“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.

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“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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