James Gunn, co-CEO of DC Studios, published an essay on September 27, 2026, celebrating singer-songwriter Nouela Johnston, an artist he has followed for years despite her limited public profile.
Gunn discovered Johnston’s work in 2016 through her single “Nobody” on Spotify. He later learned that Johnston was also the sole member of the band People Eating People, whose 2009 album had been a staple of his playlists since around 2010. People Eating People had fewer than 2,000 Spotify followers, and combined, the two projects had well under 100,000 followers on the platform.
For his birthday celebration in the Hudson Valley, Gunn’s wife located Johnston in Seattle and arranged a surprise live performance. Johnston, accompanied by percussionist Joe Mengis, performed songs she had not played publicly in over a decade. Gunn wrote that the performance was “one of the greatest nights of my life” and that Johnston played “with the passion of something entirely new and with the expertise of someone who had been playing them every day for decades.”
In his essay, Gunn stated: “The magnificence of art isn’t measured by the number of people who experience it, but by how deeply it pierces an individual’s soul.” He created a Spotify playlist of Johnston’s songs and encouraged other musicians to continue their work, writing, “You never know who is listening.”
Source: Rolling Stone
