The world isn’t short of duos who makes a big noise, but there aren’t many who make a noise bigger than Kirsty and Sara, a.k.a. the Pearl Harts. A fiery South London pairing with rock’n’roll in their veins and thunder in their hearts, they sound like the kind of intensely cool girls you’d ask to a party to liven things up, then rue the invitation once the furniture started being dismantled.
The band’s latest track is the deliciously berserk Hit The Bottle, which is accompanied by a video shot within the bowels of a London scrapyard. And with tours with Garbage and Skunk Anansie behind them, the band are gearing up for the release of their PledgeMusic-funded debut album at the end of May.
Classic Rock spoke to drummer Sara as she battled the post-tour comedown.
Tell us about Hit The Bottle
Hit The Bottle is the most energetic tune in our set, and one of the best to play live. It’s just over two minutes of fast and frantic rock’n’roll. It’s about trying not to give into your vices… but you’re always doing it. In our case, it’s debauchery, playing shows, having fun… giving into your dark side.
What have you learned being on tour with Skunk Anansie?
We learnt so much from Skunk Anansie’s stage craft, watching a band who’ve been going out for over 20 years killing it every night with a two hour set! Skin is an absolute inspiration. She’s got this most beautiful, powerful voice, going from one extreme - singing like an angel - to the next, belting out a huge chorus and crowd surfing! They rock out but they also have a powerful message: they have things to sing about. They also taught us we could do this ourselves: we need to keep getting out there and keep getting our hands dirty. We need to get back to Europe as soon as we can and do our own tour in smaller venues to keep building our fanbase.
Why do you think two-piece bands have become “a thing” over the last few years?
Probably because as time passes it’s becoming harder to make a living as a musician and it’s expensive to tour. If there are just two people on the road it becomes easier and cheaper to tour and means you can reinvest back into the band.
You use tapes and loops onstage to flesh out the sound. Why not add musicians?
For us we were best friends who met on the road in other bands, and we wanted to make heavy music that no one else wanted to make. We wanted to rock the fuck out and have something to say, so we decided to make it just the two of us!
It also comes back to the fact that technology makes it easier to create a bigger sound. Using loops to create layers of sound has been a challenge when it comes to writing songs, but it means we’ve got a fuller sound compared to other duos out there. Everything you see is done live rather than using a backing track. It could go wrong at any time but that adds to the danger!
It also comes down to the cost of touring - two people are easier to tour than four. Maybe one day further down the line we may add more musicians, but at the moment its working well with just the two of us. Plus it makes us an ideal support band as we don’t take up too much room!
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The Pledge Music campaign for your debut album appears to have been a massive success. How important is this kind of funding to bands like yourselves?
The Pledge campaign has been huge for us. Without it we could have never made this album, as it has funded all the recording and production costs. It has also given us the chance to get our fanbase interacting with the progress of the record, which we think is a nice feeling for people who have supported us right from the beginning.
What can we expect from the album?
A whole lot of rock’n’roll! A journey! It’s an album about love and loss. It’s an album about life. It’s about not giving up.
What do you hope to achieve with the Pearl Harts?
To rock every corner of the globe!
