{"id":73671,"date":"2026-09-27T15:13:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:13:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/27\/dc-studios-co-ceo-james-gunn-wants-you-to-hear-nouela\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T15:13:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T15:13:32","slug":"dc-studios-co-ceo-james-gunn-wants-you-to-hear-nouela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/27\/dc-studios-co-ceo-james-gunn-wants-you-to-hear-nouela\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Studios Co-CEO James Gunn Wants You to Hear Nouela"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBear with me on this musical journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tEleven years ago, I made a mix CD for the woman I was dating, Jenn Holland, (yes, mix CD\u2019s were still a thing in 2015). On the mix was a song, \u201cAll the Hospitals,\u201d by a band called People Eating People, who released only one album, back in 2009. I don\u2019t remember where I first heard it \u2014 one of my previous girlfriends might have turned me onto it (if so, Mia or Melissa, thank you), but it had been darting in and out of my playlists since around 2010. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"All The Hospitals\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8WVi-q0TG1I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnyway, Jenn loved the song so much that she actually listened to People Eating People\u2019s album. She fell in love with it, and turned me on to the rest of their tunes. Somewhere along the way, Jenn and I fell in love as well, and she went from being a woman I was dating to my girlfriend and eventually, after many years, my wife. Over all those years, we shared an obsession with People Eating People, a band no one seemed to know, who had fewer than 2,000 followers on Spotify. \u201cAll the Hospitals\u201d was one of our favorite tracks, but I may have liked \u201cFor Now\u201d and \u201cRain Rain\u201d even more. But as with many bands, we didn\u2019t know anything else about them; they seemed to be one of these acts who put out one incredible album and then disappeared.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn 2016, I happened to hear a single by a singer-songwriter by the name of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/nouela\/\" id=\"auto-tag_nouela\" data-tag=\"nouela\">Nouela<\/a> (it\u2019s pronounced \u201cNo-el-ah\u201d but I had always called her \u201cNwaylah\u201d when discussing her songs), who had just released a single, \u201cNobody.\u201d That led me to her Spotify page and her other songs, nearly each and every one of them a banger.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFor years both People Eating People and Nouela were staples on my regular playlists, both in mixes I listened to privately and in those I\u2019d share with others. But earlier this year, I finally decided to find out a little bit more about one of my favorite bands in the world.\u00a0 I did some quick research, and in that moment I discovered that People Eating People and Nouela were the same person, singer-songwriter Nouela Johnston. The two acts didn\u2019t have a hundred thousand followers between them on Spotify, and yet somehow the algorithm had led me to putting both in regular rotation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tSadly, there was almost nothing about Nouela online, and she almost certainly hadn\u2019t released any music since 2016. I looked up \u201cFor Now,\u201d my favorite song, on YouTube, and found a recording of Nouela giving a majestic performance in the back of some bar while people talked over the whole thing. I wanted to travel back into the past and strangle them. What I wouldn\u2019t give to hear her perform her songs live. It broke my heart that such a staggering talent had been heard by so few people in this world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnyway.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI recently celebrated my birthday in the Hudson Valley with family and friends, and my amazing wife surprised me twice. The first was with a live performance by my friend Rhett Miller of the Old 97\u2019s, one of my favorite musicians in the world, of whom I\u2019ve been a massive fan for over thirty years. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to write music with him and feature him on the <em>Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special<\/em>. Rhett, as usual, absolutely murdered his set.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe second surprise was a much bigger one. After a lot of private detective work, Jenn managed to locate Nouela Johnston in Seattle and flew in her and her percussionist, Joe Mengis, to play her songs. She hadn\u2019t played any of these songs in over ten years, having spent most of her time on her corporate job. (Which I\u2019m not knocking. At the end of the day, I have a corporate job, too.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe evening was a revelation, and one of the greatest nights of my life. Nouela\u2019s music was dynamic and soul-enriching; she played the songs with the passion of something entirely new and with the expertise of someone who had been playing them every day for decades. Jenn and I both began instantly weeping when she launched into \u201cFor Now,\u201d our favorite track. This audience listened in awed silence, and by the end of the song, everyone around us was crying as well, before jolting upward in a spontaneous standing ovation \u2014\u00a0one of three.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nouela &quot;For now&quot; (Live 2026)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vvTtAAMkyC8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI believe this: The magnificence of art isn\u2019t measured by the number of people who experience it, but by how deeply it pierces an individual\u2019s soul. And by that metric, Nouela is one of the most successful singer-songwriters of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThat said, I\u2019d still like more people to experience her art. So I\u2019ve created a sampler playlist of her songs at <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/14IWOGLaKynLojPCLccqQ6?si=eab478c6f4f2457c\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/playlist\/14IWOGLaKynLojPCLccqQ6?si=eab478c6f4f2457c<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tNouela, I wrote this for you. Thank you for what you have given us. It is only in my own greed and self-interest that I hope there are more songs to come, from you and all the other musicians out there wondering if it\u2019s worth it to keep going. You never know who is listening.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/james-gunn-superman-dc-studios-nouela-1235632086\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bear with me on this musical journey.\u00a0 Eleven years ago, I made a mix CD for the woman I was dating, Jenn Holland, (yes,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":73672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}