Back to the future with Purity Ring

(© Sebastian Mlynarski)

Modern pop is certainly thriving under the maple leaf of the Canadian flag. From the snowy landscape of Edmonton, synth player and percussionist Corin Roddick and singer Megan James of Purity Ring have drawn on a wide variety of genres for their first, hybrid album, Shrines.

Roddick and James are clearly attracted to synthetic textures and original ideas. The futurist melodies of the duo’s dreamy, sophisticated pop are pervaded with electronic, hip-hop, and R&B elements. Above all, the songs are perfect for the elegant, heavenly, glacial singing of James – you can hear that this is a voice from the cold. She lets her vocal cords glide across frozen lakes. It seems only right that Purity Ring’s music should have found a home on the 4AD label (Bon Iver, The National), a long-standing bastion of elegant, atmospheric cold wave.

You started out in Edmonton, in the province of Alberta. Is it a good city for getting a musical project under way?
Corin Roddick: Where we come from, for nearly nine months of the year the cold is a dire reality. The inhabitants stay shut away at home, waiting for the fine weather to return. The consequences of those harsh climatic conditions aren’t all negative. They explain, for example, why young musicians rehearse relentlessly until the return of spring.
Megan James: It’s a lovely place to start a group, but to avoid getting bogged down, it’s best to leave. The big problem is the city’s isolation in Canada’s territory. That complicates everything. Heading off on a tour, starting from Edmonton, is a real ordeal. These days, we have both moved. I live in Halifax now, while Corin is based in Montreal.

Given the distance between those two cities, how do you work on the songs?
James: We have always worked very independently. So the distance is no problem to us. Corin regularly sends me sounds. At my end, I work on the lyrics. When we meet up again, it is to record new material. It is a strange way of doing things, but at the end of the day it suits us perfectly.

Looking for information about your music, one comes across the term “future pop”. What is that, exactly?
Roddick: It’s true that that label comes up regularly in press cuttings about Purity Ring. I don’t know how to define the genre exactly. For us, it is certainly about a kind of pop music that is oriented towards the future, something progressive. We try to push things forward by looking at melodies differently.

Onstage, you play strange tactile instruments that vaguely resemble lamps. Where did you come across those?
Roddick: That’s my invention! Actually, they are lamps connected to my synthesiser. When I tap a lamp, it lights up and sends a signal to the synth. I’m a percussionist by training. So I think like a drummer. For me, it is a natural reflex: a way of using the synthesiser to test my know-how. It’s an opportunity to show the audience something different. When people come to see a concert, they always expect to see a fairly classic set-up on the stage. Visually, too, it comes down to that desire to show something new.

Purity Ring 7/11, 15.00, €12 & 20.00, SOLD OUT!, ANCIENNE BELGIQUE, boulevard Anspachlaan 110, Brussel/Bruxelles, 02-548.24.24, info@abconcerts.be, www.abconcerts.be