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{"id":44350,"date":"2021-09-03T13:10:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T17:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=44350"},"modified":"2021-09-03T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:11:09","slug":"pop-duo-pearl-the-oysters-document-the-end-of-their-stint-in-florida-with-flowerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/pop-duo-pearl-the-oysters-document-the-end-of-their-stint-in-florida-with-flowerland\/","title":{"rendered":"Pop Duo Pearl & the Oysters Document the End of Their Stint in Florida with Flowerland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" — Photo Credit: Laura Moreau<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
On \u201cSoft Science,\u201d the opening cut to Pearl & the Oysters\u2019 third album, Flowerland<\/a><\/em>, Juliette Davis is the voice reminding you over a mellow disco groove to take some time out for yourself. \u201cHey, come to the beach,\u201d she sings, \u201cYou studied all night long, you deserve a break.\u201d\u00a0But guest vocalist Kuo-Hung Tseng, from Taiwanese band Rollercoaster Sunset, responds, \u201cI can\u2019t talk right now\/I really should work\/It wasn\u2019t enough\/Soft science is hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*\u201cI didn\u2019t really want to sing this,\u201d says Joachim Polack, who, along with Davis, comprises Pearl & the Oysters. \u201cI thought it was too close to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n*
Flowerland<\/em> is a reflection of the end of the duo\u2019s stint living in Gainesville, Florida, where Polack was working on his PhD in musicology. He and Davis grew up in Paris\u2014 they\u2019ve actually known each other since high school\u2014 and studied musicology in France. But, the postgraduate system in the U.S. was different, with more coursework and a shorter period of time to complete the program. In France, they could juggle school, a band, and side jobs. That proved to be harder in the U.S. \u201cThe album is also a little bit about disillusionment with going to school and the toll it took on my health,\u201d says Polack. \u201cHaving a band and doing that at the same time was really more than I could handle sometimes, and I think that it was a difficult time to navigate, but I\u2019m really grateful for all the people that we met.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*He adds, \u201cIt was a really beautiful time in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n*
\n<\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It wasn\u2019t just school that was different in Florida. \u201cThe seasons were different. Everything seemed so new,\u201d says Davis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the course of Pearl & the Oysters\u2019 three albums, all of which were at least partially made while they were living in the Sunshine State, Davis and Polack have drawn inspiration from an environment that was quite different from France. The terrain, plants and insects all played in a role in sparking the duo\u2019s creativity on their 2017 <a href=\"https:\/\/pearlandtheoysters.bandcamp.com\/album\/w-pearl-the-oysters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">self-titled debut<\/a>, 2018’s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/pearlandtheoysters.bandcamp.com\/album\/canned-music\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canned Music<\/a><\/em>, and now <em>Flowerland<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think one thing that is different in this record is that it\u2019s still very sunny and, basically, it\u2019s an upbeat record in many ways,\u201d says Polack, \u201cbut I think, for the first time, it\u2019s more melancholy, trying to address stuff that we were going through in those last couple years that we lived in Gainesville.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Flowerland<\/em> certainly has its moodier moments. \u201cI think that we\u2019re incapable of doing a full-on gloomy album, but it has a little bit more of that,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut,\u201d Polack adds, \u201cit\u2019s more balanced in terms of the gamut of emotions than the first couple of albums, which were very much sunshine pop, like bubblegum almost. Everything was over-the-top cute and I think that, this one, we tried to keep that element because that\u2019s the music we like, but also be a little more transparent with what we were going through mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/3DHoQY95pM9basGL6rlcXy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The musicians that they met while living in Gainesville also helped shape the album. \u201cIn this way, the influence is clear,\u201d says Davis. \u201cWe didn\u2019t work with studio musicians that did exactly what we asked them to do. We really collaborated on the sound.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That includes the duo <a href=\"https:\/\/edmondson.bandcamp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Edmondson<\/a>, who Polack describes as having a <em>Smile<\/em>-era Beach Boys vibe. \u201cWhenever we wanted percussion, we would go over to their house and they had this big box full of all kinds of percussive contraptions,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also incorporated collaborators from outside of the Gainesville area. Kuo-Hung Tseng from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunsetrollercoaster.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sunset Rollercoaster<\/a> is one. Davis and Polack are big fans of the band and were able to connect through a mutual friend. They also linked up with Jules Crommelin of Australian band <a href=\"https:\/\/www.parcelsmusic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Parcels<\/a> through a mutual pal, and sitarist Ami Dang via their former bass player. As Polack notes, they had good luck with finding collaborators simply by asking. \u201cI feel like the lesson that I learned from making this specifically is that people should not shy away from doing that, because people are down,\u201d says Polack. \u201cIt\u2019s something that, in indie pop or rock music, is happening more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before mixing the album, Davis and Polack moved cross-country. \u201cWe loved living in Florida for many reasons, but it was definitely not a destination for us. We didn\u2019t plan on staying there for long,\u201d says Davis. \u201cThe question was where\u2014do we go back to France? Should we try another city in the Southeast?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They decided on Los Angeles after playing a show in the city and made the move in January of 2020. \u201cWe understood the potential that the city has for us as musicians, as pop music musicians and definitely thought that it would be a good move and we are so glad that we did,\u201d says Davis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They had just enough time to play a couple shows and start meeting people before the COVID-19 lockdown began. \u201cNow that things are reopening, we\u2019re fully understanding the potential of this city as musicians,\u201d says Davis. \u201cWe\u2019ve already been part of a few incredible projects in the past few months. We\u2019ve been invited to play a lot of different shows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davis adds, \u201cEven though we arrived at the worst moment, we managed to actually really settle ourselves in this time in a pretty good way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow Pearl & the Oysters on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pearlandtheoystersband\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram<\/a> for ongoing updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On \u201cSoft Science,\u201d the opening cut to Pearl & the Oysters\u2019 third album, Flowerland, Juliette Davis is the voice reminding you over a mellow disco groove to take some time out for yourself. \u201cHey, come to the beach,\u201d she sings, \u201cYou studied all night long, you deserve a break.\u201d\u00a0But guest vocalist Kuo-Hung Tseng, from Taiwanese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":44351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,305],"tags":[12552,9095,12553,2035,12550,12554,550,12551],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pearl_the_Oysters_by_Laura_Moreau_4-scaled-e1630013170309.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44526,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44350\/revisions\/44526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}