A Chat With: Nation of Language
NYC’s Nation of Language has been a long-time favorite of ANCHR— it’s hard not to be instantly mesmerized by Ian Devaney and Aidan Noell’s refreshing take on beloved 80’s synth and New Wave influences. Nation of Language packs the familiar punch of nostalgia but also sparks the sensation of a breath of fresh air with their unique spin on an iconic foundation.
Following the release of their debut full-length record over Lockdown 1.0 (aka the Spring of 2020), a growing fanbase began to cultivate from the connection that listeners felt with Introduction, Presence. When live music could finally pick back up, Nation of Language toured and played sold out shows during the Fall of 2021—already gearing up for their sophomore album A Way Forward that was released in November of 2021. The duo has been back on the road this year in honor of that second album, and we caught up with Devaney and Noell before they played their show at Thalia Hall in Chicago earlier this month. Tune into the conversation below to hear which albums got them through quarantine, who they’d love to work with on scoring a film, their plans for future music and more.
Ian Devaney and Aidan Noell. Photo courtesy of Pias/Nation of Language
ANCHR Magazine: What do you recall as your first musical memory? Either with creating music or becoming a big fan of it?
Aidan Noell: As a child, my parents had home videos of me performing on the fireplace, like stepping up onto the little ledge of the fireplace and singing and dancing for people.
Did you have a Fisher Price microphone set?
A: No I would just use whatever, like a baton or child’s golf club or something. They called it the Aiden Noell Swanson show. I would just perform for anyone who would let me perform.
Ian Devaney: I have an early memory of I was in a Sunday School room. My mom worked at the church so I was always there waiting for her to finish. I have this very early memory of dancing around with dolls and singing “Should I Stay or Should I Go” by The Clash and someone walking by and me being like mortified that I was dancing with stuffed animals and singing.
A: They do say that the strongest memories that last the longest are shame or embarrassment.
Well there you go! Fast forward to current day though, it’s been about five months since the release of A Way Forward. Can you talk about a highlight of creating that album?
I: Just getting started on it at all was such a highlight because we were totally locked down before that and we had no idea how long it would last, so the fact that we would bike up to North Brooklyn every day. It’s like a 30 minute bike ride, and to have that structure and regular creativity be able to happen was so refreshing. The fact that we didn’t know when it was gonna end felt very kind of free and open ended, like we weren’t on an intense time constraint.
A: The whole thing was a very pleasant experience.
I: Yeah it was very nice.
Nice, it was a routine without a strict deadline. As I understand it, the whole process behind A Way Forward was very different from the process with Introduction, Presence because that was a long timeline of creating the first album.
I: That’s right, we basically had to work around our work schedules. Aidan was a nanny and I was working in cafes and restaurants and it was kind of like whatever days you could not work, you’d get into the studio. So it was spread out over a long period of time.
Totally. A lot of people have said with your debut album, that those songs got them through quarantine and lockdown. Even though you weren’t able to tour with it, you had many people listening to it. I’m curious if you have any artists or albums that got you through the initial lockdown?
A: I had a bunch of weird phases during the initial lockdown because we weren’t really doing much of anything outside of the apartment, so I was going through a lot of music documentaries on YouTube while I would sew or whatever in my bedroom. So I watched Bananas, which is the Gorillaz documentary, and it got me down this huge wormhole of Damon Albarn and I watched like every Blur documentary that’s on YouTube, which had a lot of live footage. So I had this amazing Blur phase—I mean I hadn’t really listened to them before other than that one song that everyone knows, and now I’m obsessed with them and they were definitely something that got me through quarantine even though they weren’t new.
I: I think this was also pre-quarantine, but Titanic Rising, the Weyes Blood album was definitely something I was listening to a lot. And have been listening to a lot of this trip.
For a second I thought you were going to say the Titanic soundtrack. Celine Dion all the way!
I: No joke though, also the Titanic soundtrack! I went through a huge phase of listening to the Titanic soundtrack. We used to leave the stage to the instrumental theme from it.
That’s awesome. This is really embarrassing but like two years ago, my top Spotify song was like a random James Horner song from the soundtrack because I would fall asleep to it.
A: It’s so soothing!
Anything else that you got into over quarantine?
A: I definitely started listening to a lot of Dry Cleaning during the latter part of quarantine. I loved that album, it’s so good.
I: While we were recording, between us and the producers we were sharing all this music back and forth. Laurie Spiegel is like an early electronic instrumentalist who has this album called The Expanding Universe and it’s just super cool music to just sit down and space out to. It goes so many interesting places, so that’s definitely something that kind of worked its way into our creative brains.
Very cool! When I was listening to A Way Forward, the first song “In Manhattan” had a very visual effect on me. I feel like I could picture the main character in a movie driving in a cab at night looking up at the New York skyline or running toward the subway in their morning commute. Have you ever considered or would you like to do a soundtrack for a movie or TV show?
A: Oh definitely. That’s definitely a goal.
I: Yeah, it’s super cool whenever there’s any sort of opportunity to have something set to film. There’s even been a couple things with skate videos or ski videos, so even that sort of non-scripted atmospheric vibe is really cool to see your music contextualized in that way.
Is there a dream director or cast you’d like to work with?
I: I mean if Paul Thomas Anderson ever wants to…
Let’s Manifest this for you!
I: Yeah, PTA look out!
A: Listen up!
Well on the subject of really cool things that have happened, you recently made a late night TV debut on the Colbert Show, you played some festivals last year and had a lot of sold out shows. Is there anything else on your bucket list that you’re hoping 2022 might bring?
A: We’re doing a lot of things that were on my bucket list.
I: It’s kind of like, I would feel greedy to think that I could desire more. I am looking forward to in addition to more touring and just being out to new places and meeting a lot of our fans for the first time, to also find time to hole up and write. I think that will be an exciting thing for me. And maybe I’ll go somewhere for a week and try to write there.
Like a writer’s retreat?
I: Yeah exactly, cause I’ve always just written everything seated at my desk in our apartment. So the idea of going somewhere else is appealing.
Where would be your ideal spot? If money and time weren’t an issue.
I: Oooh, money or time not an issue! Maybe Berlin or Tokyo, or Paris…
A: Yeah somewhere where there’s the option to be in the city and also the option to go to a very old rural place. A decrepit castle…
I: Even like up in the country upstate sounds very nice, even though that’s a very manageable retreat.
Have you noticed, it sounds like you usually write at your desk, but if you’re in different environments and out on the road writing, does that influence your writing style?
I: Yeah I think it can. Back when I used to live at home when I was younger I would try to change what room I was in and it does feel like it can. Even just listening to the same demo in a different room can give you a fresh perspective on what needs to be happening.
A: Listening to your demos in the car on tour…it like reinvigorates you on the songs you’ve already written. So getting the opportunity to try to write outside of the house would probably unlock new things.
Do you have anything in the works since the album came out?
I: Yeah there’s a number of songs and some of them, I feel like every album kind of overlaps the other one. So some of these had already been started when we were writing and recording the second album.
A: And they just weren’t exactly the right curatorial fit to be on that album.
I: I kind of like writing as much as possible and then stepping back and sorting ok this is first album, this is second album, this is third album. It kind of lets you write whatever you want without worrying about ‘no this is supposed be a shoegaze record, I can’t have this kind of song on here!’
Yeah you can be like I’ll put this on the sixth album!
I: Exactly!
So do you find that you write a song for an album and then kind of stick to that theme for the rest of the songs? Or it comes together after the fact?
I: It mostly comes together after the fact. I think sometimes I do get into rhythms where like these four songs written within this concise period of time all really focus on a bass riff and that can provide glue for a record that you can attach other things to. I try not to limit the ideas to fit to what the record might be.
A: It can be frustrating if you’re like I need to write a tenth song for this album but it has to fit! If you sit down with that frame around you, it can be very limiting and frustrating.
Well, talking about the live show now, I actually saw you live for the first time in Brooklyn opening for the Wombats. I think someone else was actually supposed to open that tour so I went in blind, but instantly went to favorite some of your singles on Spotify while you were still playing.
I: That’s amazing.
I was wondering if there’s anyone you remember in recent years, well before the pandemic maybe, but New York gets a lot of live music coming through. So was there anyone you discovered after going in kind of blind?
A: Didn’t you go see Fontaines without really knowing what they sounded like at first?
I: Yeah I guess that was pre-pandemic but my friend was like ‘this band Fontaines DC is playing Union Pool” which is like a 250 person room. I was like yeah sure, not really knowing anything about it and it was awesome. Then our first show back, we went to see the opening band. It was our friends Gustaf.
Oh I love Gustaf. They’re here tomorrow
A: Yeah they’re on the same tour trajectory as us. We got to see them in Seattle.
I: The first show back though we same them open for the band Geese, who I hadn’t seen or really heard before. That was really cool.
Oh nice, they came to Chicago in January.
A: I’m trying to think what other shows we’ve actually seen since lockdown ended.
I: Oh I went to see this band called Foyer Red open for Why Bonnie? And I was a little bit familiar with both bands, but seeing them both live was really fun and it was a great show.
A: Our friend, who plays bass with us now, Alex MacKay, his band Cutouts, we went to go see. They opened for us in October and they’re really amazing. Very cool stuff.
Very cool. Well then life on the road in general, I know Ian was sick for a couple days recently? How has it been besides that?
I: Yeah thankfully not covid.
A: Yeah he always gets a cold that turns into a sinus infection.
I: But I’m feeling better now.
A: Got those steroids in you!
I: And antibiotics.
A: But otherwise, this tour has been really really nice.
I: It has been very nice!
A: Every city we’ve gone to has been so warmly receptive of the music and we’ve played some cool venues that we’ve never played before. I just love doing the drives. Also we have Alex’s brother on tour doing some documentarian work for us. Having just another hand on deck has made things very smooth for us this tour.
I: Yeah, driving and loading in and out
A: And just having fun and laughing!
Anywhere else on the tour that you’re excited to get to?
A: Well we’re going to Toronto and Montreal, and Alex and his brother are Canadian so they’re gonna have some friends and family out and they’ll be able to show us around. So I’m looking forward to that.
I: Also the band we’re playing with, Ducks Ltd., they’re Canadian as well.
Yeah I haven’t seen them yet but I’m excited to check them out.
I: They’re really great.
A: And they’re super nice too!
I: I also heard that Columbus may sell out.
A: I love when random places are good places for us.
I: You sort of walk into a lot of cities having no idea if anyone knows who you are, so it’s always nice when you’re like ‘wow, Phoenix, Arizona!’ That was one of the best shows we ever played and it was a pretty tight club venue. But so much amazing energy. That’s been the coolest part of tour in general. Learning about our fans in a very immediate way, cause with the pandemic we’ve been so detached from everyone. It’s so nice to just actually see everyone.
Yeah that human connection can be very rewarding. Well the last thing I wanted to ask about was the song, it’s a few years old at this point, but “I’ve Thought About Chicago,” since we’re in Chicago can you talk about the backstory there?
I: It was just a bunch of our friends lived here and that line was just written in my notebook. I think we were having some conversations about places we would consider living and I just said that. Then I thought there’s some sort of ring to that….and the song just built itself off of that one line.
A: I’m from Kansas City, it’s not that much closer than New York is to Chicago—
But it’s like that midwest mentality.
A: Yeah exactly so I have some friends from there living here. When we did our first tour it was just like 3 shows in Chicago.
I: It was like two venues and a garage.
I miss house shows! I’m like I don’t know if they’re not going on cause of Covid or because I’m old now…
I: Yeah exactly. Everyone’s like I’m not gonna let that many people into my house!
Well wrapping up, anything else you’re excited about that you want to share?
A: Nothing on the exact docket but I think we have some songs we’re releasing over the summer.
I: And just more touring. This tour runs straight into a European tour. We have like 3 days off and then we fly to Ireland and spend 3 weeks over there.
A: I feel like 2022 is the year of the tour for us.