It’s been exactly ten years since singer-songwriter Pearl Charles released her self-titled debut EP, which immediate set her apart from her contemporaries because of her clear devotion to throwback musical styles – and that’s a trend she followed on her subsequent three EPs and first two studio albums. Her retro sound has steadily evolved to incorporate elements of traditional country, disco, and soft rock, all mixed together with her own modern spin. For the past several years, the L.A. native has been living in Joshua Tree, and that locale had a huge impact on her latest album, Desert Queen, which she just released in late April via Taurus Rising Records. (The album also features a guest appearance by The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess.) Reflecting the peace she’s found in her new home, the songs on Desert Queen are breezy and laid-back, infused with the self-assurance that a decade of experience has brought her. Calling from California, Charles tells The Big Takeover about her decision to decamp to Joshua Tree, how she created her distinctive sound, and how she followed her urge to become a professional musician
What made you decide to make the move from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree?
PEARL CHARLES: My boyfriend and partner, Michael Rault, and I moved out there in December, 2020; it was COVID times. And my family has had a place out there for like twenty years now, so I’d been going out there a lot since I was pretty young. And I had just grown a major affinity to the place. I had always said maybe one day I’d like to move out here. And then, Michael and I had had some really special times there when we first met, and we just felt like, “Wow, this place is so amazing.” But we were really caught up in the grind of L.A. and the music industry and stuff, so we felt like we had to be in the thick of it. But during COVID, obviously everything changed, and that changed, too. We were like, “Maybe we’ll recalibrate a bit.” We magically found the place that we have – it’s super ‘70s [style], and totally just felt like it was made for us. It’s a wood paneled, shag carpeted house in the middle of the desert. The landlord was like, “Do you guys want to have a studio here?” And we were like, “Yeah, kind of.” We were a little scared to tell him because some landlords obviously wouldn’t be cool with that. So we were like, “Um, yeah, maybe.” And he was like, “Oh, that’s awesome. I’d love for you guys to have a studio here.” And we were like, “Cool!” And I’ve been there ever since.
I guess this explains why you picked “Desert Queen” as the album title.
PEARL CHARLES: Exactly. It was definitely a big part of the album. It’s definitely about that move from L.A. to the desert and kind of follows a bit of that story.
How did you get Tim Burgess to appear as a guest musician on this album?
PEARL CHARLES: Tim Burgess is such an amazing person. He’s such a great supporter of the arts. I am so grateful for his collaboration on this album. I did [my 2021 album] Magic Mirror for his [podcast], Tim’s Listening Party, which was a huge thing during COVID. That made a huge difference for my album, just getting to people that had never heard of me before, so I was so grateful to have that platform. So then we became friends through that, and he asked me to sing on his solo album, so I was featured on a track on that [2022’s Typical Music]. Then I thought, “Why don’t I ask him to be mine?” He was so gracious as to say yes, and I was so lucky to have him. I’m so excited because I don’t think a lot of people actually know that that’s happening, so that’s a fun little surprise. Some of his super fans have become some of our super fans. A woman came to one of our shows, and she had a tattoo of Tim. He’s got some diehards out there.
How did you come up with your distinctive sound in the first place?
PEARL CHARLES: I always say that I had a very chronological journey throughout music. My first band was very old timey. I was into The Carter Family, and I wore gunny sack dresses. That was a band called the Driftwood Singers, and that was with a guy named Christian Lee Hutson. We went to college together. So that was my first band when I was eighteen. And then I just kind of went through the decades. I got more into ’50s and ’60s rock and roll, and played in garage bands around Southern California. My first [solo] release was kind of in that same vein, carrying that over. But then I combined the two things a bit and put a bit of a country twang with some of the garage. That was [a self-titled] EP. Then my first LP [2018’s Sleepless Dreamer] was when I started playing with the sounds that I feel like I’ve spent the last three albums homing in on. I got more into the ’70s. Obviously, Fleetwood Mac is one of my biggest influences, especially Christine McVie. So discovering that, I think, really opened up a whole new world for me. And then all the offshoots of that, whether it was Laurel Canyon style music – which I was pretty familiar with since I grew up in Hollywood, just blocks away from Laurel Canyon – and more soft rock, like yachty kind of stuff, The Eagles. All those bands melded a little bit of country and a little bit of the L.A. sound. And also, of course, a little bit of ABBA, a little bit of disco – all those bands kind of dipped their toe into that pool, as well. I definitely saw all of that through the country, disco, yachty, Laurel Canyon combo. And I think this album has a lot of that, too. But I also am growing up a bit; I’m getting a bit older. So although there is some straightforward disco on here, there’s also a lot of really more introspective songs. I think the last album [2018’s All the Boys] was very introspective, as well, but I just think I dug even deeper into those sounds, and into a perhaps more mature take on it.
What drew you to that earlier stuff instead of drawing inspiration from more contemporary artists?
PEARL CHARLES: I know it sounds like a cliché to say, but I guess I just must be an old soul, because I remember when I would drive to school as a kid, I always only ever wanted to listen to the oldies station. I mean, my first concert ever was the Spice Girls. I think I was maybe like five when I went to that, which is also cool that my parents were down to let me get a taste of live music when I was so young. I went with a group of girls from my school, and we were the Spice Girls for Halloween, as well. I was Sporty, but that was not my choice. I was relegated to Sporty because I had brown hair. But I was I was certainly not sporty; I’ve never been, and I don’t think that’s going to change at this point. But one of those friends was my neighbor, so we would carpool to school together. She would want to listen to the regular mainstream radio station, and I always went for the oldies. Like, I was listening to Dion and The Coasters, the real oldies. And so I think all that stuff like was just part of my journey, but I don’t know what drew me to it. I just always loved it.
How’d you make the leap from liking music to wanting to actually become a musician in your own right?
PEARL CHARLES: I think I had a love for music before I even have a conscious memory of it. That’s what I’m told from my parents, that I was always singing and making up songs. I have an older sister, and she was taking piano lessons when I was four. I begged my parents to let me take piano lessons. I think they thought it was a childish whim, and they were very serious about practicing and the discipline that it would require. They were like, “If you still want them when you’re five, you can have them.” And I was five, and I still wanted them. The rest is pretty much history. I mean, I just wanted to do music since I could remember. And I was into musical theater when I was young, so I was really just drawn to singing and playing. I wasn’t as interested in writing my own stuff initially, but both my parents are writers, so they really pushed me to explore that side of myself, and I’m so grateful they did because now, obviously, writing songs is my greatest expression.
