Meet Stuart Pearson | Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stuart Pearson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stuart, why did you pursue a creative career?

My mother used ask me that on an hourly basis! I can wax poetic and say that “it called to me” or something like that, but the honest answer is I don’t know. I kept walking away from it and when times got sad, I would return to it for comfort, whether as a listener or a player. For instance, my storage space was just robbed few weeks ago. When the company called me to tell me, my first thought was “OH NO – MY ALBUMS!!!”I have lots of vinyl from when I grew up – there’s no room in our house for it, so there it sits. The !@#$ bandits stole MY BANJO and my old M-1 Korg keyboard, a box of guitar pedals (worth some money) and a box of Hunter’s old albums that are all scratched and warped. But my albums seem to be safe, so all is well with the world. 

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

My latest album “American Gothic” is in its final days of completion. It’s the third Dark Americana album and I’m poking the dark side of America with a stick. I have to use a stick since my banjo was just stolen! I’m very excited by this album – it’s noisier than my last one (“Mojave”, now available on vinyl and CD on MAY I Records in Europe) and looks at the dark side of America. Until the album is available, I’m releasing some of the tracks online that didn’t make the final album – there are at least 10, probably more. “Ask Me’ and “Miracle Wonder” are all over the Internet – they weren’t good enough for “American Gothic”, so they are goodwill ambassadors right now. I also am making other outtakes available for download through my newsletter. (Go to my website and sign up!) “Now We Kiss” and “It’s Lonely Inside Your Mind” are there now. More to come in the newsletter.

The cover will be a piece of yarn art by an artist from Wixarika culture in hills and mountains near Puerto Vallarta. America calls them Huichol for some odd reason. We fell in love with their artform while in Santa Fe, New Mexico shooting footage for new music videos. I will talk about the culture in the album credits. They were able to avoid Spanish conquest and now live in the mountains of Mexico, quietly struggling to keep their culture alive. There is something about that resonating in “American Gothic”; they were able to escape the Western World and only now is the culture in peril, due to their young adults wanting the trappings of the modern world. It’s heartbreaking, but can you blame a person for wanting things your own culture doesn’t offer? Plus, it is a stunning piece of art. A Nobel peace prize nominee who married into the Wixarika might add a few paragraphs to the album’s credits about the culture.

As a musician and writer, I’m always trying to find the people my music is looking for. The “listening musicians” is what I call them. You can’t complete a song until someone hears it and reacts to it (whether good or bad). It’s a message in a bottle thrown in the ocean. A tin can with a string looking for the other tin can. There is something very lizard-brain about wanting that connection. It’s not for the need of applause, it’s wanting to know someone sees things the way you do. Music is the original social media.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Wow – fun question! First, I would take them into the desert to see Bombay Beach, Salvation Mountain and the twin towns of East Jesus and West Satan (they exist – look them up). While near Palm Desert, I would ask for permission to view Robolights. A staggeringly awesome piece of art in a guy’s backyard.

The next day, I’d probably take them to Leo Carrillo Beach, just south of Ventura County. Some beautiful small cliffs there on the water. I was sitting on a jetty one day near sunset, surrounded by the rising tide. I looked up, just as three people on neighboring cliff opened something into the wind. It turned out to be an urn and a moment later I had a mouth full of someone’s ashes. Yikes. I still love the place though. Probably have dinner at Inn of the 7th Ray in Topanga. I rented a house in Topanga many years ago and had an encounter with an alien walking down my stairway in the middle of the night. Unmarked helicopters the next day, the whole bit. But that’s a story for another time.

Then we would go downtown to Clifton’s for the tree bar and the Tiki bar. If we get there early enough, I would take them to the Bradbury Building, and then show them where the Million Dollar Pharmacy was – it was a drug store that was half standard drug store and half Santeria products. You could get Listerine, baby products and also eye of newt, powdered bat wings, love potions and take a moment to pray to the skeleton bride in the booth halfway down the main aisle. GOOD LORDEE I miss that place. Downtown is such a little gem, though it is dicey, so you keep walking. I feel safer in Manhattan than I do in downtown Los Angeles at night.

The next day, I would take them to the Jurassic Museum of Technology (if you hang with me, be prepared for head-scratchers). Then maybe a trip down to the Queen Mary (who’s paying for all this gas?!?) Or maybe catch a movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. It’s really hard to describe that experience to someone who hasn’t done it before. I saw the Flaming Lips there years ago – fabulous night. An alternate might be the Old Time Movie Theater in El Segundo – they play old silent movies and have a live organist accompany the film. Every night starts with a singalong to tunes from the 20’s and 30’s.

Since LACMA decided to tear down that gorgeous museum for absolutely no good reason (don’t get me started), I might take them to the LA Brea Tar Pits, though I would doubtless bore them with my constant ranting about LACMA. Maybe then head toward downtown again and treat my friend to the Great French Dip contest at both Philippe’s and Cole’s.

And SOMEHOW talk my friend into a long, pointless and thrilling trip back into the desert to visit Pearsonville! Population 17. NO ONE around except for a gas station, the Uniroyal Gal, some fenced off buildings with threatening trespassing signs, and an eerie, creepy, BEYOND disturbing playground that is pristine, clean and ready to visit you in your darkest dreams. There was one burnt out old car there half buried in the ground that we filmed for the video of “The Last Cab Out Of Vegas”.

Does that cover a week yet? GEEZ will this guy ever leave?!?

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Well, I’d have to dedicate that to my wife and partner Hunter Lowry. It’s challenging to think like an artist and NOT have chronic panic attacks of future failures, bills, health issues, even down to making sure I walk out of the house with pants on. And beyond all that, she’s my sounding board and cowriter. I bounce ideas off her and from her reaction I know how disastrous that idea could be. She does all the photography and video bits. She has also turned into a great songwriter in her own right. I pulled her into my fever dream and she hands me gold. A pretty good deal. 

Website: www.stuartpearsonmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuartpearsonmusic/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100047312261731

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnesk-5yPYGpij9x9xxVU7g

Image Credits
All photos by Hunter Lowry