Blackout Rose’s Davidione Pearl learned to play saxophone at age 12 and started drums at 15. He performed with the local outfit Mo’ Mojo for about six years. Now, with his latest project Blackout Rose, he’s gone the rock route.
The video will post to YouTube on Feb. 8.
“I started the local band Daddy Longlegs’ Homegrown Revival,” says Pearl during a recent phone call. “It started off as a Mardi Gras, good-time band. We’ve since had five incarnations of the band. I however shot myself in the foot with that name because it was way too long for anyone to easily remember and recall to others. I rebranded to DLHR as a stop-gap while I sought-out a new and more memorable name. For several years, I was trying to find a name that would stick in people’s minds. [Blackout Rose] really covers where we’re at and the direction we are heading.”
The new song addresses the opioid epidemic and weaves together some of Pearl’s personal experiences.
“I used to have issues with drug and alcohol abuse,” he says. “I have buried many [people] that just didn’t make it out of their twenties and thirties thanks to pills and heroin. The song is about the epidemic facing the nation. A lot of my music is message music. I write songs to help create awareness and maybe get picked up by organizations and film makers. We are all four degrees of separation from someone who has died of it. I know well-to-do folks in places like Moreland Hills for example who are hooked on this shit maybe because of a surgery they had.”
The group’s bassist, Lovest Watson III, directed the video, which includes some scenes shot at Tri-C and at the Beachland Ballroom.
“He directed it, produced it and sourced the locations,” says Pearl. “We had a great film crew too. I wrote and composed the song, and the band arranged it.”
Pearl hopes to bring together local artists for the release party.
“I want people to be able to mingle and maybe build up something cool,” he says. “I’ve always done that, like my concert series with musicians from marginalized backgrounds. I just love bringing people together and growing together. To have just your own band perform, I don’t feel it. We grow better together.”
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