“Little Fish, Big Sea”: Sitting Down With Pearl

            Recently the 423Create team had the opportunity to sit down with local Indie Americana band Pearl to talk about who they are and what they have been up to in the Chattanooga scene. While fairly new, only being formed in November of 2023, this has not held them back from performing at shows and working on music together as a whole. With a fair amount of concerts on their back (primarily performed at Chattanooga’s very own Cherry Street Tavern), this band is ready to perform many more and start the arduous but wholly fulfilling process of recording some official tracks together! But enough idle introduction, let’s get straight into who the members of Pearl are!

            Pearl is a four piece Americana outfit consisting of Emma (singer/songwriter), David (electric guitar), Alex (bass), and Zac (drums), each with their own musical histories. Emma (whose middle name ultimately became the band’s name) has been into music her entire life, as the combination of a bluegrass performing father and a natural knack for songwriting helped propel her into beginning singing and songwriting at the ages of 13 and 14 respectively. David has been playing the guitar since he was 14, and has been rocking out ever since. Zach began drumming at the age of 15 and soon began to perform at live shows only a year older at 16. Finally, their bassist, Alex, has been playing since a young age, really finding an inner sense of purpose playing for Pearl.

            Next up is one of the toughest questions a band has to answer throughout the course of their career: what kind of music do they make? While seemingly a bit innocuous of a question, the modern era of music exploration has made this question ever the more difficult to answer, as most musicians come from quite the extensive and diverse musical background nowadays. When we asked Pearl this rather complicated question, we got a long list of answers: Americana, indie rock, indie pop, country, blues, funk, jazz, and a whole lot more tied to their vast swathes of inspirations (more on that later!). But while the exact definition of their music may be rather hard to pin down, what’s more important is the identity of the band, and they seemed to have pinned down their own unique style, even if genre-wise it may be in flux!

            Once we had an idea of what their music is like, the next logical step was to figure out the why. That is to say, why do they make music? As always, the answer to this question not only depends band to band but also person to person, with each member having their own personal reasons. But before we get into the individuals, there seemed to be one commonality that connected them together on why they play, and it all came down to emotions. When I say emotions, what I mean is that oftentimes the members of Pearl find that self expression can be rather difficult with ordinary words, confrontation and conversation can be quite difficult, but expressing these feelings and emotions through music helps to open those rather difficult floodgates and allow them to fully express themselves in a way that works for them. On top of this, performance also acts as a way to blow off steam and release pent up emotions that can build up over time, and is nearly therapeutic to each member of the band.

            Speaking of performance, we also wanted to know about what it is like to perform for them as each band feels different things when up on the stage. For Pearl, performance is something that some of them never thought they’d be able to do, due to their social shyness, but when they are on the stage everything feels different. While some bands get lost in the adoration of a crowd, or lost within the music, the members of Pearl find themselves lost within themselves and each other and their emotions. With all of their songs coming from very personal places, the feelings that come through while on the stage have a way of working themselves into them during a performance, and they all find themselves wholly engulfed by this in a way that feels both good and intense.

            After discussing the art of performance we ended up going back to the question of the music itself, more specifically, we wanted to know who and what inspired them and their music as a whole. Of course, similar to their answers regarding genre, we were granted a fairly sizable list of names when it came to the question of influence. Some of the bands and artists listed include Emma’s father, George Strait, Merle Haggard, Jason Isbell, Velvet Underground, Neil Young, Hank Williams Sr., Leon Bridges, the Talking Heads, and emo music as a whole. On top of these bands providing a more sonic sort of inspiration towards them and the music they make, they have also been inspired by local bands Mult and the Afternooners as they have found one or more members of each of those bands incredibly helpful and friendly towards them during their introductory foray into the music scene of Chattanooga.

            Of course, what is a band without plans for the future? One of our final questions for Pearl was all about what they had planned coming up in the immediate future. Of course, they plan on playing many more shows whenever possible as the Chattanooga music scene is a truly wonderful place full of so much talent and meeting other great bands and attendees is always amazing. On top of this, they have been working closely with a primarily unannounced music recording studio opening up on Martin Luther King Boulevard where they plan on recording their first official single along with other music they plan on releasing soon. As for songs to look out for at a Pearl performance, the members of the band had a few songs they like the most that they perform at their shows, so if you get the chance, play close attention to Path to Nowhere, What You Want, and Moth to a Flame.

            Finally, it wouldn’t be a 423Create interview without our “What do you want the world to know?” segment. So thank you so much for reading, check out Pearl, and read these quotes from the band, see you next time!

“Everything is art!”

“Come to our shows, see us play”

“Fuck the nazis!”

“There isn’t one set thing behind our music, no set genre, we just love sharing our emotions and feelings, we want other people to feel that too, experience it all together.”

“Music is important, listen to everybody, and go to open mics!”

“We love the family we’ve met here in Chattanooga, love the community, love getting to know people here.”