“I have musical influences from all over the world,” says Casey Pearl. “My family gave me love for many rhythms and styles, none more so than my mum, who’s epic record collection introduced me to music like Earth, Wind, and Fire, Michael Jackson, James Taylor and Fela Kuti. I remember being a child performing on the floats at the Notting Hill Carnival in London, dressing in the costumes, doing the dances, learning the songs, with the steel pan bands around me. That definitely had an impact on me and my music. When I was a teenager, I found Kate Bush and Bjork. They’re the kind of artists that I listen to constantly, those that are a bit strange, that don’t fit into a genre.”

A primary school teacher during the day, Casey Pearl has always had to find ways to express her music outside of her day job, and has run across many of the same pitfalls that many, many talented artists come across: funding and independence. “In putting on gigs in the right place of the right quality, you have to have the time and the funds to set it up properly,” says Casey Pearl. “Fantastic, professional musicians have to earn a living and need to be paid. I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, so I don’t want to have anything out there that’s half-hearted. I want it to be right. I want the equipment to sound good. I want to have rehearsed the songs to perfection. That takes time, and it takes the right people and the right situation. You need funding to be able to do that.”

“I’ve spoken with labels who have asked me to do just a jazz album or just a reggae album, or choose the musicians for me without my input,” Casey Pearl continues. “It’s very controlling. They’ll want to change you and your vision, you have to sacrifice a lot to be taken on, which I don’t think is right. I’ve been looking for ways to make music while maintaining independence.”

To create her music in the way she’s always wanted to, get a live show that matches her ambitions, and to instill a relationship with her fans that will last her whole career, Casey Pearl is partnering with SingularDTV to create the PEARL Token on 19th December. Artist tokenization can work for established and emerging artists alike, and Casey Pearl is taking it upon herself to be part of the grand experiment of blockchain.

“I think the tokenized ecosystem is such a great and potentially life changing technology for so many people that I really want it to succeed,” she says. “To have the opportunity to be one of the people who can test, and hopefully prove it works is very exciting. I am so glad that I get to be involved in something that genuinely interests me, and that involves sharing and making music. It’s brilliant! I am of course a little nervous too…”

To artists who may be curious about blockchain, tokenization, or SingularDTV, Casey Pearl has some advice: “Some artists may be skeptical or just put off by the technical jargon and debate constantly going on right now. So to ease them in I would suggest starting with SingularDTV. I found Zach LeBeau’s programmes on SingularDTV very clear and accessible, and they also make clear how this tech can work for artists as well as how it works in general. There are so many places to find discussions and definitions but I do find the FAQs and the links on the Tokit site very straight forward. They could then follow this up with further reading of any one of the many explanation articles online.”

Indie artists everywhere should take note that the old paradigms — that funding only comes from major labels, that you have to compromise to achieve your dreams, that there’s nobody out there who is in your corner — will soon be a thing of the past. There is only good that can be gained for filmmakers, musicians, and artists alike to start researching the myriad ways in which they can take agency of their own fate by exploring what blockchain technology can offer. “When I explain what I’m doing to certain musician friends, they think it’s crazy,” says Casey Pearl with a wry smile. “But mostly, by the time I finish explaining, they’re asking how they can do it themselves.”