I do NEVERWONDER
By Doug Deutsch

Please introduce yourself to the Female Musician community...

My name is Joy Pearson and I am the lead vocalist for the band NEVERWONDER we are located out of the Long Beach area in California. The members of the band are pretty much from all over California including Orange County, in the Valley, but we call Long Beach our home because that's where we seem to get the most support from our fans, we play most of our shows there, and it's kind of like our central area. Neverwonder has been together for about 2 years. As far as media, press, TV shows, we've been really featured in many, many outlets. We're an alternative rock band that seems to be up and coming very quickly, and we are very proud of that. We released our first album in January 2006 and it's been selling very, very well ever since then and we are currently writing for the second album.

You are the lead vocalist as well as the lyrics writer. When you are collaborating in the studio how do you set up your recording approach?

Well, for our first album, it was kind of interesting the band started recording the first album just a few months after we formulated together. But our band, really got to know each other through the recording process. What we decided to do with our first album was to track everything live and then go back and redo vocals, or redo punches, or putting in the underlying tracks afterwards. Everything for that first album was initially done live. They put me in an isolated vocal booth, and the guys in one room with their amps isolated, and we all just went for it. I think in the future we may do the same kind of process. Maybe we will lay tracks down one at a time, just to give it a different feel, and see if we like the end result product, or if we simply want to stick with the live sound for the next album.

Vocally, when you find yourself doing your recordings or live shows how do you prepare. Are you someone who just goes for it, maybe drinks a shot of whiskey before you go on stage, warm ups, or perhaps do some yoga?

I wouldn't say I do yoga, although that would be very interesting. My background is completely in musical theatre. I actually have my college degree in musical theatre. I come from a background of a lot of vocal training. I really veered off to the left here coming from musical theatre. Its very important Especially with the style of music I am playing right now which has a lot of grittiness to it, there's a lot of power behind it. I just have to warm up. There's just no other way around it, otherwise you risk staining your voice. Especially, like I said in this musical genre we're doing. Sometimes, it just depends on the night, if I feel like I am having an off night and need a kick start before I go on, yeah I may take a shot of whiskey, or I may start by Starbucks and get some tea. It really differs on how I feel that evening. When I am driving I try to evaluate how I am feeling vocally and make a decision from there. Once we hit the stage, there's no holding back, even if I am not feeling as warmed up as I typically did a different night it doesn't matter you just go for it full force. The audience deserves the best vocal performance possible as well as musically too.

How do you feel the guys in your band react to you being the only woman (singer/lyricist) in the group?

They've been incredible, there are no two ways around that. Neverwonder is purely a team effort. We typically get asked all the time, who writes the music, who writes the lyrics, who writes the melody lines. Yes, I do write all the lyrics and yes 99% of the time all of the melodic lines too. But when it comes to songwriting it's completely a group effort you know one of the guys may bring in an idea for a song, or we'll have a jam session and something comes out of it; they have been very, very good to me. I mean I play a little bit of guitar, I have enough knowledge about instruments to give my 2 cents when it comes to songwriting. It's never ever like "hey guys I have an idea for you", and it's completely shot down. They really pay attention and hear my thoughts and I do the same in return for them. It's a complete family that listens, and respects, and tries to move forward with all the ideas we have.

What's on the horizon for Neverwonder?

Now we feel its time we spread out into San Diego and Arizona anything we possibly can regarding touring. There's also something's we are not letting out of the bag yet, so please keep checking out our website neverwonder.com