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In the song "Rock Child," gritty, soulful rock chanteuse
Pearl belts, "I've been a little girl living center stage/ I've
been sleeping in a guitar case." It's notjust a metaphor
for feeling rock n' roll 24-7. As the daughter of rock
legend Meat Loaf, Pearl was exposed to the genre and all
it entails almost from thetime she was born.
"When I was a baby, my mom, [Leslie Aday], would take
me to the studio and I would actually nap in an open
guitar case with pillows and a blanket," Pearlsays. "When
I grew up, there was music everywhere, whether it was at
a party in the house o ...read more
In the song "Rock Child," gritty, soulful rock chanteuse
Pearl belts, "I've been a little girl living center stage/ I've
been sleeping in a guitar case." It's notjust a metaphor
for feeling rock n' roll 24-7. As the daughter of rock
legend Meat Loaf, Pearl was exposed to the genre and all
it entails almost from thetime she was born.
"When I was a baby, my mom, [Leslie Aday], would take
me to the studio and I would actually nap in an open
guitar case with pillows and a blanket," Pearlsays. "When
I grew up, there was music everywhere, whether it was at
a party in the house or in some place where my dad was
performing in front ofthousands of people. I really kind
of grew up in recording studios. They're relaxing to me.
Even to this day, they can be blasting music and I can
fall asleepon the couch because it feels like home."
With such a solid musical foundation, it's no surprise
that Pearl – who backed-up Meat Loaf from 1994 to
2003, and also sang with Motley Crue –
soundsconfident and commanding throughout her
musically diverse debut Little Immaculate White Fox.
Drawing inspiration from classic rock, hard
rock,southern rock, soul, and R&B, Pearl expresses her
love for and knowledge of music, with songs that range
from tender and vulnerable to brassy and solidas
granite.
"Some of my favorite bands are The Stones, AC/DC and
The Allman Brothers," she says. "As a vocalist, I just love
really powerful singers like Otis Redding,Bonnie Raitt,
Steven Tyler, Pat Benatar, my dad and, of course, Janis
Joplin. My biological father played drums in her Full Tilt
Boogie Band, and I'm actuallynamed after her because
Pearl was her nickname. She was an incredible vocalist
and definitely a huge influence."
While the songs on Little Immaculate White Fox are
informed by past and present legends, they're as original
as they are familiar, and the way they're puttogether is
both clever and surprising.
"I love expressing every emotion in my songs," Pearl
says. "I don't feel angry and screamy 24 hours a day.
Everybody's got their soft, gentle times, andthen they've
got their hard, angry times when they've gotta let it out.
Finding a balance between the two is what life is all
about."
Uplifting and inspiring even in her darkest lyrics, Pearl's
sonorous voice resonates with an empowering, almost
spiritual vibe. Even the title of her albumcame from a
spiritual experience. "When my mom was pregnant with
me, she was convinced I was a boy," Pearl explains. "And
then one night late in herpregnancy, her best friend
called her up and said, 'I just had a dream about your
baby. She has blond hair and blue eyes and she was
laying in the forestat the base of a tree wrapped in white
fox fur, and her name is Little Immaculate White Fox.'
And my mom said, 'Oh, that's beautiful, but I'm having
aboy.' A few hours later she went into labor and had a
blond haired, blue-eyed girl."
Pearl first caught the music bug in 1981 when she was
six years old and Meat Loaf was playing Wembley Arena
in London, England. At the time, her dadwould hold a
different colored scarf for every song, and between
songs Pearl would run onstage dressed in a gold lame
jumpsuit and give her father a newscarf. She had done
this in countless cities, but in London the crowd was
larger and the experience was different.
"I got on the stage and then turned to the audience, and
stopped and stared like a deer in headlights," she recalls.
"There were thousands of peoplelooking at me and the
lights were on me and it was bright. I got really, really
scared, and my dad came and scooped me up and the
whole audience went,'Awwwwww.' But even though I
was scared and was taken by surprise, I remember
loving the feeling, too."
Through her childhood, Pearl sang in her living room
with girlfriends in mock girl groups, and in high school
she was part of a select choir, which traveledthrough
Europe and sang in cathedrals. She also performed in
school musicals. Then in 1994, when she was 19, Meat
Loaf invited her to be one his back-up singers on tour.
"One day he just said, 'Do you want to try singing along
with me?'" Pearl says. "He said, 'Learn the back up parts
as best as you can, and we'll give you alive mike
backstage so you can join in. You don't have to be
onstage, and you can see how that feels and we'll see
how it sounds.' I guess I passed thetest. Not too long
after that I was on the stage and I was part of the band."
She toured with her dad for years, then in 2000 she hit
the road with Motley Crue as one of their back-up
singers and dancers. After the tour, she sangon and
contributed lyrics to "Man of Steel," which was co-written
by Crue bassist Nikki Sixx and James Michael. While the
track eventually wound up on herdad's album Couldn't
Have Said It Better, it triggered the beginning of her
career as a solo artist. She performed with various other
artists, then in 2002at her birthday party, she met two
musicians that would change the path of her life and her
career. That night, her future husband, Anthrax
guitaristScott Ian, introduced her to the guys in Mother
Superior, who backed Henry Rollins, Daniel Lanois and
others.
"We were just talking about stuff, and I said, 'How would
you feel about a chick playing with you guys?'" she says.
"At first, they just looked at each other,and I was like, 'Oh,
God, what did I just do?' Then they turned around and
they were like, "Sure. Why not?'" In 2004, Pearl started
going over to MotherSuperior guitarist Jim Wilson and
bassist Marcus Blake's house, and working on songs
with them. They jammed out ideas, and she recorded
them on ahandheld tape recorder. Then, she went home
to work on vocal melodies and lyrics that matched the
music. "From the first time we tried it, it justclicked,"
Pearl says. "And they've been my go-to guys ever since.
Musically, we're all on the same plane."
Pearl recorded a demo CD at Cherokee Studios in Los
Angeles. Then, while Mother Superior were on the road
in Europe, she formed a nine-piece band withvarious
members including, horn players, and a B3 organist and
played a bunch of LA-area shows. When Wilson and
Blake returned to the U.S., theyentered the studio with
Pearl and producer Joe Barresi (Tool, Queens of the
Stone Age, Bad Religion) and recorded most of Little
Immaculate White Fox.
"Recording with Joe was really easy," Pearl says. "He
knows exactly what he's doing and how he wants it to
sound. He's got great ideas, and sonically he'sright on.
We just worked really hard in the three weeks we had
with him."
While Pearl was happy with the album, she felt it needed
a little more diversity and impact. So she re-entered the
studio and recorded two more songs, theTina Turner
cover "Nutbush City Limits" produced by the band, and
mixed by Warren Riker and "Broken White," with Jay
Ruston. The latter features someof her most evocative
and haunting lyrics.
"I took the name from a Marlene Dumas painting," Pearl
says. "I was reading 'The New Yorker' and came across
an article on her. She paints really darkimages of
photographs of torture victims, corpses and prostitutes.
And she has one called 'Broken White,' which looks like a
women laying on her back. It'sa close-up of her face and
she's got an expression on her face that could be either
ecstasy or pain. To me it looked like she was being raped
and murdered.That painting really struck me so I wrote a
song about it. I imagined as it's happening she's rising
from the floor and haunting her attacker."
With a ragged, yet accessible sound and a deeply
personal aesthetic, Pearl is a refreshing alternative to the
predictable, cookie-cutter rockers who play itsafe to
build their audience. Pearl prefers to develop her
following through sincerity, conviction and energetic live
shows.
"For me, every show is an adventure," she says. "I just let
the music take me wherever feels right. I laugh. I cry. I've
fallen down, I've even peed mypants. I don't care. As long
as I can connect with the audience, have them feel me,
and get my point across, then I've done what I came to
do and I'llbreak myself open to get there." « hide |
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