Currently touring the east coast of the United States as a musician is Pearl. Pearl has released singles such as “Methamphetamines,” and “I Like You But,” and even invites all of the girls in the audience to get up onstage and dance with her when she performs her song, “No Man.”
Check out our interview with Pearl below!
Shaun Hood: How did you get into singing and songwriting?
Pearl: I started writing songs when I was six years old, and it was just something I did to process and then I never stopped. As I got older, around the age of 16 or 17, I started to record in the studio because I figured that if God could use my songs to help mem then he could use them to help other people. That encouraged me to start recording and let them be heard, and now we’re here.
SH: Tell us about the song, “Methamphetamines” and its background.
P: So, “Methamphetamines” is about one of my close friends who had a really gnarly couple years in his adult life. He was hooked on drugs, got sober and ended up being with a girl who he had met in a rehab. Then, she relapsed and he stayed sober and was dealing with that.
At the time, I was in a relationship with someone who also was not sober, who was an alcoholic. My friend who was with the girl and I were kind of in similar relationships. When I was writing the song, I thought to myself, “Our friendship is such a crazy story. We really do have a bizarre story.”
As a friend, he really showed me what I deserved and how I deserved to be treated. Helping him process the relationship he was in ended up speaking to me and helping me realize what I was in. We were never more than friends. Nothing ever really happened, but he was just someone who made me feel so loved. I wanted to write about the beauty of our connection and the relationship that we had.
SH: What about your song, “No Man” and its background?
P: “No Man” was written at a time when I had gotten out of a very intense and unhealthy relationship. I was living in New York City at the time, and I was at a blues night. The band was amazing, just killing it. I was dancing, swaying around, having fun. It was the first time since getting out of that relationship that I was able to freely enjoy a night out without wondering if my boyfriend was going to be upset about something or if he was going to be drinking a lot and I’d have to deal with him after the party, or if he was going to lash out or get mean. It was just the first time I had the freedom to dance and have fun without having that sort of weight on me mentally.
So, that’s what I wrote it about, and what I wish I could have told myself when I was younger. It was kind of a song reflecting on if I had a chance to go back in time and talk to my younger self, that no man, and the lyrics is what I would’ve told her. You deserve better, essentially.
SH: From what I understand, at the end of every show, you invite all of the girls in the audience to join you onstage as you perform “No Man.” Where did you get the idea to do that at every show? What is it like to perform with all those audience members onstage with you?
P: It’s the best, it’s my favorite part of the show. It is beautiful every time.
It started almost accidentally. My friends and I were at the Rhythm & Resin Festival last year in San Clemente. We were kind of joking, saying, “Oh, the girls should come up.” So I invited all my friends up and everyone loved it. So I just never stopped doing it and continued bringing all the girls up every time for No Man ever since. I think that girls and anyone, but I just think they should be elevated. They should have a moment of their own and I want girls to remember how iconic they are. So – a small way of doing that, I feel like – is bringing them up on stage and letting them dance and sing and perform themselves too. It’s a blast. I love it so much.
SH: What are your fans like? Tell us about the connection you have with them.
P: They’re the biggest icons ever, I’m so grateful for them. Truly, some of the best people I’ve met are people following online. I’ve literally hung out with girls who I’ve met on the side of the road and they’ve turned into best friends. They’re just spectacular humans. I feel like God has just blessed us with this connection, this relationship. It’s one where instantly, we’re friends. There’s not a wall in between. I love these fans with my whole heart, like they’re my own, like they’re my sisters.
SH: I know about the t-shirts you sell that say “Let girls be hot,” which also happens to be the name of your current tour. What does the phrase, “Let girls be hot” mean to you, and why is it so important?
P: “Let Girls Be Hot” started for me when I kept seeing guys posting on social media during Halloween being upset that girls were dressing up and going out in little costumes, corsets, short shorts, whatever. They were acting as if girls weren’t good people, good girlfriends, good partners, if they were wearing less “modest” clothing.
That bothered me because I just don’t think that’s true. I think girls love to dress up. They love fashion. Just because a girl wears booty shorts doesn’t mean she’s the worst. She most likely just loves fashion.
So, I started saying, “Let girls be hot. Just let girls be hot. Why is anyone upset that girls are hot? I don’t understand. Do you want them not to be hot?” It created this entire phrase, and we just kept going off of it and then making t-shirts because it’s genuinely something I feel very passionately about.
When we were trying to figure out names for the tour, someone had said it kind of jokingly, and at first I was like, “No way.” Then, I was like, “Wait, yes. Yes, exactly.” I want girls to be uplifted and inspired, and I want them to embrace being hot. The least I can do is provide a space for girls to feel confident and to feel loved for being confident. So that’s why we also decided to name the tour “Let Girls Be Hot.”
SH: What does the “Let Girls Be Hot Tour” mean to you in terms of your journey as a performer?
P: I personally feel like this is perhaps the most important tour of my life. It’s the first one. It’s my first headlining tour. It’s emotional. There’s been so much early on in my career that was unfortunate. To be able to have the opportunity to just connect with my audience in a setting like this is something I will not take for granted.
It means everything to me to just have these people show up. It’s really just a celebration for me. It’s a celebration of the fans and the audience and these people that I consider my friends. It’s a celebration of this connection that we have. That’s my focus for the tour, just simply celebrating everyone who is there and letting them know how much I appreciate them and appreciate the relationship that we have.
SH: Is there anything else that you’re working on or that you have coming up that you’d like our readers to know about?
P: Yes! So, my set list for this tour is most of my first album that’s not out yet. The songs are being mixed and mastered, so I will be putting out an album in the near future. It tells the story behind “No Man,” kind of where it started, and then how I got to that point. Most of the set list is a lot of those songs, so that album will be out in the near future. I don’t have a specific date, but everyone will get a sneak peek at the shows.
Pearl can be found on Instagram at @pearlofficial.