Rising Brooklyn-based synth-pop trio Nation of Language have shared their new single The Wall & I. The track is lifted from their upcoming debut album, ‘Introduction, Presence,’ which is due out on May 22. You can listen to The Wall & I via YouTube below and purchase ‘Introduction, Presence’ here.
The band’s recent single Friend Machine kicked off this week’s episode of The Fink + Forty Show on KCRW Berlin and landed on Danger Mouse Jukebox and G-Mix: Murdoc Niccals (Gorillaz) Spotify playlists.
Discussing the ideas behind The Wall & I, songwriter-vocalist Ian Devaney stated, “The hardest part of the creative process for me are those moments when things don’t flow naturally at all, and you just have to sit and slug it out with your own brain, all the while knowing that you might spend hours mining your memories and working through feelings only to end up with nothing useable on the other side. In the time since writing ‘The Wall & I,’ itself a product of many such fruitless hours, I have tried to make a mental adjustment to see the struggle itself as a kind of conceptual or performative dance—to make the conscious choice to spend a whole day locked in battle with my own aspirations wrestling against actual outcomes. As good as it feels to just sit down and knock a song out, there is a different level of satisfaction when you feel like you’ve bled a little bit and truly earned it.”
Inspired by the early new wave and punk movements, Nation of Language’s energetic anthems blend upbeat energy with a healthy dose of sardonic melancholy. The two-year process of creating ‘Introduction, Presence’ involved both musical exploration and self-discovery by Devaney, keyboardist Aidan Devaney and bassist Michael Sui-Poi. The three went into the studio without an agenda, ready to experiment with new instruments to see what sounds came out. “There’s something fascinating to me about how emotions can present themselves when one is unsure of what exactly they’re doing,” Devaney mused. “It’s important to me that people feel that core of innocence and pure discovery out of which these songs were born.”
These powerful emotions transcend time and genre, and they have endeared Nation of Language to concertgoers who have had the opportunity to witness their live act, as well as listeners who have come across their early singles as if discovering a hidden secret.
For more information on Nation of Language, visit nationoflanguage.com.
