NATION OF LANGUAGE

from Come Play With / #017 / NOV2021

by Come Play With Me CIC

PIP BLOM

PHOTO BOOTH LIVE CONCERT PHOTOS ON FILM, POST-LOCKDOWN

WITH NATION OF LANGUAGE

Hi, we are Nation Of Language from Brooklyn, made up of myself (Ian Devaney), my wife Aidan Noell, and our friend Michael Sue-Poi. We’ve been a band for quite a while, and after releasing the odd single we thought it was time to make an album but there was no way we were able to afford it. So Aidan and I decided to get married and instead of registering for gifts, we asked people to put money towards studio time. Presence" was released last year and even though we did everything ourselves, it ended up becoming successful to the point we asked what we should do with the money which was easy - make another album of course.

"A Way Forward" came out at the start of November, and we were even able to tour properly for the first time with most of the dates in the US selling out.

We’re touring the UK for the first time in January including Leeds, and we can’t wait. We released our debut album in the spring of 2020 and as a result never got to have that joy of taking a new album out on the road. We decided to take that time to record our second album, and are now fortunate enough to be on the road in support of both records.

Getting to experience live

music alongside our fans and go out to shows has been such a spiritual boost, so we wanted to share what these early days back have been looking like for us.

We really like the limited nature of film - you only have so many shots you’re willing to take at each event, and a lot of times they don’t work out, but sometimes you get something that you never intended. That element of surprise and being open to any result is an appealing way to approach photography and we feel it captures something of the essence of live music itself - spontaneity, surprise, a little bit of magic.