Purity Ring’s Megan James Kicks Off Solo Project MMJ With “Nobody Knows”

For Megan James, MMJ is now something new. The Purity Ring co-lead has launched a solo project under that name, and after announcing it last month, she’s now shared the first song from the upcoming album, “Nobody Knows.” James had already said she’d signed to Captured Tracks and would be opening for Purity Ring on the duo’s upcoming tour with a solo set.

The name may ring a few different bells depending on where you are, but this MMJ is firmly James’ own. “Nobody Knows” finds her stepping away from the electro-pop world she’s best known for and into something more acoustic, closer to singer-songwriter terrain. It opens with the lines, “Nobody knows/ A fallen star/ From wildfire ash/ Raining down on the yard,” and the song’s writing leans into that quieter, more exposed register.

In her own words, James frames the track as a song about what people miss, refuse to see, or only understand if they choose to. “It presents the ways we know so little, but also the things we deny and can see if we choose to, and what we should see and be in order to survive in this place; what we deserve to have and be as individuals and collectively,” she said. “Nobody Knows” is, as she puts it, “a circular, a fractal glimpse of humanity in the span of a song.”

“I hope you feel it,” James added. That invitation lands like the point of the whole thing.