout the West Coast, the South, and the Midwest, performing with an opening for headliners like Hello-Goodbye. During the early tours, they also added new band members like Jeremiah Gratza, performing at South by Southwest, North by Northwest in Canada, and Bamboozle in California. Peach Cake was one of the first bands out of Arizona to embrace electronic music. They were supported by other popular bands like Of Montreal and The Go! Team and Explosions in the Sky. In 2006, Peachcake joined forces with Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World and Charlie Levy from Stateside Presents to release a split EP under the label Western Tread Recordings with the band Less Pain Forever.

In November 2008, the band released their debut album, What Year Will You Have The World? with the help of Pruett’s manager Kyle Schember of Subtractive Inc. With the addition of new bandmate and tour manager Mike McHale, Peachcake continued to play shows with MC Lars, Danger Radio, The Scene Aesthetic, Young the Giant, Get Back Loretta, and Deer in the Headlights. They also appeared at Daytrotter, Canadian Music Week, and Bamboozle Left.

On March 20, 2009, Peachcake was made an honorary member of the International Peace Bureau for their efforts to promote tolerance, peace, and love through music and live performance.

In 2010, Pruett collaborated with bandmate Mike McHale and Phoenix-based songwriter David Jackman to produce and eventually release 2012, Unbelievable Souls, Peachcake’s sophomore album.

In 2011, Peachcake's song "We’re We Ever Really Right" from the upcoming album Unbelievable Souls was chosen by the International Peace Bureau and Demilitarize.org for Global Day of Action on military spending, a global initiative promoting demilitarization. Their third EP, "This Wasn’t Our Plan," featured the single "You Matter," which was selected for Paul Frank’s Academy of Awesome compilation, released on Nov. 22, 2011, through Paul Frank Records on iTunes and Amazon.

Following the releases of "This Wasn’t Our Plan" and "Unbelievable Souls," Peachcake performed with notable acts like Cage the Elephant, Peter Murphy, and Neon Trees, locally and on tour. They also performed at events such as Van’s Warped Tour, Cleveland’s Ingenuity Festival, and Arizona’s Fall Frenzy.

Peachcake received an invitation to perform at Slottsfjell Festival in Tonsberg, Norway, in July 2012.

During his tenure with Peachcake, Pruett created a television show called Planet Awesome that aired in multiple U.S. television markets.

Peachcake’s last show was on April 13, 2013, at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, AZ. Not long after this show, Peachcake became inactive.

Solo

Pruett to moved to L.A., where he managed Pruett and encouraged Pruett’s solo-writing and co-producing the album Stefan from The 80s with MJ (Mark Jackson) and Irok (Ian Scott) of Capitol Records that was released in January 2021. It was the only album he created under his name Stefan Pruett. Two songs from the solo album Stefan from the 80s, which he wrote, and co-produced, were “Carefree” and “Hearts Can’t Lie,” referring to the depth of feelings that Pruett had endured with the loss of his younger brother, Alex Pruett, in 2007 and his own feelings about his heart condition and surgeries he had undergone throughout his life.

The Guidance

In 2016, Pruett created The Guidance. His work on this project brought a wide range of electronica genres across the decades into a mash-up of raw analog synthesizers, ingenious storytelling, and rich dance music. He was invited as a special guest on tour with experimental electronica group Crystal Castles, venturing throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe, playing to sold-out audiences. He debuted the single Next Time on this tour, which reflected his experiences in heart surgery

In 2017, he agreed to be managed by fellow producer Jeremy Dawson, a Grammy-nominated musician (Shiny Toy Guns). He toured the U.S. and Canada with Dawson’s group MXMS and She Wants Revenge. In 2019, he signed with Tommie Sunshine of the dance music label Brooklyn Fire and released the single She Likes the Dance Music. Both Sunshine and Pruett appeared together at Miami’s famed Ultra Festival in March 2019, where Pruett debuted several performances of the song. This song, along with Tommie Sunshine and DJ Slatin’s remix, had reached thousands of plays/streams worldwide. Pruett’s final show for The Guidance was a featured guest for She Wants Revenge in 2019.

Pruett signed an album of songs with Dave Zierler, founder of Handwritten Records, in 2020. Pruett and producer Jeremy Dawson (Shiny Toy Guns) worked tirelessly on creating several songs for the album, This Is Now, which was eventually and posthumously released on January 14, 2022. The album included several singles, but “I Didn’t Mean That” was often noted by Pruett as his favorite, and he called it “a perfect song.”

Pruett, The Guidance, released another single, Overs, and on June 12, 2020, Tommie Sunshine’s label released a remix by Tommie Sunshine and MureKian of Pruett’s song Overs. Two days later, on June 14, 2020, Pruett died of apparent heart failure.

On January 15, 2022, in conjunction with the release of Pruett’s last album, This Is Now, The Guidance, a show remembering Pruett and his body of work, was held at the Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix. The show featured Pruett’s music by Jeremy Dawson (Shiny Toy Guns), Forest Kline (of Hello Goodbye), and a tribute band to Peachcake lead and arranged with former bandmates by Mike McHale.

Discography

Albums

• What Year Will You Have the World? (Peachcake 2008)
• Unbelievable Souls (Peachcake 2012)
• Stefan From the 80’s (Stefan Pruett 2021)
• This Is Now (The Guidance 2022)
• Brothers (Stefan Pruett and Jason Caitlin, 2020)

EPs

• Chain Letter (Peach Cake, 2004)
• We Should’ve Never Released This (Peach Cake, 2006)
• This Wasn't Our Plan (Peach Cake, 2011)
• 7g (The Guidance 2021)

Splits

• Now We Have Something to Celebrate with Less Pain Forever (Peach Cake, 2006)

Compilations

• Greatness Abound! B-Sides, Remixes, Demos,
• Alternate Versions & Live Recordings (Peachcake 2021)

Singles

• Next Time (The Guidance 2017)
• Overs (The Guidance 2018)
• She Likes Dance Music (The Guidance 2018)
• Fuck Art (The Guidance 2021)
• I Didn’t Mean That (The Guidance 2021)
• Silent Witness Guardian Angel (The Guidance 2022)
• Last Christmas (The Guidance 2019) *

Remixes

• She Likes Dance Music (2019 The Guidance remixed Tommie Sunshine and Slatin)
• Overs (2020 The Guidance remixed Tommie Sunshine and MureKian)
• Last Christmas (2022, performed by Stefan Pruett, a.k.a. The Guidance remixed Tommie Sunshine and On Deck)