applebean.

by nini

I

LOVE WORDS. SO MUCH,” Pearl says,

sunkissed waves glowing against freckled

skin.

“

When she answers the call, we’re immediately ​struck by her ethereal charm. As we sit in our ​respective rainy cities, she smiles back through the ​screen, surrounded by nothing but flush greens ​and bright skies.

“A lot of people think I’m from California, but I’m ​not,” she explains, laughing.

Hailing from Grass Lake, Michigan, Pearl—real ​name Hope Waidley—understands a small town. ​The intricacies of the Midwest aren’t lost in Pearl’s ​mannerisms, either—she makes you feel like you’ve ​known her your whole life. At 19, she made her ​way to the West Coast, where she stayed for about ​four years.

She’s now on a little island off of Georgia, ​somewhere her sister found via the internet.

“I had no idea about it,” she noted, eyes taking in ​the scenery around her. “My sister found out about ​it because she stayed at an AirBnb here … I was ​like, well, I’ll go live there for a couple of months ​and see how it is.”

Of course, she offers to host us one day.

Before we really begin, we ask about her name. ​Why Pearl? This glowing girl before us certainly ​personifies the ocean’s jewel, but she explains that ​the meaning behind it is much deeper.

First and foremost: it’s her birthstone. She already ​has a personal connection to the gem - she even ​says she wants a pearl over a diamond in her ​wedding band.

But for Pearl, the day she adopted the stage name ​was a moment of kismet. A woman she befriended ​while at Laguna Beach quickly became a staple in ​her life—the two stayed in touch and got to know ​each other.

One day, the woman in question gifted her a strand ​of pearls. She said she felt called to share them, that ​she felt Pearl was supposed to have them. They ​belonged to her, more or less.

“Something she shared with me was a metaphor—​about how, you know, pearls are formed from a ​single grain of sand—and then they’re coated with ​the substance from the oyster before turning into a ​pearl. And that’s sort of how people are.”

She explains that through experiencing spiritual ​love and grace, we come out shining.

It’s clear that Pearl shines.

She radiates a certain energy—we feel comfortable ​talking to her, as though we’re just a group of ​girlfriends catching up. Her eyes light up when we ​ask her to tell us a little bit more about the women ​in her life that have inspired her. She immediately ​brings up her mother, who also happens to be a ​therapist.

“My mom is just an angel,” Pearl says softly, her ​voice breaking with emotion.

“She’s just so sweet, so pure, such a beautiful person ​who is constantly trying to figure out why and ​constantly wanting to help people. I love her ​eagerness to understand. I think the world lacks ​that a lot.”

Pearl credits her strong empathy for others to her ​upbringing.

“My mom’s ability to process is really lovely and ​really truly showed me that what matters most is ​being a listener.”

She also mentions her friend, a fellow artist named ​Becki DeVries.

“She really helped me when it comes to being a ​female artist and having to stand up for yourself, ​and having to be blunt and bold … Just to be a ​female in a really male-dominated industry.”

That being said, for Pearl, musician isn’t just a label. ​It’s who she is. In fact, the singer-songwriter has ​been creating since she was a little girl. When we ​ask her what kind of lyricists inspire her work, she ​responds with two simple answers: God and ​Johnny Cash.

“I grew up reading the Bible. So the metaphors I ​would read connected so deeply to me. Reading ​them made me fall in love with words. Genuinely.

“Having the language be so poetic and then hearing ​Johnny Cash sing, you know? That was truly my ​first exposure to that kind of writing.”

At the age of five, she heard Man in Black while ​sitting in her dad’s pick-up truck. She remembers ​how much the lyrics stood out to her, how much ​they moved her.

As she mourned the prisoners in the song, she ​realized she could express herself in the same way ​as Johnny: through word and melody.

The process of songwriting for Pearl isn’t a ​consistent one, even though she’s been doing it ​since about six years old. It’s something that comes ​to her in the moment, and no two songs are created ​alike.

Pearl first went viral at 12, when she shared an ​original song to her YouTube channel.

Singing Vacation to Heaven in leopard-print ​pajamas, she racked up a few hundred thousand ​views.

Around 16, she began to get more serious about it. ​When it came to her early releases, Pearl said she ​was hoping to find some connection with others.

“I almost felt like I couldn’t keep the songs to ​myself,” she said. Pearl makes it clear to us that ​writing helps her get through difficult emotions.

“If these songs help me process, I think they can be ​used to help other people. So maybe I should just ​share them.”

In 2018, another original song of Pearl’s, Closure, ​made its rounds online—this time, via Twitter. It ​quickly became clear that when she had something ​to say, others were ready to listen.

Fast-forward to her February 2024 release, No ​Man. The song became an instant classic via ​TikTok, garnering millions of hits before it even ​officially premiered on any music-sharing ​platforms.

When we asked why she felt the reaction to No ​Man was so much stronger than anything she had ​done previously, Pearl noted that, for the first time, ​she really felt her purpose when creating it.

“At this point in my career, I so desperately want to ​help women not go through what I went through. ​With No Man, it wasn’t so much, ‘Oh, I just want to ​share what I wrote!’ It was like, ‘I hope this can help ​someone.’

“Even just some of the messages that I’ve gotten ​from people who have listened to No Man, like, ​‘This helped me end a toxic situation.’ I literally cry ​for these girls because I just so badly don’t want ​them to get stuck in something for years when it ​needed to be a short, little, few-week thing—people ​get stuck, like I got stuck.”

She continued: “If No Man can help, then ​wonderful. I wish I could have heard it when I was ​going through what I was going through.”

Heartbreak may feel world-ending, but it doesn’t ​have to be. Pearl encourages us to remember who ​we are at our core: free as a bird.

When it comes to her future, Pearl’s got a lot ​coming. She released her second single, Backwash, ​in April of this year, and she has another on its ​way.

“I absolutely have an entire album,” Pearl confirms. ​“I have the entire concept—I mean, it’s really just ​telling the story of what I went through—but I ​literally have it all planned out. I’m just not sure ​when.”

As we finish our conversation, we talk about what ​awaits us for the rest of the day: our jobs, our ​artistic pursuits, our busy schedules. It’s always ​refreshing, we tell Pearl, to have a creative outlet ​and to find women who support that.

Pearl nods, a look of contentment spreading across ​her face. “I think the beauty of being on my own ​and doing this, is that it’s all organic … at the end of ​the day, it’s really just me and the girls.”

She gestures to us.

“It’s us and the girls, and I love that. It’s just this ​group of girls that want to help each other out. ​That’s what it comes down to.”

by Irene Zahariadis and Nina Clevinger

by rini

doodle by nina clev