Pearl Charles

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 & 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 & breath the smog laced air of the city itself - thick with the salt from the Pacific Ocean & the dust from the Mojave desert. In this land of cults & alternative spirituality, she developed her own cosmic brew from the influences around her - Disco, Country, Yacht Rock, Funk & 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 & reimagining what she finds, she creates her own unique brand of modern American folk music & reframes retro-fetishism as a futurist vision.