Tori King
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) — Peyote Beats isn’t just an up-and-coming music producer and song-writer from the Coachella Valley, he is also a Grammy Award winner.
The Armenian-American producer earned the prestigious award for his contribution to Doechii’s latest album, ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’. Peyote helped to produce the track ‘Boiled Peanuts’ with Doechii, who is regarded as one of the top new rappers in the music industry. “I didn’t think that it was going to go to the heights that it’s gone to,” said Peyote, in an exclusive interview with News Channel Three’s Tori King. “It still feels surreal.” The rising-star producer earned music’s most coveted award after Doechii’s album took home the ‘Best Rap Album of the Year’ at the 2025 Grammy Awards.
“To work on the album by Doechii, was a dream,” said Peyote. “She’s one of the most prominent female rappers around at the moment. It was all really unexpected. You know, a lot of people get nominations, they’ve been working for years. They they might have like, 20 nominations, but still haven’t won it. So for me, this was special because it was the first nomination and then won it as well.”
That moment, according to Peyote, was a culmination of years of hard work, late nights, and determination. “I made the record in my studio,” explained Peyote. “The bass, keys, drums. It all started after I got a meeting with Top Dog Entertainment. I played in my songs, and my beats for like, 40 minutes. They listened very patiently, and then a couple days later, they asked me to make a beat specific for Doechii.”
After that, Peyote said things happened very quickly, and fell into place in a matter of hours.
“I did it within I’d say, like, two, three hours,” said Peyote. “Then, three weeks later the song came out on the album. A lot of times I’ll have songs that’ll take two to five years to come out, but this one only took a few weeks and it was everywhere on Spotify and the radio.”
But Peyote says he really got his start in the Coachella Valley, here, they call him Armin Zabounian.“Growing up here, it was a little slow for the youth,” said Peyote. “But you know, when you leave, when you move away, that’s when you appreciate the desert.”Peyote says the first time he learned to play an instrument was when we was just a kid.
“I grew up in Rancho Mirage and started playing piano when I was like six, classical piano,” said Peyote. But it was in jazz band at Palm Springs High School where he really fell in love with music.“There was someone playing the guitar, and I heard the song, and I was like, ‘Yo, what are you playing?’ And he’s like, ‘It’s, Hey, Jude by Jimi Hendrix.’ And so I went home, and in a week or two, got a guitar.”From there, Peyote joined a band with a few of his friends.
“We had a good little run, yeah. We were called Red Star,” said Peyote. “We played all these shows around the desert. There was the Ale House back in the day, but it’s not there anymore. We even played these Battle of the Bands events, all sorts of things.” But after attending his first Coachella in 2005, Peyote Beats truly got a taste of his future.
“Going to Coachella for almost 10 years and seeing all the biggest bands around the world come and perform kind of planted it in my head, that this is really bigger than just, you know, playing in the desert. This goes beyond that, this is for the rest of the world.” Peyote says several years of watching the bands perform made his realize he wanted to make music himself.
“I got to see Prince. I got to see Paul McCartney, you know, Roger Waters,” said Peyote. “It was very personal, I mean, yeah, I know the tickets were expensive. There’s definitely a year or two where, I hopped the fence because I wanted to go. I loved Coachella so much, but one day I asked myself what’s after this? I don’t really go to Coachella anymore, because my goal that if I do go back, it’s either to perform or if I have an artist that I produced for.”
After that, Peyote packed up his belongings and move to LA to get his start, however, Peyote says it wasn’t all awards shows and red carpets in the beginning.”A lot of struggles, a lot of neglect, a lot of resistance coming up that people don’t see from the outside,” admitted Peyote. In 2019, Peyote left his job in marketing to pursue music full-time, but he quickly learned that breaking into the music industry didn’t come easy, instead, it came at a price.
“I was just living in the studio, which was a nice, spacious place to be,” said Peyote. “But there weren’t any showers there. So I was booking hotels on hoteltonight.com. I could get a nice room for $30 and I would just Uber there just to take a shower and then come back and keep it going. We don’t tend to see that side of it because people don’t put the bad stuff on Instagram.”
Shortly after that, Peyote would get his first big break: a producing opportunity with Trippie Redd. And since then, the rising producer worked with some of the top artists in the world, including Yuki Chiba, Tyga, and French Montana. Peyote says regardless of who he works with he tries to pay homage to his upbringing, by injecting a little bit of the desert into each of his tracks.”The desert is a huge theme for me into all songs,” said Peyote. “Any song that I work on, I always like to have that. The desert has this legendary aura. It mixes the old world with the new. This place saw people like Frank Sinatra, and Elvis. There is nothing like the desert.”
And although producing for Doechii and winning a Grammy has been the pinnacle of his producing career so far, Peyote says he’s only getting started. “All the trials and tribulations, just come back, you know,” said Peyote. “I want to thank my mom and my dad who pushed me to learn the piano and practice, even when I didn’t want to.” Now, Peyote hopes to inspire the next generation of musical talent here in the Coachella Valley to take their shot too.”I just feel like there’s so much talent here that it needs to be shared with the rest of the world,” said Peyote. “So I just want to let the kids out here know ,that this is really real. It’s possible. It’s possible to make it and to make music your life.”
For now, Peyote says he will continue to work with artists making music in his LA studio, but he reminds himself the desert is only a few hours away when he needs a little inspiration.
“I miss it sometimes,” said Peyote. “But that’s why I put the desert into my music. I rep 760 everywhere I go. It will always be a part of me and I am grateful for my experiences, my memories, the support, and the community.”
For more information on Peyote Beats and his music, click here.
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