Pearly Drops

Painting with a bold, slightly macabre palette, Pearly Drops’ Sandra Tervonen and Juuso Malin create a realm of strange, softly smudged pop. On the Helsinki act’s third full-length, The Voices Are Coming Back, fantasy and the mundane tangle into an alluring web of mystery. The record — issued by forward-thinking New York City label Music Website — centers on an age-old tale: the saga of Hollywood hopefuls. Branching beyond their home of Finland, Pearly Drops are an emerging fixture of the global indie-electronic scene. The act wraps sweet, dreamy melodies in futuristic hues. It’s fitting that Tervonen and Malin share backgrounds in music production and collaborated on sound design efforts before morphing into an artist project. Pearly Drops’ 2020 debut, Call For Help, and its 2023 follow up, A Little Disaster, introduced a mesmerizing formula — blending misty rock and electronic elements. The pair’s often playful, grungy fashion sense enhances these chic sonics, with all photos and styling handled in house. Pearly Drops has received a Teosto Prize — one of the Nordic countries’ most prestigious music awards. The duo has collaborated with artists such as Vitesse X and KROY, and their own songs have been covered and remixed by acts including XL Recordings' Nourished by Time and American dream-pop favorites Dream, Ivory. On The Voices Are Coming Back, Tervonen and Malin swapped the familiarity of Finland for the peculiar glamour of Los Angeles. “We'd always imagined LA through the lens of David Lynch: saturated in surrealism, a little menacing, a little magical — and that’s exactly how it felt. A puzzling, but beautiful cultural shock,” Tervonen and Malin reflect on the city. The bizarre energy of Southern California beams bright on album opener “Delusional On Sunset Boulevard.” “I think I just got older / Growing cold and dumber too / No pat on my shoulder / I ride my horse through Hollywood,” Tervonen’s elven vocals skate around vast chords and the strobe of a synth lead. Amid the sprawl, Pearly Drops encountered kindred spirits including Australian group Cub Sport and photographer Tatiana Bruening (aka illumitati), who were invited to contribute to The Voices Are Coming Back. True to their highly attentive ethos, Pearly Drops and these creative partners crafted the entire record themselves. "Sonically, we wanted the album to sound like a fictional reality, with vocals coming from, for example, a sewer and overheated analog modular synthesizers seamlessly blending with guitar-driven pop music,” Tervonen and Malin share. “We don’t identify as an indie rock band, but we don’t feel like an electronic act either. We composed, wrote, produced and mixed the entire album just the two of us with our own hands. Sandra has also painted all the cover arts by hand. For our artistic expression, it’s important to see through the whole process ourselves." Call For Help pondered loneliness and A Little Disaster grappled with death. The Voices Are Coming Back retains Pearly Drops’ signature introspection, though it stands as the duo’s most narrative full-length to date. “At its heart, this album is about the emotional unraveling that can happen when you chase a dream too hard—when fantasy and ambition start to bleed into your sense of identity. We used the idea of the “Hollywood dream” as a narrative frame, but really, it’s a metaphor for the deeper psychological shifts that come with longing and disillusionment. It’s about getting lost—not just in a place, but in yourself. Coming from Helsinki, there's always been a sense of distance or introspection in our music. This time, we wanted to embrace that and stretch it into something even more surreal and emotionally complex. The album isn’t just storytelling—it’s autofiction. The characters, the landscapes, the dream logic—they’re all extensions of our personal experiences as artists navigating uncertainty, burnout, and ambition in a world that’s constantly shifting.” The album draws a relatable, yet otherworldly picture adrift in uncertainty, drawn by the age-old allure of reinvention. Instead of glamor, they find themselves lost in the woods of Franklin Hills. Hiding behind a tree from mystical voices one moment, the next they’ve transformed into mermaids in the sewers under Sunset Boulevard. Time melts away on drives around the eastern Santa Monica Mountains. In the end, the only way back is through a forest in Silver Lake. Despite the storybook universe it conjures, Pearly Drops cite The Voices Are Coming Back as a work of autofiction. Still, grounded influences are present on the record, themes of anguish lingering beneath the surface. This pain is conveyed through voice memos from Bruening on the songs “Shallow,” “Demonlover,” and “Cocoon & Tatiana’s Lament.” Meanwhile, Cub Sport’s ethereal opera defines "Mermaid." “Laying in my mess / Mermaid in her manhole / It’s gone bad / I’m drinking the poison / I am seeing visions while awake,” Tervonen breathily sings in the first verse of the song over a thicket of chorus-heavy fretwork. “Ratgirl” continues “Mermaid”’s ride down Talmadge Street, inspired by fantasy, haunted by the echo of a promise that never arrived and made gripping by a dancey, electroclash pulse. “End Credits” serves as a spiritual intermission, Tervonen singing about a screen fading to black over a new wave instrumental. Late album highlight, “Pillow Face,” is a muffled scream about the dread of beauty. From start to finish, The Voices Are Coming Back is united by upbeat rhythms and gossamer textures. As The Voices Are Coming Back’s journey nears a close, Pearly Drops are emotionally unraveled. “Only believe in / My digital feelings / Still reaching for the / Undo in the void,” Tervonen sings on the closing track, “Silver Lake Mystery Forest.” “It feels like with this third album, we bottled up that feeling of losing your mind and your identity when trying to chase your dreams — whatever they happen to be,” Tervonen and Malin muse. Across this feverish vision of a record, the uncertainty and burnout of everyday life manifest in uncanny, albeit deeply human ways.