The Pearl Lee Story
I started learning piano at age 7. Typically, I hated it – in my mind, my parents were forcing me to get lessons, and all I was playing was boring classical music. In hindsight I’m overwhelmingly grateful for my music and theory education of course, but at the time it was a struggle for me. Fortunately, my piano teacher John Payne worked out that the way to retaining my interest was through jazz and blues piano, and a love for the instrument was kindled which has continued to this day. It also helped that John was a hilarious, fun, and supportive teacher.
In high school, I started connecting with other musicians, and learning that there was more to music performance than just sitting my AMEB exams. I also started singing around age 16, and began writing songs at the same time. As is to be expected, some of those first songs were love songs, with truly terrible lyrics.
Luckily I kept writing, and improving, and these days I’m usually able to put a stop to the terrible lyrics before they get written. Over the years I’ve taught myself a couple other instruments, a bit of production, and expanded the themes of my songwriting to cover self reflection, social justice, and mental health, in addition to the relationship stuff.
In 2017 Pearl Lee began. Whilst honing my recording abilities putting out videos of cover songs, I worked towards my long-time goal of releasing an album of original music. In 2020 I released my first single Burning Bridges, followed by the self-produced EP Covid Creations, written and recorded in lockdown during the pandemic. Finally in 2022, I released the album Mirrors, with 12 songs written across years of my life. It was a huge milestone for me, but I was by no means finished there.
Released in August 2023, my first new single Ain’t Weak to Speak is an open and honest anthem calling out the importance of talking about mental health, whilst September’s Hard to Pretend points out that it’s not always that easy to do so. These singles herald the release of my new EP “It’s Real Now It Has a Name”, out everywhere October 20th.
