Pearl Charles On Her New Song, Finding a Songwriting Soulmate, and Why the Desert Life is Best
Her last record, 'Magic Mirror', is her most successful yet, and tour or no tour, Charles is going to keep releasing retro pop gems.
When life gives Pearl Charles lemons, she makes sweet disco country lemonade.
The born and raised Angeleno finished her terrific third album, Magic Mirror, right before the start of the pandemic. With so much uncertainty, she had a choice to make about when to release the record now that the world was in flames. Choosing patience, Charles and her label, Kanine Records, sat on the record for a year. With the warm and inviting Magic Mirror standing out in the chilly January of last year, the decision paid off - by transporting listeners to a sunny Southern California of an era long gone, Charles gained critical acclaim and a feature in Rolling Stone. For a brief moment, all was right as Covid-19 was at a lull, and Charles and her band hit the road last fall. “We were lucky to tour the US,” Charles tells me from her home in Joshua Tree. “I’m just glad we got to play Magic Mirror live.”
This month, Charles is scheduled to embark on her first full European tour, but like everything else the past few years, the celebration is up in the air. “We’re still planning on doing some of it, but I don’t know,” says Charles. “Each day brings a new piece of news, and it’s so inconsistent, even within the UK, each country has very different restrictions. On top of that, Brexit and that stuff add new levels of complications.”
It would be easy to stay in a holding pattern with so many unknowns, but that isn’t Pearl Charles’ style. This week, she released her new single, “Givin’ It Up,” which builds upon the disco flirtations found on Magic Mirror. While she found inspiration in ABBA on that album’s single, “Only For Tonight,” this time she’s chasing the funkier side of The Bee Gees. There’s still an indie edge, though, and the catchy chorus sounds plucked straight from Rilo Kiley’s last record, Under the Blacklight.
Charles laid down the track on the analog setup at Valentine Recording Studio in North Hollywood to adequately capture the vintage sound she is going for on the song. The former dentist’s office was purchased in the early sixties by Jimmy Valentine, who worked at Capitol Records and the sound effects department at NBC in Burbank. “It’s awesome and really such a cool vibe spot,” says Charles about the time capsule of a studio.
Valentine recorded everyone from Bing Crosby to Frank Zappa and The Beach Boys for their 20/20 sessions during the studio’s heyday. “When you go in there, you feel like you’re stepping back in time,” recalls Charles with a big smile. “I mean, there’s orange shag carpet on the walls, and it sounds amazing.” The history of Valentine inspired Charles while recording “Givin’ It Up,” and it’s easy to hear why. “You are able to touch all of the instruments, like the piano. Brian Wilson played that piano. So there’s some real magic in there.”
Recording the biggest names in music wasn’t of interest to Jimmy Valentine in the long run. “(The studio) is done in this style of someone who had a lot of expertise and recorded a lot of classic stuff,” notes Charles. “The funny thing is he was actually more into jazz and big band, and when the rock and roll era came in, he became disillusioned.” Valentine eventually opened an auto shop next door and left the studio as is, which reopened in 2015.
According to Charles, “Givin’ It Up” is about “the journey of a partnership, the fears that hold us back from accepting the love we all want, and the rewards that you reap from finally embracing and opening up to that love.” The song was born out of collaboration with her partner, Canadian indie singer-songwriter Michael Rault. The two met after Charles had written most of Magic Mirror, but Rault helped her tweak lyrics and arrangements before eventually playing on the record. “I feel like the next chapter is going to be much more of our collaborative stuff together,” says Charles. “We obviously still have our own projects (Rault’s next album is due out sometime in the spring), and we have a side project we want to do together. But moving out to the desert and focusing on building our own place to work on stuff and collaborate has been a great change over the last year.”
Besides writing with Rault, Charles finds other musical stability for the first time in her career with her live band from Magic Mirror and the album’s tour. Featuring Connor Gallaher on guitar and rhythm section with Dustin Bookatz on bass and Ryan Miller on drums, the group sounds more comfortable on “Givin’ It Up” by cranking up the funk. The session was delayed with Bookatz quarantined in his native Australia, which Charles says was required. “We waited for him to get back to record the new songs because they’ve got to have that funky Dustin bass love.”
Magic Mirror producer Lewis Pesacov also returns for the new sessions, embracing Valentine Recording Studio’s analog gorgeously and allowing the band to slip into the AM Gold era that inspires the song. Pesacov wanted to work with Charles long before Magic Mirror, but time and budget restraints prevented it. “I remember the first time I met him and went to his house,” recalls Charles. “He had a French Bulldog, which is my favorite kind of dog, named Donna, after Donna Godchaux of the Grateful Dead, and I was like ‘he’s won me over with this alone.’”
The two started writing together, with “Take Your Time” and “As Long As You’re Mine” featured on Magic Mirror. “We started writing and demoing those songs, and I think he just felt kind of committed to the project and wanted to see it all of the way through, and I’m so grateful,” says Charles. “We’re going to do more stuff with him and continue growing this group because it’s the same live band, same producer, and I think we’re doing really cool stuff and all growing together on a nice trajectory.”
With Charles and Rault splitting their time between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree, it’s giving them new opportunities to work together. “My whole family is in LA, and it’s nice to stay with them, so it’s the best of both worlds because, in LA, it’s hard to find a place you can play music all day and night and not bother anyone,” says Charles. “We don’t have neighbors in the desert, and whenever the inspiration strikes us, we can start writing a song or rehearse or whatever, and that is really the best.” Being out in nature also helps the creative process. As Charles observes, “we see coyotes and roadrunners, and one time Michael saw a bear. The bear, I think, I was kind of lost, but it’s really amazing. I feel like we have all of these little Snow White moments.”
Pearl Charles and her band have a warm-up show next week at the Highland Park Ebell Club, which she says is meant to be their “big LA coming out party.’ As for that European tour, Charles hopes it’s still a possibility. “We have to be flexible a little bit longer because we’re in the great unknown of Covid,” says Charles. “I certainly don’t want to cancel, but I also want to keep my band safe and keep the audience safe, and it’s ultimately not up to us.”
If the tour is canceled, Charles remains positive and always ready to rebound, much like the city she is from. “We’re biding our time, and maybe Michael and I will play some domestic festivals, which seems doable in the summer,” says Charles. As for now, the band continues to gather at Joshua Tree, where they write, rehearse, and cook meals together.
But as a sign of the times, Charles and company are currently focusing more on writing as uncertainty hangs in the air. “This last time (we got together) we were like, okay, we should spend half the time rehearsing because we’re supposed to go on a tour and play a show, but also we should spend the other half working on new material, because if that doesn’t happen, then we’re getting right in the studio to work on new stuff.”
Whatever may unfold for Pearl Charles, one thing is guaranteed: she’s sure to keep the creative poker red hot.
“Givin’ It Up” is streaming now on all platforms.
Magic Mirror is available on Kanine Records.
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