Diandra Interviews Pearl Charles: Finding Your Identity
Finding your identity as an artist can be as perplexing as finding your identity as person, in part, because they are one in the same. Your identity is only true because you create it, which means, oddly enough, that the choice to be fake is still, sort of, authentic. It is the real choice to hide, but Pearl Charles doesn’t want to hide. In fact, she wants to be endless. She wants to see herself like a limitless journey of discovery, of which we discuss how her upcoming album, Magic Mirror, furthers it.
Diandra: If you had a Magic Mirror, what would you like to see in it or think it would reveal to you?
Pearl Charles: Well, those could be two very different answers, couldn’t they? I love and hate this question, because I could potentially be revealing a side of myself that I may not want to reveal…
haha. What I would like to see is what I want to present, outwardly, to the world, but what it would reveal might be something different than that. To answer this question, my initial instinct is to say what I think people would want to hear, but it’s kind of embarrassing to admit that, a part of me, might want to tell people just what they want to hear. I want to be honest. So, I could say what I would like to see in it, but then what do I think it would reveal? I don’t know that those are the same things. I guess I think that is true of everyone in some way.
I’d like to believe that there is always room for self improvement in our lives, so that if you looked at yourself in the magic mirror, you could see the best version of yourself, and maybe that’s what could be revealed. But, also in my mind, the true magic mirror is going to show you in your entirety – the good and the bad.
Pearl Charles “What I Need” Lyric Video
Diandra: Your songs are dreamy and embrace surrealism. What are the films that most inspire your fantasy? Why?
Pearl Charles: I actually share a birthday with Salvador Dali, so maybe that explains my natural inclination towards the surreal. Some of my favorite dreamlike films are Last Year at Marienbad, most of the Stanley Kubrick movies, Nic Roeg’s films (Man Who Fell To Earth, Don’t Look Now, Performance), Vertigo…Suspiria, Wicker Man…as I started listing all of these movies, I’m realizing that they are all pretty dark, which doesn’t necessarily represent my music, but they are all psychological studies. It brings me back to Alice in Wonderland, which was definitely my first “psychedelic” movie…or “surreal” or whatever you want to call it. It’s very fun and childlike, but also has a slightly off feeling in the best possible way. I like that stuff, but it’s not your average Disney movie, that’s for sure.
Diandra: You, like many artists, have wondered about leaving the industry. What makes you stay and describe a time when you got close but turned back?
Pearl Charles: Have I said I was gonna leave the industry? I’ve definitely thought about it…but I’ll never stop making music..and I don’t think I’ll ever leave the industry, either…hahaha. Not only is my heart and soul a lifetime commitment to making music, I also don’t know what else I would do at this point! I definitely want more for my life than anything an industry is going to offer, but you’ve got to make a living and make your music. There are albums that have affected me in major ways by artists that nobody knows about, and I would love to make albums that affect people in that same way. Yet, I don’t know how they are going to know about it unless it gets released, which means you have to involve yourself with the industry in some way.
4. Diandra: What is one piece of wisdom you received that was mind-blowing and from whom?
Pearl Charles: Wow, that’s a tough one. Do people even give mind-blowing advice to one another? K, wait… ya know – both my manager, Sam and my producer on this album, Lewis, have both at different times given me the same piece of advice in different words, which is that making music and your life is not some far off distant dream. You’re doing it right now, so appreciate the moment.
Pearl Charles – Take Your Time | Buzzsession
Diandra: Other people’s lives can be as complex as our own. What are certain figures whose lives inspired you and you would make into a song?
Pearl Charles: I’ve been inspired by every female musician in history up until this time. Whether it’s Christine McVie or an unknown female singer-songwriter…those women have gone through much harder times than I have in terms of the way the industry was when they were coming up. I try to consider and embody those perspectives in my music.
Diandra: Seeing Pearl Charles like a growing entity, what version of Pearl Charles will we meet in Magic Mirror? What phase or journey is she going through now?
Pearl Charles: I mean, I think the journey is constant. The album explores the chronology of going through a breakup, being single and doing the personal work, and then being in a relationship again. I said before that the introspection and the work on yourself never ends, but I feel like it accurately represents the growth and self-discovery of that time in my life.
Diandra: How has music taught you to communicate in relationships, and what is one thing it has made clear about how you love and how you wish to be loved?
Pearl Charles: I’ve pretty much always dated musicians, and the few times I didn’t, it didn’t work out, so I know that music is a huge part of how I love and how I wish to be loved. Music is an unspoken language and form of communication that transcends words; so having that with your partner, for me, is crucial.
Pearl Charles – All The Boys (Official Video)
Diandra: What is your favorite childhood memory with music?
Pearl Charles: I was in a lot of musicals growing up. I did my first musical when I was five. I took many lessons and things, but I didn’t fall in love with music through lessons. I fell in love with performing. I just loved being able to take on new characters, and explore music in a way that was tied up with identity. As far as specific memories, it’s a bit hazy now, but I remember singing Beatles songs in my kindergarten and I remember thinking that was the shit.
In reference to identity and character, I find that now, in my own music,I mostly write about myself and my own experiences, but I got here by trying out a bunch of different identities and characters through performing.
Diandra: What is your favorite book that captures human behavior? Why?
Pearl Charles: My favorite author is Herman Hesse and my favorite books by him are Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund. I feel like these books, and really most of Hesse’s work, deeply explore the duality of human existence. Just like the concept of the Magic Mirror, there are two – or more – sides to everyone, and these books perfectly and beautifully illustrate that.
Diandra: What is the deepest self-reflection people will find in Magic Mirror, and from which song?
Pearl Charles: I think much of the album is very self-reflective, but the two songs that really jump out to me are “Imposter” and “Don’t Feel Like Myself.” Imposter is about imposter syndrome, basically. Well, they’re both about that really; so, feeling like a fraud, a failure…but “Don’t Feel Like Myself” has a happy ending. It starts out about somebody not feeling like themselves, because they don’t know themselves in a deep way, then through the use of psychedelics and just general self-reflection over time, eventually they come to not feeling like the person they once were when they didn’t know themselves; therefore not feeling like that old self in a way. It’s about how that is a positive growth or change. I was in a lot of musicals growing up. I did my first musical when I was five. I took many lessons and things, but I didn’t fall in love with music through lessons. I fell in love with performing. I just loved being able to take on new characters, and explore music in a way that was tied up with identity. As far as specific memories, it’s a bit hazy now, but I remember singing Beatles songs in my kindergarten and I remember thinking that was the shit.
In reference to identity and character, I find that now, in my own music,I mostly write about myself and my own experiences. but I got here by trying out a bunch of different identities and characters through performing.
Diandra: What is your favorite book that captures human behavior? Why?
Pearl Charles: My favorite author is Herman Hesse and my favorite books by him are Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund. I feel like these books, and really most of Hesse’s work, deeply explore the duality of human existence. Just like the concept of the Magic Mirror, there are two – or more – sides to everyone, and these books perfectly and beautifully illustrate that.
Diandra: What is the deepest self-reflection people will find in Magic Mirror, and from which song?
Pearl Charles: I think much of the album is very self-reflective, but the two songs that really jump out to me are “Imposter” and “Don’t Feel Like Myself.” Imposter is about imposter syndrome, basically. Well, they’re both about that really; so, feeling like a fraud, a failure…but “Don’t Feel Like Myself” has a happy ending. It starts out about somebody not feeling like themselves, because they don’t know themselves in a deep way, then through the use of psychedelics and just general self-reflection over time, eventually they come to not feeling like the person they once were when they didn’t know themselves; therefore not feeling like that old self in a way. It’s about how that is a positive growth or change.
