Carly Pearl Takes the Leap of Going Solo, and Shares Her Truth

When Carly Pearl finished her debut solo set at Mercury Lounge last month the first thing she did was turn around to hug her drummer, and longtime friend, Renee Hikari.

After spending the better part of a decade as the frontwoman of the NYC-based band Scruffy Pearls, this was the first time Pearl had performed a set of her own material – a soulful brand of pop music that’s filled with positive vibes – and she was overcome with emotion. Hikari, who was also in Scruffy Pearls, has been by her side the entire time.

“She’s my soul sister,” Pearl says, “We’ve really been on this journey of breaking down, and building ourselves up together.”

Calling the show at the Lower East Side venue, “One of the most beautiful nights of my life,” she adds, “It truly felt like turning a dream into a reality. It was something I think has been calling to me my whole life.”

While the show was a dream come true, she admits that after spending so much time in a band, she had some pre-show butterflies based on preconceived notions she needed to shed.

“I felt like I needed a lot of other people up there with me, and I needed someone to tell me I could,” she says, “I finally leapt, and the net appeared. I’ve heard that saying many times in my life, but I think that’s a thing. When you decide to take that risk, and you decide to just jump into the unknown, the universe responds, and it catches you.”

The netting was at least partially of her own making, from when she was preparing for the show.

“I sat down to create a set list, and I started asking myself questions like why am I doing this show? Why am I making this music? What is my intention behind all of it? Am I trying to show the world some put together, poised, perfect version of myself, or am I an artist here who wants to share my truth, because I think the truth is what connects us, the truth’s what sets us free. As soon as I had that realization, that I was up there to share my truth, the nerves just calmed down, and I felt peace. I felt like this is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing, and it’s not about me, this is about the music, and the truth.”

The road to such major realizations can often be circuitous, and that was the case for Pearl, as her truth would be revealed to her only after a pair of difficult breakups.

Ain’t No Mountain (Jam) High Enough 

In 2019 Scruffy Pearls were on top of the world, or at least the top of a mountain. After years of paying dues in NYC’s indie scene, the band finally played a set at Mountain Jam, a major festival in upstate New York that Pearl says “we had been working towards for a very long time.”

The pre-pandemic show was the biggest the band had played up to that point. Little did they know it would be the next to the last show they’d play together.

When COVID shut down all touring, it gave the band an opportunity to think, and Pearl says, “It was just becoming more and more clear that some of us wanted to pursue this as a full time career, and some of us were feeling like it was more of a hobby.”

While the dissolution of the band was upsetting, and she still isn’t sure if it would’ve happened had it not been for the pandemic, Pearl notes playing Mountain Jam as one of their final shows was a heck of a send off. “We went out on a really high note, and a beautiful note,” she says, “I am so grateful.”

With Scruffy Pearls in her rear-view mirror, a second breakup would soon affect Pearl, this one of the romantic variety.

Bad Romance 

Shortly after the band came to the realization that some of them no longer shared the same goals, the same ended up being true for Pearl and her significant other. With lots of time to consider what they wanted in life, she says, “(Our relationship) was something I think both of us realized wasn’t really aligned with our dreams anymore.”

What made this doubly difficult for Pearl was that her significant other was also her writing partner.

The normally optimistic, and glowingly positive Pearl admits, “There was a real dark time … There was a full on breakdown, identity crisis. My band broke up, my relationship broke up, I felt like I was starting over, but I always knew … I was never ever not certain that I needed to be making music, and I need to be singing.”

She began her solo career, and started working with producers from all over the country. The feeling was freeing.

“It was almost like I needed to take that energy that I wasn’t pouring into myself, and I wasn’t pouring into my dreams, and I needed to take it back.”

Pearl took it back, poured it into her dreams, and embraced the concept of pronoia.

The Power Of Positivity 

Pronoia is the opposite of paranoia. It means a person believes the world around them conspires to do them good. Many are discovering this word thanks to Pearl’s viral hit, “Pronoia,” that breaks down its many positive capabilities. Pearl first became aware of the word, and the idea, around two years ago.

“I wrote it down,” she remembers, “I was like this needs to be a song one day. I knew the second I heard the word, this is a very important word, a powerful word.”

The song came to fruition during a writing session at Sun Mountain Studios in upstate New York with Hikari, and Sun Mountain Studios founder, Dave Baron, whose resume includes working with The Lumineers, Lenny Kravitz, and Shania Twain, among others.

They finished the song in two days, but the release wouldn’t come until a moment of kismet a number months later thanks to a trending topic on TikTok.

Up All Night To Get Lucky 

With “Pronoia” complete, one day Pearl noticed “Lucky Girl Syndrome” was trending on TikTok.

She clicked on a video, and suddenly everything became clear. “As soon as I saw a viral video of these two girls eating Chinese food in their car talking about Lucky Girl Syndrome, I gasped. I was like oh my God, that’s pronoia. There’s another word for it.”

Pearl knew the next step she had to take.

“You can do these things called stitches on TikTok, and I stitched their video with me being like – I see that Lucky Girl Syndrome is trending right now, and I’m so excited because I actually have another word for it, and it’s in this song.”

For Pearl, the synchronicity was a thing of beauty. “I don’t think anything happens by mistake,” she says, “so as soon as I saw that video I was like oh, that’s the answer, it’s time to release ‘Pronoia.’”

She was right. “Pronoia” racked up thousands of pre-saves on streaming services, and once released would wind up on numerous Spotify playlists.

Pearl was on her way.

OMW 

Pearl followed up the positive, and affirming “Pronoia” with the equally positive, and affirming “OMW” (On My Way).

As she sings, “Sorry that I’m late, but I’m on my way now,” it becomes clear the song is open to any interpretation regarding what someone might be on their way to.

“It’s hard not to look around at the people around you, and think that they’re ahead of us, or that we missed the boat, or that it’s too late to do the things that we want to do,” she explains, “and I just had a realization over the past few years that it is never too late to start creating the life that you want to create – you can do it if you’re 15, you can do it if you’re 85 … you might feel like you’re late, but that’s OK. That’s why we’re here, we’re in this life to keep creating.”

For Pearl, embracing creativity, and rejecting living by someone else’s timeline, is something she feels is connected to getting back in touch with the energy of her inner child.

“When we’re kids we’re so weird. We let our bodies do whatever we want, we say whatever we want, we’re talking to imaginary friends whenever we want, and then as you start getting older you start wanting to fit in, and it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting because you can feel this sense of loss, and this sense of grief for the loss of your younger self, and that freedom that we used to feel, that playfulness, that authenticity. You feel that sense of loss, and I just started feeling like, shoot, I want to get weird again. That’s my special sauce. That’s my thing that I can contribute to this world. I’m so sick of fitting in, and trying to compare myself, and my story, and my timeline to the people around me.”

Pearl’s Jams – Music To Heal To 

A major goal for Pearl with the music she’s making as a solo artist is to create songs that have a positive impact on the listener, and ultimately have the power to heal.

“The music you listen to really matters,” she says, “because you are absorbing these words, and these vibrations – a lot of times you’re singing along to them – so why not start using music as a tool where you can be absorbing vibrations, and words that are in some way going to shift your mindset, and your perspective, and maybe elevate you in some way to heal?”

She continued, adding that this isn’t a one time task. “Healing yourself is a lifelong journey, but I think if we all start coming together here, and really work on loving ourselves, and diving into ourselves, we have the chance to maybe help heal the universe, and heal the earth right now.”

A lofty goal? Absolutely, but Carly Pearl just might have the pronoia to pull it off.

For more Carly Pearl, check out carlypearlmusic.com.