“Are you talking about James [Payne, keyboards]’s white pants?” laughs singer, guitarist and main songwriter, Ryan Caesar. “Because those aren’t special pants, he wears those pants a lot. They’re beautiful.”
Pearls released their debut LP Pretend You’re Mine back in February. The album boasts a wide range of influences, including a conspicuous glam rock glow. Despite the genre’s cheesy associations, Pearls proudly own their glam rock influences.
“I think it’s good,” Caesar says. “Glam rock music when it was first around influenced some cheesy music, like hair metal and things like that, which is not really what we’re about. But even Lou Reed and Bowie were glam – and Reed put out Transformer, which definitely a bit of glam seeped into and that’s probably what we aim for. [Glam] also influenced disco, but hopefully we don’t sound too cheesy. It just sort of happened.”
For Pearls, being glamorous appears to be more of a lifestyle choice. And anyhow, the tongue in cheek aspect of glam rock suits them. “I think the sense of humour of glam is something Pearls like to take from it as well,” says Caesar. “Though sometimes I see photos of myself and think, ‘That guy looks like he takes himself too seriously’. I mean, double denim and a mullet.”
Another local band with a similar eye for fashion, Montero, are joining Pearls on the New Year’s Evie lineup. “That lineup’s great” says Caesar. “And Sugar Mountain too, but New Year’s Evie has Geoff O’Connor as well, so lots of friends to spend New Year’s with.” Of the Sugar Mountain lineup, Caesar’s especially excited about Dirty Three, Viet Cong and Dâm-Funk. “There’s lots of stuff, it’s overwhelming,” he says.
It’s been an exceedingly busy year for Pearls, and they haven’t got much planned for the lulls in between the upcoming festival spots. “Maybe just drinking lots of water and preparing for long days. It still feels like we just got back.”
Caesar’s referring to the band’s recent visit to the CMJ Music Marathon in New York: “James and I – white pants James – stuck around and just ruined ourselves, pretty much, and then came home and had to get ready for Meredith. It was a bit of a marathon, but we enjoyed it.”
As far as future touring plans go, Caesar says getting another song out is a higher priority. “We’ve got a couple of good ideas, so I guess we’ll just see what happens. We’re maybe interested in The Great Escape Festival [Brighton, UK], but I guess we’ll have to see if our good ideas are good ideas yet. It’s always good to go anywhere.”
The chaos of festival slots has had a major upshot for Pearls: drawing in new fans that then come to check them out at other gigs. “It’s been amazing,” says Caesar. “Considering our stuff was released about a year ago, just to still get decent slots at festivals has been crazy and great.”
NYE on the Hill is completely sold out, which is no surprise given the cracking lineup and unique Loch Village event site. “It’s in a really beautiful part of Victoria. I’ve never been to a festival like it before.”
Despite the recent onslaught of festival appearances, Pearls’ enthusiasm isn’t waning. “It’s a tough one to have a bad time at a festival in a band. Though, I don’t know how any band could play the second or last day into a festival, because after day one of Meredith, it was on. I’m looking forward to everything though, it’s going to be great.”
BY HANNAH JOYNER
