The Magic of Pearl Charles

Pearl Charles by Dana Trippe

Pearl Charles channels her love for 60s, 70s, and 80s by taking all sorts of influences and merging them with her own to create modern, yet psychedelic tracks that could easily fit into the catalog of the earlier decades. I got to sit down with her and discuss everything from quarantine to vintage music tees, as well as her musical style. Her newest release, Magic Mirror, is out January 15, 2021. Enjoy!

I appreciate you taking the time to have this conversation with me.

• Yeah, of course!

I’ve talked to many artists regarding quarantine. Some have said it’s been nice for them to have solitude and others wished they could be touring or recording. Where do you stand?

• Well I feel like there’s definitely pros and cons to it. I had just finished a record in January 2020 that was supposed to come out that year so my release schedule was completely affected. I mean it could be for the best. A good thing about this is that my boyfriend and I were able to start building our home studio!

That’s very cool. That seems to fit the vibe of your music and the sound.

• Yes like Fleetwood Mac haha. It’s like a cool way to combine, you know you work at home, and when you can, you can go to the studio and expand. It’s very important to have a place of your own that you can create your art in you know?

I read that you graduated from Cal Arts. A lot of people go to school to learn how to play music and start their careers in the industry but there are also those who pick up an instrument and learn on YouTube. What are your thoughts on becoming a musician through the DIY method as a student who attended a school for music?

• Well I mainly went to school because my parents wanted me to. I’ve been studying music since I was five. I took piano lessons, guitar lessons, voice lessons. I didn’t necessarily have no knowledge when I started school, so it just depends. It can be very expensive so there’s that. I am always still learning, even going on YouTube and looking at how to play songs. School isn’t necessary, I was more interested in meeting people in the scene which I did at school. I wanted to get out on the road.

Speaking of the LA scene, what do you think you’ve picked up that you couldn’t learn perhaps in another place?

• Being from LA, there is definitely an interesting perspective. People come here and kind of get thrown into it. My experience has been very supportive and that’s what I love about this scene. All different kinds of music have a place here and there’s so much crossover. That’s something I really appreciate about being here.

What are your thoughts on how music is now becoming more accessible to the younger audience where you have adolescents listening to bands like The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac and getting more into them than just the hits?

• Yeah! It’s funny cause I’ve talked to my older friends who have said that when they were growing up, it wasn't cool to like bands like Fleetwood Mac because they were very popular. I think now, enough time has gone by where we can just listen to the music and see how it’s sophisticated. It’s nice to be able to like that type of music not because it is popular but because it’s just genuine good music.

Exactly. Can you speak a little about how you stay authentically yourself and make the music you solely want to make and not try to dive into something for the sake of it being popular or what’s trendy at the moment? There’s a horrible stigma about how everybody listens to all types of music EXCEPT country or folk.

• *Laughs* First I want to say that appreciating and understanding the chronology of music has been huge in allowing me to get to the place that I’m at where I can appreciate music even if I don’t necessarily love it. Going back to my first band, we were playing music from the early 20th century, and that really helped me understand how we got to rock and roll and then from there to psych and from there to garage and country rock and all these other things. I love ABBA, my new record has some ABBA influences, but a few years ago, I didn't really appreciate ABBA because I hadn’t educated myself on how we got from point A to point B. I feel like you can appreciate things more if you know where they come from and I think that’s true about a lot of things, not just music. To answer your question more specifically, the music I really connect with is the kind where I feel the artist is really bearing their soul. That’s what I connect with and I’m trying to find the truest version of myself and put it out there for the world.You may not make much money or be as popular because you’re not the thing that’s on the radio right now, but at the end of the day, when I look back on my life, I want to feel that I made the music that I needed to make for me and I think that music will connect me with my more authentic fans than just the people who want to get on the bandwagon.

I think that most artists would take 500 true fans over 10K bandwagon fans.

• Totally! My bass player used to have something he called “1000 true fans” and the point was basically; it’s kind of been proven with this quarantine time, it’s really interesting cause we can’t tour anymore and the music industry has been changing drastically over the last 20-30 years. The fact that touring is no longer the main source of income for musicians, there’s things like Patreon where fans can sign up and have a direct way of helping musicians they like continue to make the art they like to listen to. It’s really cool, like you don’t need to have a million fans, you just need a few that are really gonna stand by you.

We do live in a world now where you can be more direct with pretty much anyone due to social media. I find it interesting that once an artist reaches a certain height of popularity, they find it less and less important to build that bond with their fans. Of course they are probably more busy, but the fans are what put them on that pedestal that’s now getting them paid to make art.

• For sure. I think everyone is an artist, I truly believe that, but not everyone had their ability nurtured. So being an artist and making a living off it is a privilege, and having fans who support you and your work, that’s everything you know?

It really is. I’m fascinated with your love of the 70s. Every time you post on your Instagram, I see new outfits, new styles, but they all show a genuine love for that decade. What’s that like for you?

• It’s funny because what we wear is a big part of how we present ourselves to the world. I feel comfortable in vintage clothing and stuff that may fit the vibe of my music, but it’s honestly just what I like. On stage, I’ll wear something sparkly, jumpsuits, that kind of thing, but in my day to day, I’ll have on a vintage band tee and jeans. It’s a timeless look really and when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I think “That’s me, that’s who I am” and it feels really good to represent myself in that way. People in the 70s had great style, but you have to just be who you are and who you want to be. I feel very good wearing a band tee *laughs*.

That’s very cool, even today where people are being more conscious of buying a vintage band tee rather than one at Forever 21 or something like that. I feel like these stores sell these shirts and people wear them more for the style without knowing who the artist is sometimes.

• I actually have a funny story about that. When I was in seventh grade, I wore a Ramones shirt from Urban Outfitters on my first day and a girl asked me if I knew this song by them. I said yeah and she was like “Ha it’s not a real song I made it up!” She was trying to bully me about how I didn’t know the band. Maybe that was something that made me look deeper into the artists I like on a subconscious level that I never realized. I did like the Ramones but I didn’t know them that well. It’s definitely a trend to have people buy tees like that but no judgment. I love to go thrifting and spend a lot of time looking for unique pieces on Etsy or eBay. You find things that speak to you and most are one of a kind. It also feels really good to represent bands that you love by wearing their Merch, not that they need any help *laughs*.

That’s a cool way of looking at it. I’ve definitely been on both ends and maybe that’s not the best way to go about it; projecting your love for music onto someone. Sometimes you can’t help it, but there are times when you like a band and you don’t want them to get any bigger because you have a certain connection with them and if they suddenly blew up, maybe that connection wouldn’t be as strong or maybe it could even be lost. I think everyone prefers to see a concert in an intimate setting rather than arena.

• Yeah that’s the best. But the thing is, no matter how big an artist becomes, you can always go back to playing more intimate shows. In fact, even if you’re bigger, that makes me way more special because it becomes rare. I’m thinking about the experiences I’ve had like I got to see Tom Petty play at the Troubador because he was a surprise guest on this bill for a Christmas Benefit show. One of the years, he came and I never seen him play before, and to watch with a couple hundred people, it was just the coolest fucking thing ever. You can still connect with fans on that level so just because you become big, you don’t have to stop that. When you’re big, you have more control over saying you want to play five shows in small theaters rather than an arena.

This also brings to my mind the idea of when an artist tries to change their sound. This is something that can divide fans such as Tame Impala. They make two psych rock records and everyone praises them for it, then release Currents and people suddenly become skeptical. They both lost and gained fans on that release. What are your thoughts on that?

• Yeah, I mean my boyfriend loved their first two records and was surprised when they released their third. But we can’t really judge them and say they aren’t being authentic. We don’t really know what his motivation was when making it, maybe he just got bored and wanted to try something else.

I like to ask artists about their ways of making it through rough times especially creatively. It’s easy to get discouraged and want to give up, so in that sense, what keeps you motivated to make the art you make no matter what happens?

• Well, I mean, I kind of had an acceptance of this. I think that no matter what happens, I’m always going to make the music I want to make and hopefully that connects to people in an authentic way. Nothing that’s happening in the world will change that. You can’t be doing it for the money or the fame, you have to agree to do it for yourself and stay true to yourself. As I get older, I’m looking at my life and wondering, okay, where do I want to be in my life right now? I don’t want to be chasing after radio play or whatever, if it comes to me, it comes to me, but that’s not what I’m trying to attain. I want to spread positivity and love, and that’s why I’m really proud of my new album. It’s about how we need to stick together and support one another because that’s really what we’re supposed to do. It’s my strongest release so far so I’m excited to share it with everyone and I hope that the signals begin to flow in the community that I want to send *laughs*.

I appreciate you very much as an artist and for your time!

• No thank you! It was great talking to you!

Thanks for the conversation Pearl Charles.