JOSHUA PEARLSTEIN

Joshua Pearlstein is a 20-year-old pop artist and songwriter designing a new paradigm for what pop can feel like in the body. Born in Atlanta and now splitting his time between Boston and Los Angeles, Pearlstein is part architect, part disruptor-artist crafting a sound that’s raw, gritty, mechanical, and visionary. Still early in his career, he has already crossed one million streams and earned repeated recognition from tastemakers like Earmilk, all while studying at Berklee College of Music.

Music arrived early and without hesitation. As a kid, Pearlstein discovered he had perfect pitch. He quickly became obsessed with artists who treated pop not as a genre, but as cinematic world-building. They weren’t just stars - they were system-breakers, creators whose music existed beyond the rules. Pearlstein absorbed the lesson: greatness doesn’t happen inside the lines. He knew his own work needed to live somewhere between instinct and intention, built on melody, movement, and emotional truth.

That ethos became Pearlstein’s sonic fingerprint. His music isn’t clean or polite; it runs hot, modular, and three-dimensional; his songs are designed to move bodies first and ask questions later. From gritty club burners to soaring pop anthems, Pearlstein builds tracks that hit emotionally, physically, and sonically. “My ideas always come to me. I don’t force it,” he says. “A song shows up almost fully formed in emotion. If it gets stuck in my head and gives me that indescribable feeling in my chest and stomach, that’s how I know it’s right. Technical correctness means nothing if it doesn’t feel good.”

At Berklee, his philosophy has sharpened into obsession. He’s constantly writing and producing, refining a fully hands-on process that is unmistakably his. That includes intense vocal training with legendary coach Dave Stroud, whose work with Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars, and Justin Bieber forms its own modern pop lineage. Stroud has pushed Pearlstein’s voice and performance approach to another level, preparing for a run of incendiary live shows around Boston with collaborator Derya Ertin. The mission isn’t modest: “We want the audience to remember the first time they saw us,” Pearlstein says. 

Pearlstein keeps his recording world intimate; his melodic world is built in apartments, dorm rooms, and the lived-in spaces where honesty has no polish to hide behind. “The most honest thing to me is recording in these non-studio spaces,” he explains. “It breathes life into the songs.” His creative circle remains small but potent: Ertin serves as best friend, manager, and collaborative engine; his girlfriend, Lera Shemi, mixes every track, transforming ideas into fully realized Joshua Pearlstein records, and a trusted mastering engineer locks each song into its final, unshakable form.

That ecosystem, born of instinct and stubborn belief, drives his artistic ascent. In just over a year, he has amassed over a million streams and reached more than 150,000 listeners - not through marketing budgets or algorithmic hacks, but through intuition and refusal to blend in. His music isn’t crafted for playlists; it’s engineered to rupture.

Pearlstein’s new single, “Counterfeit,” marks a turning point. Raw, exposed, and emotionally volatile, it’s the most personal release of his career. The song dives into the shadow side of ambition - the intoxicating hunger to become somebody and the self-deception that trails behind it. “It’s about the darker side of chasing something great,” he says. “There’s pressure, self-doubt, imposter syndrome. ‘Counterfeit’ is my experience with that tension.” The lyrics oscillate between bravado and breakdown; the mask slips, and what remains isn’t confidence, it’s acceptance of what the chase has cost.

Every release brings Pearlstein closer to something bigger: a future where pop music is felt in your chest, your legs, your pulse. He isn’t building songs; he’s building experiences. Joshua Pearlstein isn’t here to fit the moment. He’s here to redesign it.