about pearl

about pearl

Born in the mythical land of Hollywood, where the psychedelic fragrance of the California State Poppy lingers in the air, Pearl Charles was raised on American folk music. Though she did for a time immerse herself in the world of American primitivism - The Carter Family, Smithsonian Folkways and Alan Lomax’ archival recordings of the American South - having grown up in Los Angeles, the folk culture she personally encountered was that of her hometown. A culture that on the surface seems to be communally shared with the world via the vast amount of media exported from Hollywood, but is only truly known by the people who live and breath the smog laced air of the city itself - thick with the salt from the Pacific Ocean and the dust from the Mojave desert. 

In this land of cults and alternative spirituality, she developed her own cosmic brew from the influences around her - Disco, Country, Yacht Rock, Funk and all of the folk musics of the post-urban migration of mid-20th century America. Weaving these influences together like a seamstress for the band, she offers up her own addition to the great patchwork quilt of American music. Yet, unlike so much of what we’ve become accustomed to in our current heavily referential, sample based culture, there’s something in this collage that is undeniably new. By sifting through the fragments of bygone eras and reimagining what she finds, she creates her own unique brand of modern American folk music and reframes retro-fetishism as a futurist vision.

Pearl’s latest work emerges from a time of change in her life which saw her relocate from her native Los Angeles to the fabled land of Joshua Tree - a pilgrimage taken by so many legendary rock stars before her. Accompanied by her partner and musical collaborator Michael Rault, her movement toward the country is a direct reversal of the 20th century currents which carried America’s population into the city. In that time the music of the country changed as it collided with the wide array of new machinery and gadgets the urban landscape had to offer - guitar amplifiers, radios, synthesizers and turntables. Now, as the tides turn in this post-mechanical age, Pearl Charles rides out of her hometown on a pacific ocean wave - and carries along with her this same country music, though now permanently altered by the beating hearts and drums of the city and its inhabitants. Her latest musical offering springs up from this fertile desert ground as a more refined distillation of her Country Disco signature sound that she introduced to the world on her previous record Magic Mirror.

As if Tom Petty were riding shotgun, Charles and band capture a certain Southern California essence” – LA TIMES

“Bursting with blues-rock and blissed-out psychedelia” – PITCHFORK

I"The best country pop we've heard in years"  - Rough Trade 

 "A modern June Carter meets Lana Del Rey."  - Buzzfeed