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

Hi Pearl, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I was a singer in the U.S. Army. It was a huge contrast to my ethics and prior expectations of life, but it seemed like a great challenge to see how my music can create an impact on the more tortured of environments. In training, I was able to push past so many physical and mental ceilings I had over being a woman and an athlete. However, it conditioned uniformity in me that took a hit to my creative individuality. While stationed at Fort Liberty, I did my best to seek outlets to remind me of the artist I once was, but found myself lacking when I would inevitably return to my life on base and have to return to the soldier I was rewarded to be. After 4 years, I knew it was time to untether and wash my mind of the military. It is not an easy feat, and I still find myself falling back into conformity mindsets to this day. But as a musician, I am so much better off having a creative outlet to write, sing, and release all that trapped me in that existence and start again on my healing journey. You can find topics of ‘choosing me’ ‘self love’ and self discovery in my music.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am an independent singer/songwriter transplant to Dorchester, MA. My genre fuses jazz and R&B with folk lyrics essence. I have music streaming on all platforms and a 7-song EP for purchase on Bandcamp. My songwriting is centered on healing and upliftment. It is not easy to be human, but we are in this together. I believe community is how we grow, and I am glad to spread that message in my music. I was granted the Iguana fund from club Passim this year to release new music. Please, follow my journey on Instagram or my website to keep up to date on new releases.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I am rewarded in connection. We are social creatures; it is our divine purpose to be held in our mother’s womb as a fetus, in our mother’s arms as an infant, and find community as adults. I used to call myself a loner growing up. Set on seeing others as violent, confusing, and manipulative based on life experience. But even in that time of distance, I found understanding in the voice of Billie Holiday, I found play in the lines of Sarah Vaughan, and joy in the smile of Louis Armstrong. They were the community I ran to when my current reality felt volatile. I connect to others through art and their vulnerability to be themselves authentically. I am never alone in music, and I am always held in the vibration of a song.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

‘Life for me is no crystal stair. (Langston Hughes)’ I experienced trauma at an early age. Death, loss, physical abuse, divorce, racism, homelessness, lack of resources; these were my daily life in my primary year of childhood. My mother did her best to raise 5 kids on her own, and I am so grateful to her strength and never-ending resilience to keep us going. We learned to be independent very quickly and find coping mechanisms to deal with grief. I do not wish this start in life on anyone, however, it created an attachment to the arts that I can only attribute to the desperate need for understanding. I relied on my music to bring me out of depression. I found safety in dance to move the trapped energy from my body. I explored art and poetry to find a new perspective of view my circumstances. When my brother died at the age of 20, the gospel choir was the therapy that centered me and gave me hope for the future. Our modern society has so many outlets and ways to digest the world. I hope we all have curiosity and resilience in our moments of need to find them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pearlscottmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pearlscottmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pearlscottmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pearlscott9599
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/earlcottusic

Image Credits

Will Uttley (Wutlife)