Purity Ring: NXNE Buzz Band Making Waves Despite Having No Album Out

Posted on Jun 13th 2012 4:30PM by Ian Gormely

Last Gang

You'd think there could be nothing more frustrating for a band than touring Europe with their debut album still waiting in the wings for release. But according to Megan James, singer in future-pop duo Purity Ring, that couldn't be further from the truth.

"It's rare that a band tours Europe without our record out," James tells Spinner. "But it's nice to be able to play songs that no one's heard yet. And when the ones they have heard [get played] they're more excited. It's sort of like having a hit single."

The record, Shrines, is technically done -- writing and recording was finished in April -- and ready to go. The three-month interim between completion and its July 24 release date seems like an eternity in the hyper-speed universe of Internet buzz bands, but given that the group is barely a year old, the turnaround is pretty remarkable.

"Ungirthed," literally the first track James and producer Corin Roddick wrote together, emerged last January to unanimous acclaim. James calls it a fluke.

"I don't think [Roddick] had in mind what we would do, or what I would do. It was more experimental," she says. "We didn't intend to become a touring band or a band on a label."

With the attention came expectations as James and Roddick set to work on what would become Shrines. She says that putting fan reaction out of mind was something that came easy.

"You can't think about how you'll be perceived when you're creating something. The best things are when you're unconcerned about an audience."

In comparison to "Ungirthed," the songs that make up the bulk of the album are darker in both tone and mood.

"The sounds we had and the songs we were writing really evolved," says James. "We figured out what we wanted."

They were obviously doing something right. Long-running British indie 4AD signed the band in April and will release Shrines internationally, making Purity Ring labelmates with Gang Gang Dance and tUnE-yArDs (the album is being released by Last Gang here in Canada).

"You can put them up against their roster, the way that they've worked with bands in the past," says James. "It wasn't an easy choice."

She does admit that if their record brings in a larger audience, she's not sure if they'll be able to maintain anonymity in their creative pursuits.

"That's something that I fear -- being influenced by people that are more aware of what we're doing," she says. "That's something I have to work towards not worrying about."