Cult Canadian ravers Purity Ring have never been afraid of pushing boundaries. Across their first three albums, vocalist MJ and multi-instrumentalist Corin Roddick developed a reputation for slow-burning electronic music filled with gloomy, macabre imagery but collaborated with larger-than-life rapper Danny Brown on his snarling ‘25 Bucks’. They also co-wrote and produced three of the best tracks on Katy Perry’s divisive, EDM-inspired ‘Witness’ and turned Lady Gaga’s shiny bop ‘Applause’ into a menacing party banger. They can do dark and broody, definitely, but are more than capable of having a good time too.
Purity Ring’s new self-titled album trends more towards the latter. It’s also their most ambitious record yet, with the 13 songs acting as a soundtrack to an imaginary fantasy video game that, according to a press release, tells the tale of two hapless friends out to build “a kinder world amid the ruins of a broken one.”
Purity Ring aren’t just hopping on the bandwagon after Sabrina Carpenter’s playful Nintendo Switch shout-out in her megahit ‘Espresso’ or Wet Leg naming a new song ‘Pokémon’. Corin has been obsessed with video games ever since he picked up Pokémon Red on the GameBoy in the ‘90s as a child. “It was the first time that I was transported to a world that seemed so much bigger than the console in my hand,” he tells NME.
MJ also grew up gaming. She played a lot of Mario with her three elder brothers but it was another Nintendo staple in The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild that got her properly hooked. From there, she discovered post-apocalyptic action-adventure NieR: Automata. Set in the middle of a war between human-made androids and alien-made Machines, the cult open-world game explores grief, connection, love and “agaku”, a Japanese word meaning “to struggle out of a bad situation”.
“That’s a big part of where our heads were when we were making this record,” she explains.
The music came first
The process of creating ‘Purity Ring’ started like their three previous albums. MJ and Corin went into the studio and simply began jamming. “Normally we take shots in the dark until we have enough songs that fit together,” says Corin. Occasionally that’s the first 10, but other times they need 40 tracks before it all starts to make sense. This time, however, they were only a handful of demos into the sessions for ‘Purity Ring’ when the concept solidified.
According to Corin, it quickly became apparent that the imagery and tone they were playing around with matched that of the games he’d grown up with. They decided to use that as the foundation for the whole record – and started writing with “purpose” to create an album that had a heroic, emotional arc similar to Zelda and Final Fantasy.
Opening tracks ‘relict’ and ‘many lives’ are warm but disorientating, perfectly capturing the excitable freedom that comes with booting up a new game for the very first time. ‘Place of my own’, with its rich, expansive synths and optimistic lyrics, sounds like the moment you realise just how vast your quest is going to be.
New guitar-driven single ‘imanocean’ sees Purity Ring reinvented as a ‘90s alt rock band and is the part of the game “where you’re suddenly playing as a different character or have been transported to an entirely different existence,” says MJ. “It’s very different for us and the fact it exists gives me faith in Purity Ring.” Big, beautiful final track ‘glacier::in memory of rs::’ brings the journey to a comforting end that offers a sense of closure. “Well, in the way that being content with wreckage is closure,” she grins.
They replayed their favourite games for inspiration
While they were crafting the album, Purity Ring started working with artist Mike Sunday on the creative direction for the project. He set about designing a pair of characters who wouldn’t look out of place in an epic role-playing game, which influenced the music even further. At the same time, Purity Ring played Final Fantasy 6 (“the game that sees the series come into its own in terms of storytelling, tones and themes,”) and Corin’s all-time favourite, Final Fantasy 10. They revisited beloved musical epic The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and political medieval adventure Metaphor: ReFantazio for further inspiration as well.
What is it about these fanciful make-believe worlds that spoke to Purity Ring? “The best ones are always some tale of resisting fascism to an extent, which is something we should all strive for. It’s a power fantasy – you can imagine yourself making a difference and that’s just inspiring,” says Corin. “It’s the most immersive medium to really experience someone’s world that they’ve created,” continues MJ. “All I want is for people to feel something when they hear this album.”
Real world politics crept into their imaginary land
The band know that most people view video games as an “escapist fantasy”. They want ‘Purity Ring’ to be different though. “There’s a lot of oppression [in the world] right now but there’s power in thinking about what things could look like,” says MJ, who put a lot of her own views into the record and subscribes to Classic Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn’s belief that ‘to plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.’ “Even when you know there’s going to be destruction, it’s always worth building something.” That optimism is a big part of ‘Purity Ring’, says MJ. “Finding comfort in hope, rather than despair is a big one. Joy is a really valuable part of any struggle.”
‘Purity Ring’ is the start of a new chapter for the band
Corin and MJ have been making music together for more than 15 years now but this project allowed them to experiment. “Listening to video game soundtracks opened up so many possibilities for us,” says Corin. “The one thing the music from all my favourite games has in common is range. When you’re crafting music for a journey, you can go to different extremes.”
“I’m not sure if everyone will agree but, to me, this is easily our best record,” says MJ. “When I listen to this album, it feels expansive and I know there’s a lot more we can do from here. It just seems like a new era for Purity Ring.”
‘Purity Ring’ is out September 26 via The Fellowship