60. The Band She Almost Never Started — Pearl Fontaine on Fear and Pop Punk

I do feel like my assumptions of what other people might think of me or just general self-consciousness stops me from fully doing things 100% and just doing things at all that I would like to do.

I think that kind of plays into why it took me so long to write music,

etc.

So just something that I would like to be better at is being more self-assured,

more self-confident,

and a little braver with putting myself out there.

just in all areas of life, I think.

I'm a little bit shy,

a little bit socially anxious.

And I think that that kind of bleeds through to many areas of my life,

not just music and performing.

Today on Love's Music,

I speak with Pearl Fontaine,

the lead singer of Post-American Gothic.

Post-American Gothic is a pop punk band from North Carolina

who just released a new single,

Hello,

Hello,

absolutely slaps.

So coming up next,

all the way

from North Carolina, we have Earl Fontaine.

I really love the single Hello,

Hello.

You have a

really unique catalog.

And what's really cool about you is you guys are so doing your own thing.

You're probably one of the first of my guests that I caught myself listening to the phrasing

and the way you say things.

You have a very unique style of singing.

It's still very accessible,

friendly,

qualitative.

But like the phrasing and the way you say things,

really interesting.

Like you guys are doing your own thing.

For those of you who haven't listened

to Post-American Gothic,

Paramore vibes kind of,

but totally doing something different

than what Hayley Williams is doing.

And I love it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Paramore,

I mean, I would be lying

if I didn't say Hayley Williams.

Paramore, huge influence.

But I intentionally try to not sound like Paramore.

We have a really

interesting mix of influences going.

So I grew up doing musical theater.

I loved classical music

when I was young.

My husband is our guitarist, Brandon,

and he has a background as a hip hop

producer.

Used to make beats in high school,

produced for some cool people.

Then our drummer,

Luke,

is a classically trained percussionist and music educator.

And then our bassist,

his name is Brandon.

I think he likes a lot of like,

I think like block party,

that kind of vibe.

So it all kind of comes together in something that's really our own. And we really love that.

Right.

That makes so much sense because the music does things that you don't expect it to do.

right like they're like you're coming out with these like rock ballads and they're fun but it

always kind of takes like a left turns the bridge will do something weird or there'll be a note that

doesn't quite fit but it also fits you know um so like and i'm like i'm like you guys just crank

out pop hits whenever you want which is evident when you listen to like take your medicine like

take the song take your medicine is like it sounds like it'll be on top 40 radio so you guys can

crank those out whenever you want but you still do just really creative stuff either with the

arrangements or like I said with your

phrasing and you also

don't follow like basic song structure

in a couple of your tunes

I like there's the one with birds in the title

I want to say Carried by Birds

huge tune

Porcelain might be my favorite of yours

Hello Hello was like that was definitely the right single

Porcelain I love that song

Porcelain is probably the first

song that I wrote that was

like deeply

personal

American Gothic is the first band I have ever been in.

I tried writing some songs solo on my own.

Like back when I was in college,

I took a lyric writing class

and dropped out of it halfway through the semester

because I was just not ready to share myself that way.

And I didn't feel confident.

And then several years went by.

I didn't really play much music at all.

And long story short,

COVID brought me back to my hometown.

I had been living in Brooklyn before that.

That was kind of my ultimate goal was to get to New York.

I got there.

Everything fell apart.

It was pay, pay rent or eat.

So I decided to come to the other, not both one or the other.

I am in lockdown in this small rural North Carolina town.

We're kind of 45 minutes to an hour from anywhere big.

And I decided I wanted to start a band and I just kept telling anybody who would listen,

just like say it until it's so kind of deal.

So Brandon and I got together at a bonfire one night and,

you know, social distance,

that's all we could do was be outside with other people.

And it started from there. And so we immediately started writing songs together.

He had like old guitar demos.

He had just kind of been like bedroom guitar player until then.

And he started sending me some and one just like stuck.

and I don't play instruments well to accompany myself.

Like I'm not super confident with that.

I play keys a little bit.

I play the flute,

dabble in guitar, whatever.

But I think that was the missing piece for me

was those like the instrumental feeling.

And I got that one guitar demo from him

and I was just almost like manic.

It was just in my head, in my head.

It had to get made into a song.

Yeah,

that's kind of when I really felt

like I could write songs.

but the first several that we did were just kind of I don't know just kind of exploring that learning

how to write songs learning how I wanted to write songs but then I feel like Porcelain

was the first song that I wrote intentionally from start to finish I think if that makes sense

yeah it does what was the difference between the fear of wanting to kind of expose yourself and

that vulnerability of like sharing songs you wrote,

was it the band or did something happen

internally that made, that kind of gave you the comfortability to be like, here, here's my songs

to the world. You will. I'm a mixture of everything.

So I did write for like an arts

and culture magazine for several years.

And I think having the groundwork of that,

learning how to write

to a prompt very efficiently,

you know,

I sat down,

wrote an article in two hours and I did that

multiple times a day for years.

I think that really kind of broke a wall of like,

oh,

like,

I know I can write. I know people will accept it. It is of a certain quality.

So I think that helped

me internally,

but also having a band to work with and bounce off of.

Because I think when I

write a song on the piano,

it comes out sounding like,

I don't know, Sara Bareilles or Ingrid

michelson or somebody like singer songwriter that's not bad company to be in but i mean it's

excellent like they're all great but uh it wasn't the sound that i was chasing and i i never really

found that on my own and i know some people have that ability to just imagine what the end product

will be but i kind of need inspiration along the way to keep me in a like a genre or an idea

having a band that helped create that kind of ambiance for the lyrics really helped that makes

sense okay so when you write you actually like almost need the framework in like of sometime

yeah so i've i've written a few songs where i write on piano and then i take it to the band and

i'm like hey punk punkify this basically um but more often than not the the guys or brandon mostly

will kind of come up with a new idea.

He calls it going fishing.

Like he goes fishing.

He's like, I know if I hear her come out of the room

when I'm playing,

like,

oh, it's a good idea.

You know what I mean?

That's more often than not,

that's how we approach things, yeah.

How do you know,

like,

take me,

because everybody has a different answer.

Take me to the feeling when you know

you actually have something.

Because obviously we're creatives.

The ideas come and go.

And then when one actually sticks and like embeds itself,

Like, how do you know you're like, I think I got one.

It happens a couple different ways,

but there's definitely that like,

it's just,

it immediately

is something like I hear it and like a melody will kind of pop into my head.

And a lot of times words just kind of come out like, hello,

hello,

that dunna, dunna,

dunna, I heard that and immediately just started saying like, hello,

hello,

like for no reason.

And then I'm like,

okay, well, what, what can I make of this?

You know what I mean?

So a lot of times it's just kind of there with no further explanation.

Yeah.

That happens.

Like, well,

I, I've, I was writing music,

uh,

ages ago before,

like I had like voicemails

and stuff.

So like, if something's stuck in my head with, if something stuck in my head long enough for

me to remember it before I get to the studio,

I'm like, all right, I must have something.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It's like, if I lose it overnight,

I'm like, ah, it's probably was nothing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's cool.

So take me back to your early years, because I mean, you've had you have like you've had like several different chapters of life.

Take me to like early,

early years, like first 10 years of your life.

First earliest memory of music.

What was your household like growing up?

Earliest memory of music is probably my parents singing me to sleep as a kid.

Both of them did.

Both of them have lovely voices.

Neither of them were musicians.

But my dad is an artist.

He's a writer,

painter,

visual artist.

And I would classify my mom as a creative thinker.

So they're both very like artsy,

interesting people.

My grandfather was a gospel singer.

And so about,

I was probably like seven,

we moved to the Outer Banks in North Carolina to be closer to them.

And so I started singing with him in like nursing homes and churches on Sunday

and things like that.

But I always remember wanting to perform.

Like that's just kind of always been there.

That's never,

never been an option to do that.

And I think I was in a musical for the first time,

probably around then I was seven or eight.

I was in Annie.

I was named orphan number 13.

I was kind of hooked from there.

And then I mentioned I've always loved classical music.

I wanted to play the flute.

So also I think I was right around the time I turned eight, I started taking flute lessons

And I took that very seriously for years.

That was probably,

that was my first intentional music training. I always wanted to sing and I always did sing,

but playing the flute was probably my first real,

like,

take the initiative,

I want to do this kind of thing.

very,

very intentionally and intensely until I was about 13.

I auditioned for the North Carolina

School of the Arts. They have a, like a orchestra program for high schoolers.

Um,

and I was rejected

and that kind of just broke my heart.

But around that same time I had started doing,

um,

musical

theater here in town where I live now,

um,

at a place called Arts of the Albemarle. So it's,

It's like our local arts nonprofit.

It was new at the time.

They had basically saved this old building in theater and restored it.

And a children's theater program had kind of started budding.

So I got involved there because that's what there was.

We were in a small town.

That's what there was to do.

And I mean, I was hooked from there.

I was in every musical I could be in.

I did a few plays.

And that was my intention for a while was to,

was to be an actor.

But that didn't quite pan out.

I also,

I auditioned for the North Carolina School of the Arts again for my senior year of high school for their acting program.

And I was denied again.

And so that was just another like redirection,

I guess is what you would call it.

You know what I mean?

Like I was, I was heartbroken at the time,

but looking back, it just, it makes total sense.

Like, bless me, this guy's type thing?

Yeah, absolutely.

So at that point,

I was taking formal voice lessons with an amazing teacher named Kathy Kreplin.

And she suggested,

why don't you try auditioning for music programs?

She's like, maybe musical theater is not the thing for you.

Maybe it's music.

And through this, I had always played instruments.

I taught myself a little guitar.

I played the flute in high school marching band for a little bit.

But the idea of being in a band had never really occurred to me at that point.

There's just not a lot of original music around here.

There's just not a lot of opportunity for that.

You have to drive an hour to see concerts.

So it wasn't really even on my radar until she suggested music school.

And so I auditioned for a couple schools and I had never even heard of Berkeley College of Music at that point.

But she suggested that I audition.

So I auditioned there.

I auditioned for,

I think, like a classical music program here in North Carolina.

And I auditioned for the new school in New York.

I was denied from the North Carolina one.

completely bombed my audition at the new school,

just nerves.

Um, it was absolutely awful.

So

embarrassing.

And, um,

did have a good interview and they,

I was accepted for liberal arts.

Um,

but then I got to,

I got to Berkeley and Boston. I'd never been to Boston before.

And there was just something about that whole experience.

I think it was in the middle of,

what were they calling it?

Snowmageddon.

Um,

mom and I drove up there like overnight in the middle

of one blizzard drove you know that kind of deal uh but the whole time i was there i was just so

even keeled and calm and like oh this like this just feels right something about this right and

i've up until that point have always had really terrible performance anxiety

like school i would have never guessed listening to your music it took me a while

yeah um but like school presentations the kind of deal where you're like red-faced and shaking

and you sit down afterwards and you're like i don't remember any of that yeah you can like

hear your heart before you go up you can like hear it yeah yeah um but that was that audition was

honestly the first time i had never i didn't have that at all i was calm focused and i got through

it and i i felt good about it so there was just something something meant to be there yeah what

Do you think it was the preparation or the practice?

Did you practice more than the other times?

Or was it just an overall feeling?

Like, I got this.

A mixture of things.

I think for the new school audition,

that was more of a jazz program.

And you had to count in a rhythm section.

And aside from playing with my teacher who played the piano for my accompaniment,

I had never played with a live band under their direction before like that.

That's nerve-wracking,

yeah.

So I think it was just a few things.

And I think at Berkeley, I played or I performed to a track

and it was a song by Regina Spector that I just really loved

and was really comfortable with.

It was just, I think, all the right factors.

Basically karaoke,

right?

You're just playing with it,

you know.

Exactly.

I think there was some vocal improv that we had to do

and it just went really well.

But that was my first kind of inkling of an idea of,

like maybe music,

just,

just music theater.

So were you naturally shy or were you always just

kind of like extroverted, just loved performing? It just made sense to you. I'm very shy,

very socially anxious.

Uh,

I,

I would call myself a learned extrovert.

Uh, when I was little,

but like I was, I remember being very uninhibited.

Like I,

my parents owned an art gallery.

I would

put out a blanket and get a little boom box in front of their,

in front of their gallery.

And

would dance my mom loves to tell this story um all how they couldn't break my heart and tell me no

but I would stand out there and with a sign that said we'll dance for money um that's hilarious

until you get a little older that's concerning I don't know what made me shy or when I think it

was kind of around puberty I just started becoming aware that I was a little bit different than

everyone else i've always felt a little bit just like beat to the beat of my own drum kind of deal

um but no that's something that i've had to learn and yeah that's so funny yeah i was like i had

like really supportive musical grandparents and parents yeah i thought i was so gifted and so

brilliant until about puberty and i had like the first bully be like dude you suck and i was like

yeah you're probably right i probably did and then it was just my confidence was dashed until i was

19 years old that's it yeah it only takes like one comment yeah it's that's all it takes sometimes

is that one little to knock you behind you you have these like artsy parents like what are some

of the songs that you remember like just getting like played around the house like obviously you

were doing like the broadway musical stuff um you said uh you said classical as well um like what

are like someone like like the era like what what kind of stuff classic rock guy like okay

in in the way that something would be on the radio and you'd be like all right what's this

i don't know oh come on you don't know the eagles you don't know led zeppelin you don't know whatever

that kind of deal um and then just through my grandfather like i mentioned some some gospel

and old country stuff like that yeah it's very similar all right so i'm growing up i'm growing

up like mootown 70s stuff but then religious parents i'm getting like the gospel influence as

well my parents grew up in like the days of like the uh like the mega church so there was like

christian radio christian radio where the music was actually like solid music you know so okay

so what was the first music that you adopted that you could call like your music like there was like

my parents music there's the parents music that i liked and then for instance i heard like hip-hop

a gangster rep for the first time and I'm like,

oh,

wow.

What is this? This is my music.

What was

your music? Like the first,

the first bit.

The first thing that comes to mind is Circa Survive.

Yeah.

I didn't, I didn't see that coming.

All right.

It was probably my first favorite band.

I, I did, I liked a lot of the like emo kind of stuff.

That is the first band that really sticks out. Who else?

Bon Iver was big.

and paramore um those were those were some of the some of the big ones on my ipod sorry so how did

you get from now you're in music school how did you wind up in a in a band obviously it did the

band happen before quarantine or was it the result of the band the bonfire played the guitar that's

the band started well i went to music school for one year uh it was life-changing absolutely

life-changing just the the caliber of musicianship the exposure you know just so many incredible

people um but it was very expensive so i went for one year and realized that it wasn't it just

wasn't going to happen anymore uh you can only get out so many loans yeah yeah just money just ran

out. Yeah,

exactly.

So I,

I kind of wandered all over after that for a little while,

just trying

to figure out what to do. I was,

I was kind of,

kind of lost in the sauce for a while.

I lived

in the suburbs of Chicago for about a year,

went to South Africa with my family and lived there for

three months,

did volunteer work.

Then I lived with my grandmother in Myrtle beach to save up

money because I kind of got to the point of like,

all right,

it's, it's time to pick a direction.

I had always wanted to live in New York.

Um,

and I needed to just kind of sit tight and save up a

little bit. So I worked seven days a week living in Myrtle Beach,

uh,

five of them, I worked at a

brunch restaurant.

And then the other two, I was an intern,

uh,

for a publication called Whitewall

magazine and,

um,

finally saved up some money to go to New York.

And I was there from what year,

June of 2019 to March of 2020.

And that's when I ended up back here.

That's when the world turned upside down. Yeah.

Um,

I took a gap year between high school and

college as well and went backpacking and did stuff.

So,

so there's, there was a while,

a big gap that I didn't play music at all. I didn't know what I was going to do.

So do you have like, is there like a nomadic aspect of your personality where you always

feel kind of restless or was it just more like victim of circumstance things that you kind of

moved around?

Probably nomadic aspects of my personality.

My parents went backpacking in

Europe when they were first married and I grew up hearing stories of that. And that was just kind of

always like,

oh, I'm going to do that one day.

And there's just so many places to experience.

And living in a small town,

that was kind of my goal always was just to leave.

Like no rhyme or reason, I'm going to get out of here.

Which is even funnier that I'm here now.

The restless artist is an archetype.

I mean, that is a type of person.

And I think,

and I'm just theorizing here,

is I think because as a creative,

we have a heightened sensitivity,

right? So we have the ability to fall in love with things,

with places,

with restaurants,

with types of food,

with atmospheres,

different kinds of people,

not just people, but the cultures.

So I think that to actually get that fulfillment,

we kind of need that change of scenery from time

to time,

you know?

Do you think that's valid or no?

Yeah,

definitely.

I think for me, a lot of it

Like I had to come to terms with wherever you go,

there you'll be.

Okay.

Kind of deal.

Like,

oh, when I do this,

I'll feel this way.

Or once I make it here,

it'll be like that.

Right.

And I just kind of,

I think there's a little bit of both in there.

Like on one hand, I just,

I wanted to see the world.

I wanted to see everything that I could.

I still am like that.

Anytime I have a chance to go somewhere new, I will.

But also,

yeah, this kind of mistaken idea that once I made it to X,

then I would be ready to really be myself or something like that.

And something I still struggle with even now,

I guess like being present,

you know,

like being at a place,

all right, we're on vacation for four days.

We're doing something cool, but what are we going to be doing for dinner?

Okay, now we're at dinner.

What are we doing at night?

And it's like, dude, just do the thing.

Can you just do the thing?

Can you just be at the thing?

You know,

you struggle with that a little bit or is that just...

For sure, no,

for sure.

Especially,

I think,

as a creative,

you need a goal.

You need a work in progress.

There's probably always going to be something better,

something bigger.

So there is that.

You have to check yourself and remember,

like,

oh,

five years ago, this is what you wanted.

So enjoy it.

I love that.

Yeah.

And we all have those things.

I have those things that I dreamed about as a kid.

And I was lucky enough to experience some of them to a small degree.

And it's like,

I'm so focused on the next thing.

I can take that stuff for granted.

We all have those things we dreamed of.

I'm sure you've experienced things that you wanted as a kid,

and then you did it as a musician who's older.

You're like, I did the thing.

That's kind of what Hello,

Hello is about,

too.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Do you remember?

It's that one girl you used to know.

So it's just kind of reminding yourself,

you used to wish for all of this,

but also kind of what you would tell your younger self if you could talk to them.

Nice.

And folks, if you're listening,

certainly make sure you check out that song,

Hello,

Hello by Post-American Gothic.

Awesome song. It slaps. I was talking to somebody over

the weekend,

a musician I really respect.

They were just expressing their frustration.

It's so unfair that you need to do these 10, 15 things that have nothing to do with music

if you ever want to do music,

right?

You have to do 10 to 12 things

that have nothing to do with creativity

if you want to have any kind of success.

And I was like, look,

man,

you kind of don't have to.

You just get a full-time job

and play music with your friends.

And then I realized I was being a hypocrite

because never once when I did music

did I consider you're doing it for fun.

I don't know, like woven into our psyche as millennials.

It's like you have to monetize every hobby.

Like if you're good at it,

I can't imagine doing music without some kind of worldly validation.

My question for you,

can you do that?

Let's say you hit the lottery, money wasn't an object.

Could you just do music for free?

Or better yet, could you ever see yourself just doing music as a hobby and just having a full-time job?

Or is it always feeling like you're chasing it, like you need to validate the quality of your music

with some kind of,

whether it's plays,

concert tickets,

compliments,

whatever.

I think money specifically,

if all of my life expenses were paid just by whatever the lottery,

who knows?

And I could just play music and get the interactions with people.

I would take that.

You don't have to pay me for the music.

But if I... I mean, I would still play music if it was just

me in a room and nobody ever heard it, but it would be different. It would definitely be different.

My husband is really good about his motives in music.

He would play all day, every day for no money and would go home to a shack and eat ramen for the rest of his life.

Like he is truly in it for the art.

I think it would change.

It would change a little bit, but I would definitely always want to make art in some capacity.

I think it would be different if I could actually play an instrument.

like i i came in with an engineer who was really good so i would like mumble something then they'd

be able to play it and we had this like cool symbiotic relationship so i actually needed

the response to know if my music was any good like i have taste i know good song sounds like

but but like i need to see like a crowd react to be like okay it worked you know i can relate to

that yeah you know in terms of the whole writing and everything yeah just needing some kind of

back and forth yeah but if i went the other round i just picked up a guitar and i could like i could

see myself also like getting obsessed with like an instrument and like sitting in a room all day

trying to get you know you don't play a little instrument no no well drums but yeah

but not to like sit there and play by yourself right yeah yeah drums by yourself isn't you know

now do you think um that one of my favorite sayings is uh you don't stop playing because

you get old you get old because you stop playing do you think music ages you do you think it keeps

you young?

Do you think it has any effect on your worldview in terms of maturity?

What do you think?

On one hand,

I think it keeps you young,

at least for me.

But I do think there's a little bit of

everything.

I think if you're a very active listener and you're really paying attention to

what kind of music you're consuming,

what the message is,

what the song structure is,

that kind of thing, I think it can definitely not age you,

but make you wiser.

I think you can

learned a lot from listening.

I mean,

most artists are, are writing something for a reason there.

They have something to say. So I do think,

uh, especially for younger listeners,

if you're

a very intentional listener,

it can age you mentally,

but I do think playing music keeps

you young.

Yeah,

I agree. I think this scene keeps you young because when I'm not around musicians,

I feel so young.

I'm like, I'm like, we're all the 30 year olds,

you know?

And then when I'm around

and then like and then when i'm around like in the music scene i feel so old you know so it's like

yeah like the reverse effects now because you're so close to it now like as a writer with a band

whose star is rising can you still listen to music objectively like just for fun or are now you're

just in writer mode all the time where it's like oh i do yeah for sure i definitely listen to music

or fun.

I would describe myself as actually,

ashamedly, a bad music consumer.

A lot of people

listen to, they want an album,

they want an experience,

they want to listen from start to

finish,

and then they have notes afterwards.

I like to listen for ambiance,

feeling,

vibe,

and then I'll listen to a whole album and probably only one or two things actually stuck out to me.

and I'm like, oh, that was really good. I like that.

I'm not that kind of listener,

but I am always listening to something,

whether or not I'm latching on to things.

That's a different story.

But I do think that that is good for writing because I don't want to be

emulating things that I'm listening to,

if that makes sense.

I think I'm going to agree with you.

I'm an opposite listener.

I get obsessed with albums

And then like,

if I latch on to something, I'll be obsessed with it, talk about it.

I have to know everything about it.

But you can also hear what I was listening to when I wrote certain songs.

Yeah.

This phase,

he was listening to Beck.

He was listening to a lot of things to Leon.

He was listening to a lot of,

you know, whereas you can listen objectively and write for a

mood or write for a moment.

I'm assuming you can write for a mood,

write for a moment,

write based on,

I guess, extrinsic

whereas I'm using the influence of an artist and it's probably like and it's probably peppering

into my music yeah very interesting either is like right or wrong I think yeah yeah different

the case yeah well I also know I couldn't listen to music objectively until I had not been writing

for about a year or two right so I was like I wrote my last song I was like I'm stuck at this gig

I'm probably not doing music anymore and it was like I started to be able to actually like in like

enjoy it again you know just as like a passive listener without feeling like uh i wonder if i

use that chord to do that like you know like actually like a phone can make me cry again

you know like i didn't like i didn't feel anything because i was like too close to it

was there a time before you started writing music where you listened to music like that and then it

kind of phased out once you were more intentional probably right up until my like mid-20s like i was

like, I was like obsessed. I would just be like an obsessed fan.

I had my like 12 artists that

rotated in and out or unless I heard something new,

tried to go to every show.

But I know you're

interviewing me, but I'm curious what that switch for you of,

okay,

like I love listening to music,

but I need to make it.

Um,

well that was when I was actually doing it for fun. Like we talked

about,

like, I, like I had a full-time job. I actually thought I was too, I was like early

twenties and I thought I was too old.

So I was like,

I was just like making mixtapes for fun.

It ended up in the hands of somebody who owned a studio right down the street.

And they were like, yo, these are good songs.

They're not like structured pop songs.

I mean, obviously it's a mixtape,

but like you, you actually got something.

Didn't start taking it seriously until I was 27.

Then I was like,

oh,

these are like,

I'm actually got something here,

but I was already like

in my late twenties.

So never really expected anything to come of it.

But like this had such a good time writing songs, probably did an album a year from 28

to like 33.

So I got like five albums,

five, six albums.

Yeah.

With this next project that you have,

if we had this conversation a year from now,

right?

What would you want to have happened in that year interim?

You know,

with this single picking up steam,

you still got a couple other singles in the tuck?

Yes.

What would be a successful year for you?

A year from now.

Okay.

So first of all,

I would just like that all of the singles

that we have on the back burner have been completed and released because after your day job,

it takes a lot longer than you might hope.

It just always does just for every various reason.

So we last August recorded six singles with a friend of ours and producer in Chicago.

And we've just kind of slowly been piecing those together and hello, hello was the first. So we did

all the main recording there and then kind of one at a time we add just like any extra production

effects and i do like harmonies and stuff at home um so we have two that we're about to release

so that anyway that would be the first one is that all of these have been completed and released

um and we are working on trying to get more outside of our local bubble and play shows in

other cities uh just get in front of more people um and that would be i think playing three to

new cities that we've never been to,

I think would be a great, a great place to be.

Yeah.

And I think your, your sound definitely like translates well regionally.

Like I could,

I could see walking into like the Fillmore in Philadelphia,

2000 seater and like hearing this,

like hearing you open for somebody and like sticking in my head and be like, yo, I'm coming

back for that band.

You know, like it's,

it's that good.

It's special.

Huge compliment.

Um,

you seem like you have like a really good outlook and a really good,

good balance.

Um,

in terms of like how you prioritize music and the rest of your life,

family relationship,

et cetera.

What does a bad day look like for you? Like, what is like your biggest challenge

when you feel like you just don't have it?

Feeling like I'm getting everything done that

I want to get done and,

and having the energy to keep up with it. I think when those things don't

fall into place, I get really down.

I have a very involved daytime job that I love,

but it's a lifestyle job.

So I do work a lot of like after hours events,

evenings,

weekends,

that kind of deal.

And it's not uncommon for me to go from,

I do teach some music for,

I work in an arts nonprofit.

We have a performing arts school,

et cetera.

So it's not uncommon for

me to go from two hours of teaching music to youth to an 8 p.m. rehearsal that lasts till 10 or 11.

And then I'm up at six or seven the next morning to start all over again,

which I'm so grateful to

be here and be able to do all these things.

But I think,

yeah, probably just the balance of

of feeling like I have enough time,

like I'm getting enough done and, and not just being

exhausted.

Uh,

there are some nights that I get off work and I just like crawl to bed and then I

start guilty because there's always a list of things that you're going to be working on.

You

know, you could, you could run a full-time job off of trying to promote a band.

Yeah.

It's literally

a job they pay people to do that yeah so so i think yeah just i do struggle with feeling like

i'm getting enough done and finding that balance i i there is a little bit of like workaholism in

there that i try to try to fight it's popular in high functioning individuals um i heard the term

uh i don't know if this makes sense the term productivity dysmorphia like you get up and no

matter how productive you are you just never see yourself as getting anything done yeah yeah yeah

I could relate to that.

You just kind of struck a nerve with me because I do that.

I'll get to the end.

And depending on the time of day, I'll feel guilty for relaxing.

I'm like, what am I doing?

I'm like, relax.

Finish the show.

You know what I mean?

The things will take care of themselves.

Relax.

Enjoy the next hour.

So this next question is a two-parter.

What's something that you feel you do exceptionally well, and it doesn't have to be related to music?

And what's a skill that you'd probably like to refine?

Something that I am working on in general is being more at ease with existing in the world and being perceived without being self-conscious.

I do feel like my assumptions of what other people might think of me or just general self-consciousness stops me from fully doing things 100% and just doing things at all that I would like to do.

I think that kind of plays into why it took me so long to write music,

etc.

So just something that I would like to be better at is being more self-assured,

more self-confident,

and a little braver with putting myself out there.

Just in all areas of life, I think.

I mentioned I'm a little bit shy, a little bit socially anxious.

And I think that that kind of bleeds through to many areas of my life,

not just music and performing.

Yeah, I don't think that ever completely goes away.

You know, like you always feel like you're in competition with somebody,

even if it's just something good you did previously.

You always feel like you're you're either not measuring up or somebody's like analyzing you, watching you,

judging you,

you know? Yeah. And a lot of that fear is self.

You know, it's like it's like we're putting it on ourself.

It's not really as accurate or as prevalent as we think it is.

But I do think social media is a certain kind of beast too, because you see how mean people can be on the internet.

But there is that fear of anything I say could be wrong.

But you have to kind of release that.

And then something that I'm good at,

I think I really work to bring all facets of my loves and creativity into my life.

And I think I've, I don't know if this is like something to be good at, but I think crafted like a really beautiful life that is very authentic to all of the things that I love.

Like my home is really fun.

Yeah.

Like my wardrobe reflects who I am.

Like the way I spend my time is really important to me.

Yeah.

I don't know.

You basically just explain gratitude.

That's what that is.

When you look around yourself and you're like,

wow,

look at like,

look at this thing I built.

Obviously not by yourself,

but you have done by yourself, I'm sure.

But you look around and you're like, wow,

look at this community that's that sprung up around me that I'm a part of or parts that I built.

Like, I don't want to I don't want to like discredit your agency.

Like, yeah, you did build it, you know.

Oh,

but it relies on other people,

too.

For sure.

But yeah, that's that's that's really cool.

And I think it's in like the stillness of like our dark times,

if you can still look around and be like,

hey,

what I built was pretty cool.

Like I used to really not like myself,

but like I'd have a beer with me now.

I got become somebody like like I become somebody I'd hang with,

you know,

because I wasn't, you know.

No, that's a great way to put it. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's really cool.

Where do you see music headed in the next two, three years?

Like I feel like there's always like a genre that kind of gets shuttled to the forefront or like certain artists that are kind of similar.

Right now,

I can't really put my finger on it.

I feel like country had a pretty big swing for a while.

I mean, there's still country artists,

but I mean, it was like it was like huge for the last like four or five years.

Where do you see music headed over this summer, next summer?

I feel like the pop girl is in right now.

Yeah,

big time and bands have kind of taken a backseat.

I'm hoping that we're going to see more bands on the rise.

Me too.

Alternative kind of like,

you know what I mean?

Like any of that odd stuff.

That would be cool.

I would love to see that.

Is that what people are hoping for?

I don't know.

But definitely, I definitely see a lot in the pop area.

And there seems to be kind of like some new wave stuff

stuff that's becoming popular both in bands and um and solo artists is this girl's name azaya

a-z-i-y-a i think it's azaya but that's like one one artist that i'm thinking of that i kind of

feel like things are going in that direction but yeah i'm hoping i'm really hoping that bands are

going to be yeah coming back yeah i would i would love a huge alt rock alt rock resurgence you know

because I feel like every about 20 years or something, you get one.

And you can almost tell when it's gone,

too.

And the way I can tell is just because of festival lineups.

You can look at a festival lineup in 2000,

say,

like 11 to 14.

And it's like every row has like five bands you want to see.

And then slowly but surely,

you look at a lineup and you're like,

dude, I'd probably see like two of the headliners

and then just sit at my campsite the rest of the...

Sure,

it's back.

So hopefully that's going to bring that.

Yeah,

that is what I'm hoping.

I still got the oldest one of these.

I just won't grow out of them.

Yeah.

Do you have any predictions in that area?

I am curious.

Good question.

I think that there's a hard rock.

If the bands get big,

it'll be almost like a hard rock resurgence.

I feel like Sleep Token blew up.

Yeah.

And roped in a bunch of casual metal fans.

So a bunch of kids picked up guitars

and started playing heavier stuff.

And now you're starting to see the pop punk stuff.

You're starting to see metal,

but you're seeing black kids

and these girl bands pop up

playing this heavier metal stuff.

And I'm like,

are we going to get two, three years

of just this really cool metal sound

from all these small cities?

That would be cool.

I just saw two bands from Florida.

One is...

One is...

magnolia park um black lead singer dude with dreads um almost like an emo gothic like punk

sound yeah and then like um this other band uh first and fearson f-i-r-s-u-n i think they're

from jacksonville um uh black lead singer dreads totally unsuspecting amazing voice playing like

hard rock metal music and i'm like i'm like is this the new face of metal that's awesome let's go

yeah yeah like take my money i'll come come to every show you know did you see them in philly

um i saw magnolia park in asbury in asbury park which is like uh it's like halfway in between

like atlantic city and new york so like right in the middle of new jersey they're still on the

coast for instance are you familiar with uh the warning the three mexican sisters i'm not yeah

it's like three mexican sisters they play metal they're bigger like they open for metallica muse

that one's really familiar yes i heard of them but i'm incredible yeah yeah i saw i saw them at uh

i saw them in philly packed house like every song was good i'm like all right i guess i guess it's

gonna be a thing now nice yeah right other than azaya like who's like really like tugging at your

heartstrings now like an artist that's just like here when they come to town take my money i gotta

to come see uh sweet pill number one yeah really yes um yes all right and they're from yeah yeah

i saw them so okay so i've been to three of their concerts but i've only seen them twice

the first time uh as i've mentioned we're kind of in the middle of nowhere so we usually have to

drive at least an hour if not three or four to see good concerts uh so the first time they were

playing in Richmond on the Wonder Years tour they were opening and some husband and I went

to see them after work and we walked in the theater as they were leaving the stage we were just like

so bummed we like all the way through the the headliner we were so bummed oh man that's a bummer

that is a bummer yeah I've gotten to see them a couple times since then the last time was in DC

recently on the tour that they canceled it was the last show before they canceled the rest of their

Uh,

and it is,

it's my big goal as a band to open for them one day.

So if you guys are listening,

that's,

that's,

um,

and I took,

I took a CD of our music and

a Walkman with like covered in our stickers and I like gave it to them in the middle of

the set.

Um,

so hopefully they remember us later on.

Yeah.

I'm sure you left an impression.

Yeah.

They're like, they're like around like, obviously like,

yeah,

I didn't, I didn't, I didn't expect

you to say that.

That's crazy.

That is my biggest favorite band right now.

I'm also into Pool Kids.

They're really good.

They're good now.

What else?

Like I said, I'm not a good album listener.

I usually have a few songs here and there that I like.

Dead Poets Society is really good.

If you had an elevator ride with your teenage self,

so you had the ride of an elevator,

to give some advice to the younger Pearl,

yeah what would you tell her um first i would say if there's something that you want to do

and you don't feel like you're good enough at it then practice like don't don't just drop it don't

just oh maybe later work yeah work because you can get better you will get better um i think a lot of

the things that i struggled with it was it was because i thought i was going to just be really

good at it from the get-go and I didn't realize what that work really looked like.

And then also

trust your instincts.

Don't second guess yourself so much.

I never really felt like I fit into a

box,

not musical theater,

not classical music,

not acting,

not writing.

And that's something that

I think held me back and that I struggled with for a while.

But realizing that you don't have to

just be a musical theater performer.

You don't have to just be a visual artist. You can kind of do

all of that.

And if I had just kind of gone with that earlier on, I think I would have

gotten somewhere sooner.

Those would probably be the two big things.

I love that. I just heard somebody say this in like a random reel or something. They say,

as a musician,

your superpower isn't just your ability to make music or play it,

but your superpower is also your taste,

which is like your instincts.

You know it sounds

good.

You know it's dope.

You know it's fly.

Listen to yourself.

I love that.

That's so cool.

Now with

Post-American Gothic,

do you guys have

merch?

Because if people hear this interview and they want to

support you,

what's the best way to get

a hold of a t-shirt, a sticker?

Yes, we do have merch.

I don't have a digital store right

now just because the maintenance

and all that hasn't really been worth it.

But most of our stuff

I post on our social media,

I

kind of need to do an updated

haul of what we have.

But send us a DM anywhere.

Instagram.

I think we're the most active on Instagram or Facebook.

But just send us a message and we'll ship to you whatever you want.

But that's probably the most direct way to support us.

I think I just need to make it easier on people to find.

That's awesome.

And do you have any shows coming up that you'd like to promote?

Do you guys have any dates on the calendar?

Yeah,

we have.

We have stuff through August,

I think.

We play pretty frequently.

A lot of it is local here in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

We're playing this Friday here in town at Ghost Harbor Brewing Company.

Let's see.

We're playing at Duck in the Outer Banks,

the 22nd, at a place called Tap Shack.

That's a really fun spot for tourists and stuff like that.

Something that's a little different about where we are versus your typical original music scene is that we don't have a lot of specific venues.

A lot of them are breweries or places to hang out that host live music.

So we have had to really amp up our discography.

We wrote a ton of originals in the first two years.

A lot of them that we will never record and we will never release because they're fine.

but they're not the meat and potatoes.

Been able to work up to playing three hour sets

that are probably 75 to 85% original music.

So we do a lot of that.

And that's,

it's not ideal,

but it's better than not playing.

So it's great.

I mean, it's, I mean, cause you see,

it's cause it's not just the songs,

but it's the energy, the personality.

You like what you guys are doing is really special.

And it comes across,

even in just like recordings in the car,

you know, like I hear that and I'm like,

I have to see this live,

you know?

So whatever, whatever you're doing,

it's coming across,

um,

sonically and also like, like emotionally too.

Like I feel it like this is the,

this is fire.

Like,

you know,

all right. Well, that's,

that's really all we can hope for.

So I'm really glad to hear that.

Really.

Um,

but I, I wish you guys, uh,

I wish you guys the best, man.

I hope every one of your dreams comes true.

Is there anybody you want to shout out before we say goodbye?

The whole band,

all of the guys,

I wouldn't be able to do any of this without them.

Brandon,

my husband,

he's the best.

He's such a brilliant,

creative mind.

And then Brandon and Luke,

they just really bring so much to this project.

I'm really grateful to be working with them.

Yeah, well, you guys have a killer band.

The rest of you, I want to thank you for joining Pearl and I today on Love's Music.

Pearl,

thank you so much for sharing your love of music,

your art, all the great stories.

This is truly one of my favorite interviews.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me.

Yeah.

The rest of you,

take care of yourself and join us next Thursday.

New episodes every Thursday morning at 7 a.m.

See you and share it with somebody who loves music.