We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Pearl Aday. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Pearl below.

Pearl, appreciate you joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

When I can I collect donations at my live shows. and create special private sales from my home to benefit Sojourn Domestic Violence Services Los Angeles a division of The People Concern.
This is a cause close to my heart having experienced domestic violence in my childhood and my first marriage. Women, including mothers and their children, struggling to escape and survive domestic violence deserve every vital bit of support and love we can give to them. They are fellow women warriors fighting for their lives and they deserve to be elevated.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, my name is Pearl. I am a proud mama, a singer and a songwriter, a clothing and art designer, a painter, an author, and a proud wife.
I come from a professionally musical family into which I was born. Music is in my blood. It came naturally to me to move into the music business myself once I hit a professional age, as I’d always wanted to be a singer and a songwriter since I can remember.
I am a solo recording artist under my own name having recorded several full length albums, and have toured alongside major acts and appeared as featured musical guest on Late Night with Seth Myers, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! I am also a member of the ensemble hard rock group Motor Sister alongside my husband, guitarist Scott Ian of Anthrax. Additionally, I work as a songwriter with and for several country recording artists including, Cody Jinks, Ward Davis, Erin Viancourt, and Sunny Sweeney. I am currently recording my newest album written with my longtime songwriting collaborator Jim Wilson (Motor Sister, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Sparks, etc.)

I am one half of the bespoke fashion design team Pearl X Romp with my partner Nina Morgan-Jones of the Romp Couture London label. We have been designing together for a few years now after sparking a friendship with Nina over 15 years ago and then working with her as my stage clothes designer. We began our partnership with an organic cotton t-shirt line including a collaboration with legendary photographer Terry O’Neill. Nina and I have since added an organic silk luxe lounge line launched in ’22 and we are currently in the design phase of our second capsule collection.

I am currently writing my memoir with editing assistance from published author and literary professor Liz Stephens.

I am the proud mother of a 13 year old recording artist and musical prodigy.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect for me of being an and a creative is not only the fulfillment of living my true self and feeling the benefits and power of self expression, but when my expression of self reaches others and affects them in deeply moving ways, that is success to me. When someone hears a song I’ve written and cries, that is success. When someone reads a story from my memoir and feels touched and less alone in their own story, that is success. When someone falls in love with one of my paintings and wants to hang it on their wall, that is success.
Having the opportunity for my art meet many eyes and ears and nervous systems is a rewarding privilege, but even just having the time and inspiration to finish a song or a design or a painting is rewarding in itself.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience is key for survival in any concentration of life. There have been many times in my artistic life when I’ve felt the heavy weight of just wanting to give up, but I’ve found that I truly just can’t, and I never have. Before I became a mother my music career was on a fast upward trajectory. In the matter of a couple of years I went from playing to five people on the floor of a broken down arcade in Bakersfield, CA, to clubs on the Sunset Strip, then jumping right up to touring theatres in the UK as main support for Velvet Revolver, and sharing the stage in support of Heart at Universal Amphitheater. The final peak of this upswing in my career was appearing as the featured musical guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Shortly after this I became pregnant with our son. I continued to tour overseas, paring down my show to an acoustic set tailored to my limited energy and growing baby. Once I got deep into my pregnancy I was ordered by my doctor to partial bedrest as my baby was trying so hard to come too early. Revel Young Ian was born three weeks before his due date and from that point forward for the next two years at least everything entirely stopped for me professionally. I dove head first into nest and nurture mode. I was in heaven with my baby boy but terrified to leave him or take him anywhere out of our home. Any gains we had made climbing the ladder of success completely ceased and disappeared. My manager and record label soon dropped off, and it would be another year or so until I began working on recording my follow-up album. I started occasionally performing live again with my songwriting partner of two decades, Jim Wilson, woodshedding new songs in front of audiences, but I quickly realized that I felt I was putting on an old costume of a character I no longer identified with like I was an imposter. During this time I was diagnosed with postpartum depression which helped swing the door of mental health wide open for me and answered a lot of questions, It took me a good deep while to feel comfortable in my new skin in my new life as both a mother and an artist. I had to figure out what that meant for me and where and how I would shift finding my focus and inspiration from that point on, and then how to balance the two in a way that felt organic and emotionally safe. It took seven years total for me to release my post-pregnancy album having to work in small spurts to accommodate my baby, and my husband’s active music career. After the album’s release I landed on late night television again as featured guest vocalist for three nights sitting in with the 8G band on Late Night with Seth Meyers. I also enjoyed several runs on tour in the U.S. as direct support for country artists Cody Jinks, and Ward Davis.Also, during this time my husband and I launched a hard rock supergroup side project together called Motor Sister on the Metalblade record label.
With what felt like another hard-earned career upswing things once again fell flat. Missteps, or no steps at all made by a neglectful management team to follow up on the trajectory that was picking up failed the album and any momentum ground to a halt again. Instead, then I pursued songwriting as my main focus. With help from word of mouth through friends, I was connected with various artists in the country music genre and began writing songs with and for others. Some songs have since been recorded and released. Resilience. Today I am in the process of recording another new album having moved back to my original and natural genre of rock. My first new single drops on November 22, 2024. With a renewed understanding of self, and a rebirth of confidence forged in fire through the recent death of both of my parents, I am pushing ahead to new chapters of my expression. To me, there was never an option to quit. I have been tempted to exit the battle a few times but instead, I chose to just lay down my sword for a while to gain my strength back so that I could keep fighting because once our son was born I owed it to him and to myself to show that I can carry on no matter what.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @pearlcaliforniacountry
• Facebook: @Pearlrocks
• Youtube: @pearlcaliforniacountry6833

Image Credits

Travis Shinn photographer