Senior Eli Pearl nonchalantly cracks an egg over a sizzling pan while Simon and Garfunkel plays through the Bluetooth speaker in his kitchen. While he waits for his eggs to cook, he selects a mug and a teabag from his family’s vast collection of teas. The colorful array of flavors and scents that are stacked perfectly onto the shelf carry throughout the rest of the house.
When his mother walks in, Pearl grabs another mug without hesitation and pours her a cup of tea. With no rush to leave the house, Pearl and his mother, Cora Pearl, take time to enjoy their drinks and discuss their plans for the day. Eventually, the topic of family works its way into their conversation. They excitedly talk about Sen Morimoto, Pearl’s godbrother, who will visit in a few days. Pearl’s siblings and god-siblings live scattered across the country. Yet when Pearl and his mother reminisce on family memories, Pearl’s siblings don’t feel so far away.
For Pearl, family has always been a grounding force in his life. Having been homeschooled with his two older siblings until second grade and living with his god-family for a period in his childhood, Pearl experiences a strong sense of belonging with his entire family.
To foster a nurturing environment for their children, Pearl’s parents were careful to let him be as creative as he wanted. With Pearl’s father working as a music therapist and his mother working as a calligraphy artist, Pearl became interested in music and visual art at a young age.
Pearl’s godbrother, Morimoto, is a professional musician based in Chicago, Ill. Morimoto released his jazz-rap debut album last year and has worked alongside well-known artists, such as KAINA and Joseph Chilliams. Since Pearl has always been exposed to musical influences from his god-family as well, he is immersed in a creative environment whenever he is with them.
From cooking for his parents at home to forming a psychedelic country band, Pearl splits his free time between a variety of independent and collaborative artistic projects. Cooking, music and art are the main methods through which Pearl connects with his family. Through these mediums, he has found a way to connect with others as well.
Until he was 6 years old Pearl and his parents lived in Woodstock, N.Y. In hopes that their children would acquire a love for learning, Pearl’s parents decided that homeschooling would be a better fit for them than the public school system. “We just felt that if you grow up loving learning and you know how to learn, like the skill of teaching yourself things, you can do anything,” says Cora Pearl.
While Eli Pearl was homeschooled, he and his siblings would flip through Cook’s Illustrated magazines for hours. Pearl made sure to read every kitchen tip and recipe. “Our kids just read and read and read everything all the time … He would just look at that magazine while he was eating … So, still, to this day, you can ask him, ‘Eli, where is the recipe to the pasta?’ And he would say, ‘Oh, it’s the red cover magazine, it’s winter, page 13’—he’s like a human index,” says Cora Pearl.
However, with all three children at home and the economy in upstate New York deteriorating, Pearl’s parents felt no reason to stay in Woodstock. “We had some plans, but the one thing we had was this mobility, and we just thought, you know what, we could just go,” says Cora Pearl.
In need of a transition in their life, the family moved to Wendell, Mass. where they could live with Pearl’s god-family. “I consider (Pearl) family. Our combined family is known as The Pearlimotos. I have known his parents since before they were parents,” says Lena Morimoto, Pearl’s godmother.
“Going to Massachusetts was like the landing pad, like let’s just stop this life, or you know, create closure to this life that we’ve had for 11 years and let’s just go be with our chosen family, and enjoy that because that’s incredible. Any time our families are together, it’s just bliss,” says Cora Pearl.
During their six months in Wendell, Pearl and his family stayed with his god-family, who is also a family of five. Pearl recalls how he would sleep in the attic of his god-family’s home with his two siblings and three god-siblings every night. “It was just really cool to spend that much time with my whole family and their whole family all the time,” says Pearl.
However, his family soon packed all their belongings in a van. For six months, they traveled across the United States in search of a new home. Many of their outings from this period have become a collection of blurs and snapshots in Pearl’s memory. Yet he vividly remembers the sights of the mountains in Badlands National Park in South Dakota and the rush he felt when he saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
After half a year on the road, his family eventually settled in Portland, Ore.. Pearl’s first year in the Pacific Northwest was also a year of transition from homeschooling to a private school system.
Pearl attended Cedarwood Waldorf School in Southwest Portland for second grade. Without the comfort of his family, Pearl felt distant from others at school. His apprehension of talking to his classmates, accompanied with the fact that Pearl was excluded from most social groups at school, meant that he felt alone and isolated.
“It was hard for Eli, especially with all the people, and being on the road and not knowing all these (new) faces. So, when we would take him to school he would cry, it was definitely difficult for him to be with all these people and all these kids,” says Cora Pearl.
Unsure of how to navigate his way around children his age, Pearl consistently looked to his family for comfort. “There was this big chalkboard in the school that had the schedule for … what was going on that day around the school, and my mom would do calligraphy for it, so I’d go, and I’d see like ‘Oh, there’s her thing on the wall.’” Sneaking glances at his mother’s writing on the chalkboard helped Pearl feel grounded throughout the day.
After a year at Cedarwood Waldorf School, Pearl transferred to Portland Village School for third grade, marking his first year at a public school. Even after the move to a new school, Pearl’s experience remained the same in terms of making friends.
Pearl remembers the anxiety that was brought about by the unfamiliar environment when he first transitioned into the public school system. Because he primarily grew up surrounded by his older siblings and their friends, he felt out of place around children his age. Their loud and unpredictable behaviors would stress Pearl out.
“He’s always had this old soul thing. He always felt that little kids were too chaotic for him because his energy is very still, and it always was,” says Cora Pearl. “I think having those siblings, his sister is five (years) older than him, and his brother is nine years older, so he has always been really comfortable with older kids … Homeschoolers tend to spend more time with adults than kids from schools … His whole life, he’s always had this huge influence from older people.”
Even now, most of the people in Pearl’s social groups are older than him. “I found it more comfortable, probably just because I was homeschooled with my older siblings and was around them and their friends,” he says.
It wasn’t until the summer before sixth grade that Pearl finally began to feel free from the dread of school. While navigating his way through the social cliques of middle school, Pearl pivoted his focus from social groups to music. “I think he preferred to be alone with … (art and music) than to be with people that he didn’t really connect with,” says Cora Pearl.
Ever since he was young, Pearl gravitated toward rock music from the ‘60s and ‘70s rather than the pop music often played on the radio. “I was a boomer with my music taste,” he says. “I definitely was one of those like ‘I was born in the wrong generation’ kids. And not really anybody else at my school, at least that I was aware of, listened to that kind of stuff or at least just didn’t tell me about it. It was pretty therapeutic,” says Pearl.
Once Pearl reached seventh grade, he found that he could finally use music as a means to connect with his classmates. “Some people started listening to classic rock stuff, and they’re like ‘This is amazing,’ and then they’re like ‘You like this too? We’re so cool,’” he says. Once Pearl began to make friends with similar music tastes, he started to feel more comfortable socially.
Pearl’s deep love for playing music led him to bond with other students who shared the same interest. Pearl joined his first band, Porter, when he was 16. “It was really fun to be able to play in a band for the first time. I mean to get that connection and have songs you all get to contribute to and having fun writing sessions and things like that,” he says. He played bass, and though he enjoyed his time in Porter, he felt restricted and he didn’t have as large of a role as a songwriter as he wanted.
As a bassist, he joined his next band, Voodoo [and the] Dollz, within days of joining Porter. However, his experience with Voodoo [and the] Dollz was drastically different from his experience with Porter.
Pearl felt even more restricted as a member of Voodoo [and the] Dollz. “We weren’t equal. Everybody wasn’t as equal as Porter,” he says. Because he felt that only the singers had any power in creative decisions, Pearl felt that he did not have a voice in the band.
Now, as Pearl forms his psychedelic country band, he hopes to have more of a say than in his previous bands. “In Porter and the Voodoo Dolls … I didn’t have a lot of creative control … the music was their kind of thing,” Pearl says.
Another aspiration that Pearl has for his new band is the chance to perform again. “I just want to play some house shows. I’m always on the other side, I’m always in the audience and I really want to be playing,” says Pearl.
Though Pearl grew up almost exclusively as a fan of classic rock, he plays a wide range of music genres. “There’s a magnet of chillness and also quite a lot of beauty in what he does. It feels like it’s such an expression of him, his music,” Cora Pearl says.
Pearl has also broadened the variety of genres in his music library. “It’s good to get a lot of different perspectives in the music you listen to and it’s a great way to hear different perspectives. It’s just a great way to hear people express themselves. (Music is) definitely a very important thing in my life and I wouldn’t function very well without it,” he says.
Besides music, Pearl has visual art to pursue as another outlet. Art has been another medium through which Pearl bonds with his family, as he constantly borrows his mother’s calligraphy supplies as a child. He has found a supportive environment at school through art as well. “Honestly, I am so glad that I found the AP Studio (art) room now that I have my study hall because I was just really bored every time before and then on B days I’ll spend hours in the art building. I love the art building,” he says.
When Pearl is at home, he finds contentment through cooking as well. Although Pearl read dozens of Cook’s Illustrated magazines cover to cover throughout his childhood, he only began to cook the meals that he saw in the magazine a couple of years ago. His knowledge of cooking continues to expand, and today, he often cooks dinner for his family. “I think he had this natural affinity for it, and he’s fearless as a cook,” says Cora Pearl.
Yet above all, when Eli Pearl has time to himself, he enjoys playing guitar. “That’s my go-to and also just like relaxing and procrastinating. I like to just relax, chill out, have some tea, lay down,” he says.
Though Pearl is unsure of any concrete plans for after high school, traveling to Japan has been on his mind for years. With stories of his parents’ travels in Japan and exposure to Japanese cooking and customs through his god-family, Pearl feels that a visit to Japan is long overdue.
“They’ve been hyping (visiting Japan) up my whole life,” Pearl says of his parents.
However, no matter where Pearl finds himself after high school, he doesn’t believe that he will lose his strong familial bond. Though Pearl feels comfortable with being by himself, Cora Pearl says “he really has always thrived on being apart of the family.”
