American Pearl is a straight-up, loud, heavy American rock band. What's that mean? It means rock music direct from the underbelly of Hollywood that's about regular people and the less-than-sunny side of wherever they live. It's a musical gust of fresh air that's not part of any current musical trend.
From forming in late '97, to playing with the Cult, Buckcherry and Everclear, to signing with Wind-up Records (home of multi-platinum act Creed) and playing Woodstock '99, American Pearl's story may seem like an overnight success. But this Los Angeles-based band has earned their stripes, in their own way, on their own terms.
"The inception of American Pearl was here," explains singer/guitarist Kevin Roentgen, gesturing around guitarist Kevin Quinn's Sunset Boulevard tattoo shop, Quinntessential Motherfucker. "Quinn and I have known each other for something like six years. He tattooed me a bunch of times and he'd come to see my old band play. We had a mutual admiration society going. When I was looking to put together a new band he decided to pick up the guitar again."
Kevin Quinn is already a legend among musicians and the tattoo community. The guitarist's work can be seen on the bodies of superstars such as Guns N ' Roses, the Spice Girls, the Cult, and Julia Roberts to name just a few. Quinn's shop (now closed) has been THE place to get tattooed, but he put the tattoo gear away to devote all his energies to American Pearl.
With the addition of bass player Rodney Rocha and drummer Noah Shain, the American Pearl line-up was complete and they haven't looked back since. Their first show in Los Angeles-proper found an audience filled with the likes of Kiss' Ace Frehley, Marilyn Manson and the Foo Fighters. If the word-of-mouth was good, the band was better, as proven by the inclusion of "Automatic" on the Gold-Certified Scream 3 - The Album.
In early 2000 American Pearl began recording their highly anticipated debut with the heavyweight production team of Sex Pistol Steve Jones and Mudrock (Godsmack, Powerman 5000). Notes Quinn: "Our producers will be friends for life. Their knowledge and background really helped us to broaden our vision. After you live with the songs as long as we have, it was really exciting to have them come in, calm us down and get us focused. The experience was invaluable."
"We see our record as a complete body of work. We don't have favorite tunes on the album. Each song shows all the emotions and moods that make us stand apart from all the other bands out right now. We tried to capture the danger, sadness, intensity and mix of emotions that make really great rock and roll music," states drummer Shain.
American Pearl's sound is a refreshing break from the cookie-cutter rock music sweeping the charts today. Lyrically, each of the eleven songs on their self-titled debut portrays a true Los Angeles urban story: overcoming adversity, and keeping faith and hope alive in a world where it's hard to be strong. "I believe the sun will rise one day and we'll come alive and reach for something real," sings Roentgen on "Bleed."
First single "Free Your Mind", is a whiplash-inducing rocker with a strong message. "I think that hate stems directly from one's fear and that 'Free Your Mind' touches on that fine line between hate and fear that too often surfaces in the forms of prejudice and violence," describes Roentgen.
There was a time when Rock-n-Roll was down, dirty, loud and about the truth. American Pearl is all about those primal, gut-level emotions. It's what they've been living and breathing all their lives.
