In Conversation with Nation of Language

Photos by Will McLaughlin

Amplified:  I'm Will McLaughlin and we’re at Pitchfork Fest 2023. Today I’m here with Nation Of Language, who played a set yesterday to a good sized crowd at a beautiful time of the day, which I want to talk about more, but first I want to talk about the fact that you guys are a three piece band.

Ian: We are

Amplified:  You don't see that a whole lot. I feel like you've got a couple of classic bands out there who are three pieces, but other than that, I don't know if you see it a lot. So I want to talk about what your positions in the band are, what instruments, what sounds you're in control of, and what you bring individually.

Ian:  My name is Ian, I sing and I play guitar sometimes.

Aidan:  I’m Aidan and I am primarily in charge of the synthesizers and the drum machine. Although Ian does sometimes come over and play dueling synths with me, which is fun.

Ian: That's true. Sometimes I also just like to go over and twist knobs while she's playing. Just to keep her guessing. 

Alex:  My name is Alex and I mainly play the bass. Every once in a while I throw in a little backing vocal here and there and I start the clap once a show otherwise my pay gets docked by our manager.

Ian:  He gets the party started. 

Amplified:  Very important for any band, I would say. 

Amplified: Do you find that when you're writing music, you kind of stick to your instrumentation, what you're working with? Or do you kind of work with each other to develop your different sounds?

Ian:  I compose all the music and so I stick to all the instruments. But I mean, how you approach each instrument really kind of changes with every song. Which one you start with really kind of informs what's going to come next and how you're gonna interact with it and so it's always exciting.

Amplified:  I want to talk more about your set yesterday. I've been staring at photos of it for the past few hours because I've been editing stuff. As a photographer, it was beautiful. There was so much smoke, there was some nice sunlight pouring through it. When you're on stage, do you feel a different energy from that?

Aidan:  I do love playing a daytime set outside. A lot of people don't like it, they prefer it to be once the sun goes down. I like playing a daytime set because you can see everyone in the audience so clearly and you're not relying on the lighting engineer to throw a light on the crowd to know that they're having fun. So I feel a lot more energy from the crowd when I can see them, and very close to the crowd in a daytime set like that. I had a great time yesterday. I thought it was an optimal time, although I was sweating my buns off.

Alex: Yeah, I mean I always really love when there's a lot of haze going on too. That was fun yesterday to feel like we were kind of enshrouded. Also, you know, I grew up going to music festivals a fair bit and always wanted to play at them. I think in my imagination as a kid, it was basically yesterday, you know, like playing in the daytime with some people there to see you. It just kind of feels different but exciting, and the sun was really strong yesterday. When we were sound checking we were in the shade and I was like “oh nice we're gonna be on the shady stage,” and then I forgot that the sun moves and by the time we started playing it was hitting us really hard in the face. But it was cool because in some of the photos the reflective lacquer on my bass is like sending out fractals which is pretty sick. I'm pretty into that. 

Ian: I mean, just seeing, you know, Grace Ives on the stage-she played our stage right before us, and then Youth Lagoon was on the adjacent stage. You could see the lights getting progressively cooler, like as an audience member, and so when we went on stage I was pretty excited about, you know, I love a warm tone light. Even when we play live my favorite thing is like, illuminating orange lights and so to get that naturally from the sun, I don't think I could necessarily dance quite as hard because I was sweating so so much. 

Alex:  Yeah you got a little red in the face.

Ian:  Yeah, and apparently, I looked like I was gonna pass out.

Alex:  It was intense. 

Ian: Yeah, which is what you want. You want people to know that you're putting in the work. You want to show your work.

Amplified:  I think that comes through, and I think that definitely helps. Seeing your guys' performance, and seeing like- Alvvays was on the stage right after you guys and they were in complete darkness. You guys timed your set, I know you guys aren't in charge of timing your set, but it was timed perfectly as far as the sun goes and it looked really beautiful. 

Amplified: What's the difference between playing at festivals and playing a set at a venue? What's the difference in energy? Which do you prefer? What are your thoughts?

Aidan:  I mean, I love playing festivals because we get to see other bands play. And I always have to watch the opening band play at our shows, not only because I usually love them and want to support them, but because watching other people perform really puts you in the right frame of mind to perform. It's super inspiring. And so to get to do that over and over again, on a festival day, and then take the stage. It's like you're full of this inspiration and this desire to get on there and to get out those creative urges. I mean, yes, I do always feel excited to play, but it's just like… it’s amplified.

Take a shot (laughs)

Amplified: (laughs) That was good, that was good. 

Ian: One thing that's exciting about playing a festival is you feel like you have to earn the people that are going to be watching you. Because there's the discovery element to being at a festival that's really great.

Alex: And people have alternatives usually, so if you're not killing it, they can go find someone else who is.

Ian: Yeah, and it's also just funny, I was thinking yesterday. So many other bands that I watch perform, they have these really professional operations going on of like guitar techs and multiple people doing stuff. And I was like, I feel like the younger sibling of like whatever festival we're playing, because we're very, like, just get out there, grip it and rip it sort of-

Aidan: Hope for the best.

Ian: Yeah, hope for the best. Hopefully, all this stuff works. 

Aidan: We embrace that position.

Ian: Yeah I think I mean, if you can't embrace that position, then you're just gonna feel bad about yourself all the time. 

Amplified:  Absolutely. 

Amplified: What other bands are you excited to see this weekend? And what other bands are you maybe taking things away from, like, if you see another band and you go, “wow they're doing this incredibly well, maybe that's something that we can work into our thing.” Do you ever feel that way?

Ian: Yeah I mean certainly, last night, we got to see the Smile and they're- just the way they approach their instruments- there's kind of a visceral nature to watching them perform where you really feel like they could do whatever they want at any given moment. It’s super inspiring and just kind of further pushes you to want the live experience to really be a live experience and less of a perfectly planned and executed endeavor. 

Amplified: You guys have put out three singles so far. You're ramping up to an album. What can you say about it? Can you tease anything about it? When can we expect it? Are you touring it? 

Ian:  Yeah, it's coming out in September, September 15th I believe. It's called Strange Disciple and there's going to be a couple more songs to come from it. But you know, thematically it just kind of deals with like, infatuation and obsession, and how when you're in the throes of those things, it can kind of warp your reality and make you do questionable things that you might not otherwise have found yourself doing. And the kind of roller coaster of snapping out of that and snapping back into it and not necessarily just romantically. The next song to come out is about 24-hour TV news and how you just, I mean, certainly, I've witnessed people I know who will start watching Fox News. And then it's suddenly like, the thing that they plan their day around, and it really kind of changes how they see the world. And so, you know, thinking about TV news and how good it is at making you a disciple of it and social media and how good that is at making you addicted and infatuated with everything you could possibly want to see. That's the theme of the album.

Amplified:  And touring, what are your plans? What can you say?

Ian:  We can say a whole lot. I mean, the rest of the summer is a lot of festivals. And then starting basically mid September, right into mid December it’s pretty much nonstop. We'll be doing some in Europe and then some in this hemisphere, we’ll be going to Mexico, we’ll be going to Colombia.

Aidan:  We may find ourselves back in the windy city again soon.

Ian:  Yes, that's the one that we have to wait a few days to talk about. But we'll be back.

Amplified:  Very cool. Thank you guys so much. We have one last thing to ask you guys, we've been asking everyone this. What was the last song you were listening to on your phone? What did you pause to go and do something more important?

Ian: This is a great question. I don't even know where my phone is.

Aidan: Oh no.

Alex: Mine was Song for Aretha by Bernard Purdie. Although he's credited as Bernard “Pretty” Purdie on Spotify, which I guess is his nickname, because pretty is in quotes. He's also known as the hitmaker. He’s also known as America's most famous, most popular drummer. He's also known as the man, the kid, the baby.

Amplified:  Was that off a playlist?

Alex:  It was off of a playlist that I made that is called 2023 that's just things that I am into in 2023. 

Ian: How did you come up with that name for that playlist? 

Alex: I was thinking, I was like, what am I going to name this. I was looking for something current, something true.

Amplified:  Yeah, ties into the themes of the playlist maybe.

Aidan:  I was listening to Wild Wild Wild Horses by A. Savage, Andrew Savage, which I have probably listened to 600 times in the last two weeks.

Amplified:  You do music that way? Where you're like, this is my song.

Aidan:  Yes, yeah.

Amplified:  Do you have that feeling where you're like, I know I'm gonna hate this in a week but I’m all in on it now.

Aidan:  I fuc- I almost cursed- I freaking hope not. Because I love it so much. I do sometimes run a song into the ground, but it's fine. Because, you know, in a few months, I can just go right back to it.

Amplified: Dig it right back up.

Aidan:  But I just think that song has some of the most incredible lyrics ever written about yearning and longing for someone. And also his voice is so warm and appealing to me. So yeah, it's been fully on repeat for like two weeks.

Ian: For me it's Holiday House by Beach House.

Amplified: Is that off their new EP?

Ian: It's from the EP with like, the keys on it. And it's just it's one of those songs where, when I heard it, I was like, do I already know this song? It feels classic, and whenever someone can manage to make a song that feels like you've always known it, it's just so comforting.  Also, you know, I was kind of privately wondering how long they've tried to avoid talking about houses because house is in the band name. to have a song called Holiday House by Beach House-Just kind of like a lot, a lot going on.

Amplified: They finally addressed it

Ian: Yeah, they're finally getting to the core of what's really going on.

Amplified: We're gonna figure that out for you when we eventually get to talk to Beach House. We're going to figure out what's going on there.

Thank you guys so much for sitting down with us. It's been great talking to you. Good luck in all of your future ventures. Congratulations on your set yesterday. It was super awesome.

Follow Nation of Language on Instagram (@nationoflanguage) to stay up to date with the band and catch them live at Metro on October 15th!

Photos by Will McLaughlin