“The more it feels like piloting a spaceship, the happier I feel”: Nation of Language are embracing spontaneityIan Richard Devaney, Aidan Noell and Alex MacKay sought the teachings of electronic music GOATs for their latest Nation of Language album, Dance Called Memory. The record, which is out now, colours their metamorphic synthpop with shades of shoegaze, and is imbued with the creative and technical philosophies from Kraftwerk and Brian Eno, with production by LCD Soundsystem’s Nick Millhiser.

READ MORE: “It’s okay to not see the whole path. Just take the next step”: Lee Ann Roberts has built a music career from nothing

“We really tried to lean into making the recording process as unpredictable as possible,” Devaney tells us in this Studio Files interview. In practice, this meant fewer takes, more guitars, and plenty of spontaneous mod wiggling on some of their more trusted synths and plugins — the GS e7, Valhalla’s Vintage Verb and Moog DFAM, to name a few.
Following an Album of the Year award from Rough Trade in 2023, the NYC-based trio signed to Sub Pop (label of Nirvana, Foals, Father John Misty) and are preparing to bring their frenetic, immersive live set to the London Roundhouse this November. And what to expect from such a show? “There is sadness, there is gratitude, there is dancing.”
Image: Press
You’ve dropped four singles from your upcoming album, now. What’s the response been like, and how are you feeling now that the music’s out there?
Ian Richard Devaney: The response has been great so far. The more we tour, the more I see people singing along to the new ones, which is always an incredible feeling. We’re feeling pretty relieved — the time between finishing a record and releasing it tends to be when the doubting voices in my mind get the loudest. It’s good to get out on the road and force those voices down.
You’ve mentioned that Kraftwerk and Brian Eno’s ethos is particularly influential in Dance Called Memory. Could you tell me more about that?
IRD: Definitely. Kraftwerk is sonically such a north star for us; the sounds that they create just make my brain buzz in the best way. Their school of thought is very much about removing the humanity from the music, though, which — while it might have been revolutionary at the time — is today kind of depressingly going on all around us. With that in mind, we talked a lot about Eno. I read that if he needed to send a synth to get repaired, he would also include a list of things that were wrong with it, but he did not want repaired, because he liked the unpredictability.
So we really tried to lean into making the recording process as fun and unpredictable as possible. Not too many takes, lots of random flipping of switches and twisting of knobs when someone’s recording their part.
Image: Press
Tell us a bit about your studio.
IRD: My studio is a back room of my apartment in Brooklyn. A few synths, a few guitars and basses. I’ve been borrowing a friend’s UA LA-610 to use for demoing vocals.
Our producer, Nick Millhiser [of LCD Soundsystem], has a studio in his own house that is much more of a proper studio. He’s got a big blue Oram BEQ board (formerly of the DFA studios in Manhattan) that has been, as he puts it, “EXTENSIVELY modified by John Klett from Tech Mecca and Andrew Roberts from Purple Audio.” He’s got boatloads of rack gear and synths, and tape echoes. It’s a very exciting physical space to occupy.
The more it feels like piloting a spaceship, the happier I feel. [Nick] definitely uses it in a way that keeps everything feeling very alive. The main thing he’s taught me is not to be too precious about things. If you have the tools to experiment, try them out and see where it gets you.
Image: Press
What’s your latest gear or plugin purchase?
IRD: My most recent purchase was the GS e7, a really cool polyphonic analogue synthesiser. To be honest, the first thing that caught my eye about it was its beautiful blue colour. I saw it at Perfect Circuit in LA and, after spending a while obsessively watching YouTube demos, went back the next day. I got it for the live rig because I wanted to switch things up for the new round of touring. I had previously been using the DSI Tetra and a Prophet 6, but the Tetra was so annoying to make sounds on. I wanted something more hands-on.
What’s the best plugin you own?
IRD: Valhalla Vintage Verb gets a whole lot of use during the writing and demoing process. Sometimes it makes it through to the end. It’s just a great way to quickly dial in some reverb so I don’t slow myself down. It’s actually one of the only non-Logic Pro effects plugins I own. Special shout-out to the Logic Delay Designer plugin, though — another workhorse of the writing process.
Image: Press
What’s been the biggest investment in your career/studio?
IRD: My Minimoog is probably the biggest investment. It’s a really central piece of this band in a way. When I was just starting out, I would pore through photos of classic synth artists like Gary Numan and Kraftwerk, and it seemed like such a common denominator. At first, I could only afford the Arturia plugin version, but through that, I learned the basics of how to use it, so finally getting one was huge for me. It just sounds so rich and warm, I really love it.
Synths and drum machines have always played a major part in the NoL sound. How does a track usually start with these instruments in mind, given the potential for clashing with guitars and vocals?
IRD: Since the synths and the vocal parts are often written at the same time, it’s mostly a matter of trying to weave things together in such a way that they’re not stepping on each other. Either that or making harder decisions during the final recording process. In the end, I try to ask myself what the most important thing is, and subtract from there.
Image: Press
How do you see your sound and studio evolving in the next two years?
IRD: I am interested in seeing how I can mess with the writing process. It’s not that I’m bored with how I do things by any means, but I do want to see what it’s like to write somewhere else, or on an instrument I don’t use much, or don’t know how to use at all.
The nice thing about synths is that there is such a deep well of exploration available. On the song In Another Life from our new record, we experimented by running the drums and Moog DFAM together through a Korg MS20 to crush it all together — not something I’ve done before, but definitely something I want to try more of.
What’s a music production myth you think needs debunking?
IRD: Honestly, I feel like most of the musicians and producers I’m surrounded by in my life have this combination of respect and admiration for the traditional methods, but also come from a DIY environment that says, “as long as it sounds cool, it doesn’t matter how you make it.” So I think I’ve been insulated from production myths in a way.
Aidan Noell of Nation of Language. Image: Press
Who gave you the biggest lesson in your career? Can you tell us about how it impacted you?
IRD: My wife and bandmate, Aidan, gave me the biggest lesson of my career, which is to be relentless in the pursuit of what I want. When she joined the band, she had never played an instrument before — a bunch of previous band members had moved away, I hadn’t had much luck booking shows, and she came in and said, “Teach me the synth parts,” took over booking, and lit the fire under me to keep driving forward.
There are so many setbacks and disappointments in the creative process and in the music business; it really requires not only tons of personal effort, but also all of us encouraging and supporting each other wherever we can.
Nation of Language live sets are beloved — how complex are these shows, considering how layered your music is?
IRD: They certainly feel complex in this moment because we’re in the process of practicing and refining sounds and exploring how we can make the live show hit as hard as possible. It’s part of why I decided to add the GS e7 to the synth station and change things around.
If people have seen us before, we want them to know that we’re not just doing things exactly the same way that we did the last time they saw us. We’re constantly reassessing — trying to figure out how to get the drums sounding better, or seeing where we can strip things back, or where we can add new parts that aren’t in the recorded version.

What can we expect from the upcoming shows?
IRD: A lot of the songs are kind of morose, but we always try to bring joy to the shows as well. There are always a whole lot of emotions flying around and blending together. We often just sum it up by talking about catharsis: There is sadness, there is gratitude, there is dancing.
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Video details
Video title:
Я бегу
Artist(s):
Pchelsh
Genres:
Pop, Electronica
Release Date:
29-09-2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_RXP2QRvo8
#newmusicvideo #VEVO #Music #LifeCycleLtd #artist #pop #electronic

It’s Time To Normalize Cutting Session Musicians Into Master Royalties (Points)Whew, I got quite the backlash for my post about normalizing giving points to session musicians.  Seems like an innocent enough thought experiment. My fatal flaw was using Taylor Swift as an example of the wealth disparity in the music industry. The algorithm fed it to Swifties and they had a lot to say about […]

Jason Bonham Discusses His Top 5 Songs from Led Zeppelin's Physical GraffitiThe legendary drummer spoke with AllMusic before the launch of the upcoming Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Evening tour, and selected his 5 favorite tracks off Physical Graffiti, celebrating it's 50th anniversary this year.

California Governor Newsom signs landmark AI safety bill SB 53SB 53 requires large AI labs – including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google DeepMind – to be transparent about safety protocols. It also ensures whistleblower protections for employees at those companies.  

US regulators dismiss SEC-CFTC merger rumors, move to dispel crypto ‘FUD’Caroline Pham rattled off data about the CFTC‘s enforcement actions since she became acting chair in a roundtable event to discuss the agency and the SEC working together.

How to change tempo in Pro Tools
Learn how to master tempo changes in Pro Tools with our step-by-step guide.

Songview Gets a Major Upgrade: 38 Million Tracks, All in One PlacePictured: ASCAP CEO Elizabeth MatthewsIn a move that’s shaking up the music industry, the four major U.S. performing rights organizations—ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR—have joined forces to expand Songview, the industry’s go-to platform for public performance copyright data. Launched in 2020 by ASCAP and BMI, Songview now includes information on over 38 million musical works, offering the most comprehensive view of public performance copyright ownership and administration shares from a single source.This expansion means that for the first time, Songview will feature data from all four major PROs, providing a unified platform for music users to access detailed information on songwriters, composers, music publishers, and copyright ownership shares. The platform will begin incorporating data from GMR and SESAC, starting with the addition of all 100%-owned works represented by these organizations. Additionally, Songview will enhance the data for GMR and SESAC works that have split ownership percentages with ASCAP and/or BMI by including publisher names, addressing one of the most popular information requests from Songview users.This collaborative effort aims to provide greater transparency in music licensing, benefiting both creators and licensees. As ASCAP CEO Elizabeth Matthews stated, “We are thrilled to collaborate with BMI, GMR, and SESAC as we innovate to provide more transparency to licensees into musical ownership data for the combined repertories of the most performed music in the world.”This move is a significant step towards a more transparent and efficient music licensing system, ensuring that creators receive the compensation they deserve while licensees have the predictability they need. For those interested in exploring this expanded database, Songview is free to the public and currently accessible on the ASCAP and BMI websites. Find more information on the Songview website or check out the latest updates on the ASCAP and BMI sites.

The post Songview Gets a Major Upgrade: 38 Million Tracks, All in One Place first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

Macintosh System 7 Ported To x86 With LLM HelpYou can use large language models for all sorts of things these days, from writing terrible college papers to bungling legal cases. Or, you can employ them to more interesting ends, such as porting Macintosh System 7 to the x86 architecture, like [Kelsi Davis] did.
When Apple created the Macintosh lineup in the 1980s, it based the computer around Motorola’s 68K CPU architecture. These 16-bit/32-bit CPUs were plenty capable for the time, but the platform ultimately didn’t have the same expansive future as Intel’s illustrious x86 architecture that underpinned rival IBM-compatible machines.
[Kelsi Davis] decided to port the Macintosh System 7 OS to run on native x86 hardware, which would be challenging enough with full access to the source code. However, she instead performed this task by analyzing and reverse engineering the System 7 binaries with the aid of Ghidra and a large language model. Soon enough, she had the classic System 7 desktop running on QEMU with a fully-functional Finder and the GUI working as expected. [Kelsi] credits the LLM with helping her achieve this feat in just three days, versus what she would expect to be a multi-year effort if working unassisted.
Files are on GitHub for the curious. We love a good port around these parts; we particularly enjoyed these efforts to recreate Portal on the N64. If you’re doing your own advanced tinkering with Macintosh software from yesteryear, don’t hesitate to let us know.

In ‘landmark’ move, SESAC and GMR join ASCAP and BMI’s ‘Songview’ copyright database, expanding platform to 38m+ worksPlatform will feature information for over 38m musical works licensed by the four major performing rights organizations in the United States
Source

Elastic Sounds Complete Extended Techniques CollectionNow combining all four Extended Techniques Libraries in one package! From the soaring flutter tongue flute, the deepest pulsing tones of the bass clarinet, to the most haunting textures a violin can produce, these samples are an absolutely devastating combination of sounds to give every composition a powerful and unique edge unlike anything else. Flute Extended Techniques Library. Tenor Sax Extended Techniques Library. Clarinets Extended Techniques Library. Violin Extended Techniques Library. Pulse downloader and FULL version of Kontakt 6.8.0 or newer required, total size 1.76GB. Read More

TikTok Ownership Change Has Creators Worried About The FutureTikTok has become the stage where musicians, creators, influencers and activists could break through overnight. A great hook or a clever video could reach millions in hours. But now, with a TikTok ownership change looming, that sense of limitless opportunity is being replaced by uncertainty.
The post TikTok Ownership Change Has Creators Worried About The Future appeared first on Hypebot.

ASCAP, BMI, GMR, SESAC expand Songview PRO databaseThe four major U.S. performing rights organizations (PROs) have announced the expansion of Songview, the public performance copyright data resource launched by ASCAP and BMI in 2020.
The post ASCAP, BMI, GMR, SESAC expand Songview PRO database appeared first on Hypebot.

Audient opens its first USA Showroom in Los Angeles, with gear demos and hands-on workshops to comeAudient has finally opened its first showroom on American soil, bringing its high quality British audio equipment straight to the people of Los Angeles, California.
Set up in Burbank’s CenterStaging’s rehearsal studio and artist relations compound, the showroom will allow US citizens a hands-on Audient experience. Packed with the company’s full range of equipment, it will be a chance for visitors to freely experiment with everything from the ASP4816-HE mixing console to Audient Oria’s Dolby Atmos-minded immersive audio interface and monitor controller.

READ MORE: Spotify to crackdown on AI “slop” in bid to protect artists

Audient has also ensured that the showroom was designed to emulate a studio environment; the space is fully functional and acoustically treated to allow the public to experience gear in realistic studio conditions. Its an attention to detail that seems simple, but makes all the difference if you want a sense of how fresh tech will feel in your studio.
The showroom will also host a slew of demonstrations and exclusive workshops to showcase each piece of gear’s full potential. There’s also plenty of Audient specialists on site to provide support and answer any specific engineering, production or technical queries.
“Opening our own dedicated space in LA is a milestone for Audient here in the US,” Tim Jones, U.S. Market Representative for Audient, says. “As a working engineer myself, I know how hard it can be to make decisions on pro audio gear without getting some quality hands-on time with it.”
“I’m excited to connect directly with fellow creatives and help them discover how Audient can support their workflow and elevate their sound, all within a space purpose-built for critical listening,” he concludes.
Audient’s expansion out to the USA has been made possible thanks to the company’s partnership with Korg USA. “Our partnership with Audient has always been built on a shared belief in providing creators with tools that inspire and perform at the highest level,” Joe Castronovo, President & CEO of Korg USA, explains.
“The opening of Audient’s first U.S. showroom represents an important step in expanding that vision, giving artists, producers, and engineers the opportunity to experience Audient’s products in a professional studio environment while benefiting from the expertise and support of both of our teams,” he adds.
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Spotify to crackdown on AI “slop” in bid to protect artistsBack in June, Spotify announced that it was in no rush to purge AI music from its platform. However, the company’s stance has since changed; Spotify has just announced a mass crackdown on artificially generated “spammy” tracks.
On 25 September, the streaming giant shared its plans to “strengthen AI protections” for its artists. In a bid to “aggressively protect” creatives, Spotify notes that it has already removed 75 million tracks from the platform over the last 12 months, and will continue to do so.

READ MORE: Fake artists, real opportunities: Hoaxes and scams are holding back the potential of AI music

In order to crack down on AI tracks, the company shares that it will be implementing a more rigid ‘impersonation policy’ to remove tracks with unauthorised AI generated voice clones. “Unauthorised use of AI to clone an artist’s voice exploits their identity, undermines their artistry, and threatens the fundamental integrity of their work,” the company explains.
“Some artists may choose to license their voices to AI projects – and that’s their choice to make,” Spotify continues. “Our job is to do what we can to ensure that the choice stays in their hands.”
Elsewhere, the announcement also notes that a new spam filtering system will be in place. The new filter will restrict “mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop” which are often ways generative AI can exploit Spotify’s algorithm. To tackle this, the company will be introducing a new system that will “identify uploaders and tracks engaging in these tactics, tag them, and stop recommending them”.
The new system will hopefully benefit genuine artists, as AI uploads can massively dilute Spotify’s royalty pool. “Our new music spam filter will help prevent spammers from generating royalties that could be otherwise distributed to professional artists and songwriters,” Spotify explains.

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Spotify will also introduce a new “AI disclosure” agreement, forcing artists to disclose whether AI has been used in the creation process. Developed through standards-setting organisation DDEX, the new agreement will allow users to see what aspects of a track were created with forms of AI.
Of course, some artists might use AI tools as an aid rather than a way of generating “spammy slop”, so the new system will add some nuance to the discussion of AI in music. “This standard gives artists and rights holders a way to clearly indicate where and how AI played a role in the creation of a track, whether that’s AI-generated vocals, instrumentation, or post-production,” Spotify says. “This change is about strengthening trust across the platform. It’s not about punishing artists who use AI responsibly or down-ranking tracks for disclosing information about how they were made.”
“Ultimately this preserves trust across the entire music ecosystem, as listeners can understand what’s behind the music they stream,” the company adds. “We see this as an important first step that will undoubtedly continue to evolve.”
While Spotify is starting to tackle AI tracks, the streaming platform seems to be following in the footsteps of Deezer, which has been firm about its stance on AI tracks over the past year, sidelining AI tracks and making sure no AI generated content is diluting its royalty pool.
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