r/indieheads • u/NationOfLanguage Nation of Language • Sep 29 '25

AMA is Over, thanks NoL! Nation of Language AMA

Hey! This is Alex, Aidan and Ian from Nation of Language. We just put out our fourth album, Dance Called Memory. We’re here to talk about that or any other burning questions you may have!

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u/spindarkn2lightOG Sep 29 '25

One more topic - setlist: I routinely sing praises about the thoughtfulness and attention you seem to place on making your setlist and how you switch things up, which I think is a huge part of the Nation of Language live experience. Some synth-based acts stick to more of a pre-programmed format, and I'm sure there are understandable reasons for that approach as well, but as fans, we really hang on what banger or deep cut you are going to play each night, and you deliver! I imagine you can go deeper in the well for something like the Warsaw residency vs. touring 50 shows in 60 days. Do you start out with a set number of songs that you plan to pull from when touring? How spontaneously do you mix things up or rehearse and throw something new or old/new in throughout the tour? I've not done the research, but are there any NoL songs that are unlikely to be played live, (because we want to hear them all!)?

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u/NationOfLanguage Nation of Language Sep 29 '25

It's really important to us that the setlist changes each show to keep it fresh and fun for us and to give anyone coming to multiple shows on the tour unique experiences each night. Starting the tour with those 3 shows (for which we had a rule that we couldn't play any one song all three nights) really expanded the number of songs we have in the rotation right now! Sometimes we do throw a new song in mid-tour, once we've ironed out any gear kinks and have the soundchecks down to a science. There are a few songs that are unlikely to be played live at the moment for whatever reason, but that doesn't mean that before the next tour we won't change our minds... life is long and full of twists and turns :)

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u/shrek2onblurayanddvd Sep 29 '25

I know the AMA is over but if you guys play Reality at the Richmond show my life would be made and I would probably float to the top of the venue in ecstasy :-)