Photograph by Elizabeth Renstrom for Yahoo Style

Of all the electronic music acts that have emerged in the past five years—and there have certainly been a lot—none have more of a signature sound than Purity Ring. Through a string of early singles in 2011 and eventually a stellar debut album, 2012’s Shrines, the Canadian duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick worked an unlikely blend of dreamy, watery synths, rattling trap drum sounds, nymph-like vocals and lyrics that melded romance with a preternatural fixation on body parts into something that was all their own—and it connected.

Purity Ring managed to fast-track themselves from indie acclaim to considerably wider renown in a matter of months, and when they head out on tour this spring, they’ll be playing venues as large as New York’s 3,000-cap Terminal 5, no small feat for an unassuming pair on their second LP. That album, another eternity, is out Tuesday, March 3rd, and it’s showing every sign of winning over even more converts to the Ring.

Worth noting is that the female frontrunner is not just musically talented—she knows her way around a sewing machine as well. James designs and creates stage costumes for herself and Roddick, and has plans to create one ambitious interactive piece of clothing. She’s begun making street wear as well, and is in the early stages of developing a limited-edition line. As befits the band’s music, James’ sartorial aesthetic tends toward the fantastical—she recently gushed on Tumblr over a piece from Valentino’s flower-and-astronomy-bedecked pre-fall 2015 line, and the self-designed flowing pink fringe outfit she wears in the music video for “push pull” can’t help but bring to mind Björk.

We caught up with Purity Ring from their base L.A. to discuss their impending tour, and to talk matters musical and visual.

GIF by Alex Thebez for Yahoo Style

Yahoo Style: Hey guys!

Corin Roddick / Megan James: Hey, how are you?

YS: I know you’re in L.A. right now, but I’m sure you’ve heard about the winter of whining here in the East. I can’t imagine as Edmontonians that you have a lot of sympathy for that.

Story continues

CR: Well, I mean it’s all relative to where you are and whether it’s something you’re not used to. Your body adapts, but like, we’re in LA right now and there’s been some cold nights where I’m like, “Oh it’s pretty chilly right now”, but of course really it’s nothing like what we get in Canada. It’s just what you’re used to at the time.

MJ: I also sometimes kind of wish that I could have it. Like someone will be like, “Oh it’s so cold here, it’s like minus-20”, and I actually kind of want that feeling for five minutes. [laughs]

YS: Well, you had it for more than five minutes writing this album, because you were mostly in Edmonton in the winter, right?

CR: Yeah, almost all of the really important like creative parts of the album were done in Edmonton, where it was like minus 30.

MJ: There was definitely like a cold feeling, like a hibernation, to this one.

CR: I actually think cold like that is really nice to be creative, because you feel like you want to be inside and hibernate and be creative. I think it really benefits the process.

YS: You guys had such a distinctive sound with the first album, was it a challenge to on the one hand not deviate from that, but on the other hand to grow?

CR: That was the challenge, really. Because we did feel that we kind of cultivated a consistent sound with the first album that was unique to us—kind of a combination of things that worked really well, and maybe that people didn’t expect would work so well together, and that even we didn’t expect would work so well together. It was all over surprising. But when it came time to work on the new record, that’s the difficult part, because you have this aesthetic, and that’s what people associate with you. So we thought about, “How do we still sound like us, like Purity Ring, but do something else that is still us?” Something that was sort of the next step in an evolution, but yet we didn’t want to sound like a brand new band.

GIF by Alex Thebez for Yahoo Style

YS: Some people are calling this more of a pop record, less dreamy and atmospheric than the first. Is that fair? And could you foresee a time when say, “push pull” is being played next to Ariana Grande on pop radio?

MJ: I would say that in terms of the landscape and pop music and what we’re doing in relation to things that are on the radio, I’ve learned that—maybe not in the United States, but I’ve learned that there is a lot of space on the radio for I guess for other things. That line that people use to define pop music versus more ambient music or whatever doesn’t really exist, and I think that’s becoming more and more clear. And everybody knows that “selling out” is not like a thing anymore. It’s becoming harder and harder to make music for a living, and it’s not shameful or wrong or questionable to have a song on the radio. That’s sweet. It means you’re having success. That should be what your fans want for you, and that should be what you want for yourself.

YS: Or for that matter, in a TV show or a film soundtrack, or…

MJ: Or even a commercial! When I hear a band that I like that doesn’t get played on the radio in a commercial, I’m like, “Fuck yeah!” Like, good for them!

CR: And I think there is still a thirst in the mainstream world for exciting, fresh sounds. To some extent people want to hear something new and exciting on the radio that doesn’t sound like everything else. And that comes through every now and then, like that was Lorde last year. And maybe it’s happening more and that’s an exciting thing.

YS: A little random, but is there a particular reason that you guys went with all lower case font for this record?

MJ: [laughs] you mean like the lyrics? Or…

YS: Song titles and album title.

MJ: Stylistically I like lower case a lot. Corin feels differently. [laughs] But also I think lower case—when you see something that isn’t capitalised, on a list of capitalised things, it immediately stands out as different. And that’s cool. But, like, I write in all lower case when I type.

YS: Renata Raksha is the photographer who shot the album cover and the “push pull” video. What can you say about her and either the idea behind the album or the video?

MJ: We just met with her and felt like we had a really nice conversation, and she seemed like she had a lot of the same inspirations for visuals and art as we did, and the ones that were different we really liked. She’s also doing another video for us that will come out in a bit, for “bodyache”.

YS: And then Tallulah Fontaine did the album art?

MJ: Yeah she did the art for Shrines as well. We trust her artistically a lot, and that’s a really nice relationship. She did the symbols and the planet on the cover. And then there’s a lot more on the gatefold art, in the physical copies. There’s like cross-sections and close-up drawings of like cells, of body parts and anatomy.

YS: Well that works!

MJ: Yeah.

YS: So, you made the pink outfit with the fringe for “push pull”?

MJ: Yeah I’ve been sewing a lot actually. I’m making costumes for music videos and doing costumes for the live performance. We’ll have like matching outfits and stuff. It’s gonna be really cute. [laughs]

YS: And did you consult Corin on this or are you pretty much just telling him what he’s gonna wear?

MJ: I start with telling him, and then he says what he wants. [laughs]

CR: I mean she knows my style, she knows what I like.

MJ: I generally know what he’ll go for, so I am able to tell him what he’s gonna wear. And it’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. [laughs]

GIF by Alex Thebez for Yahoo Style

YS: From what I’ve seen Corin you’re kind of a black, white and grey, monochromatic guy. Is that correct?

CR: Yeah that’s pretty 100 per cent spot-on.

YS: And Megan when Yahoo Style shot with you guys, you were wearing gold pants with a sort of floral pattern. Are those your own?

MJ: Yeah I made those out of some really old curtains that I had. I use a lot of recycled fabric, and that way I can use a lot of leather, which is really nice. If you cut up old coats with holes in them and stuff? But that one isn’t as

costume-y. That’s more in the vein of like things that eventually I’ll put out in a small line of things that I can make myself.

YS: What’s the status of that? How far along is you releasing your own collection?

MJ: I feel like if I say anything I’ll be speaking too soon. I think about it all the time, and I’m hoping for next winter. But I don’t know, you have to do it so far in advance.

YS: Do you have any favorite designers or sort of go-to inspirations? You posted something from Valentino on your Tumblr recently.

MJ: Yeah, oh my God, that pre-fall line, everything in it is so beautiful. Like, it’s exciting that that exists. It’s one of those things where you’re like, “Ah, I can’t believe someone did this it’s like making the world better!” But I don’t actually have a lot of go-to’s in the high fashion world. I’ve always loved like, Comme des Garçons and Issey Miyake and stuff like that. Also things are like one-size-fits-all and beautiful. And shapes.

YS: I read that for the upcoming tour there’s going to be an “interactive” quality to the costumes. A couple years ago, you guys had these amazing lanterns that were synched with the music. Are we talking about clothes like that?

MJ: Well, yeah there might be one costume like that.

CR: We’re looking into the possibilities of it right now and just trying to figure out technologically how we can do that kind of stuff. But it’s something that I think will be a definite thing for us at some point.

Purity Ring’s another eternity is out March 3rd.

Photograph by Elizabeth Renstrom for Yahoo Style

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