The Devil Wears Nada Talk New Single, Musical Memories And More

Swedish rockers The Devil Wears Nada have released their new single ‘Late Night Talking’ from their debut album ‘Postalgia which is out on 24th May via Eonian Records. Ludvig Alfvén kindly spoke to us:

 

Who is in The Devil Wears Nada, how did you meet and what do you play?

The Devil Wears Nada started out as a solo project by drummer and main songwriter Ludvig back in 2020. He wrote about half a dozen songs that felt good enough to record and sent them to his long time friend Henrik Westergren. A couple years later Ludvig had written around 23 demos that felt suitable for a debut record, even though he didn’t even have a band for it. It felt natural to ask his friend Henrik to play guitar and co-produce the project, and Ludvig later asked his friend and bass player Fredrik Svensson Carlström to play the bass parts. Ludvig then asked his past band mate and vocalist Linus Johansson to sing the songs for the project. The final piece of the puzzle was the lead guitarist. Ludvig asked a couple guitarists who passed on the opportunity. He wanted his longtime friend Jacob Werner to play lead guitar on the album, but he knew that Jacob is really busy working as a producer for artists such as Benjamin Ingrosso, Marcus & Martinus, Peter Jöback and many others – so he hesitated to ask at first. To his surprise Jacob agreed to play guitars and synths on the record, and he even mixed the entire album.

 

What is your earliest musical memory?

Ludvig: Seeing Hammerfall on Swedish ZTV and the music video for “Hearts On Fire”. That and seeing Finnish rock icons Lordi winning the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2006 made me want to play drums. That event was life changing to me.

 

 

When did you begin songwriting?

Ludvig: I began writing songs when I was twelve or thirteen. Back then it was just basically learning the craft, like how to write a song from start to finish. The songs I wrote back then were terrible of course. The process to develop your songwriting abilities takes a lot of trial and error before you are happy with the result. I think I’ve only written around 60-70 songs in total, where at least half of them will never see the light of day.

 

Your debut album ‘Postalgia’ will be released on 24th May 2025 via Eonian Records. How did you want to approach the making of the album?

 

Ludvig: Well it all started as my solo project back in 2020, and I just happened to write half a dozen songs that all felt kind of 80’s and in the same “world”. After the first song I wrote (Make Me Feel), I felt like I could continue on the same path for an entire record. It felt like I had found the key to writing the hooks that are similar to the 80’s based arena rock.

 

Where did you record the album and who produced it?

Ludvig: We recorded the album in three different studios: “Nordic Sound Lab” in Skara for the drums, “Studio Hornborga” for guitars and bass

 

Do you have any interesting, funny or memorable stories from the album recording sessions?

Henrik: I remember the time when Ludvig used to come over to my place and he showed me the demos that he had recorded by himself during the pandemic years. We worked and the demos and I still remember the smile on my face when I heard our demos slowly taking form.

 

Ludvig: There are so many memorable stories from the album recording sessions. One of them is recording Linus’ vocals in Henriks apartment. Henrik acted as the recording engineer and placed Linus between two hallway doors with a blanket over him to take out all other background noises. I laughed way too loud way too many times.

 

Do you use any particular instruments, microphones, recording equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for the record?

 

Henrik: Henrik’s Guitars:

 

All of my guitars on Postalgia were recorded straight through the high gain channel on a Marshall JCM 2000 guitar amp with two Shure SM57’s & a Sennheiser MD421 on the 4×12 Marshall cabinet to get that ”raw”, powerful, distorted sound that a real tube-amp produces.

 

We also used a Røde NT1-A placed further away from the amp to capture the room in some parts.

 

All of which Fredrik owns and keeps in his cozy, little home studio, Studio Hornborga.

 

My trustworthy Gibson Firebird is the guitar I play on the record through and through.

 

I brought my pedalboard to the studio with a lot of effects that I usually use while playing live, but we quickly found out that the best choice was to go with the raw sound of the amp. Then all the delays, reverbs and other effects were added in post-production to really control the sounds.

 

You also have your new single ‘Late Night Talking’ which is out now. What was the story/inspiration behind the track?

 

Ludvig: I love old horror movies and this specific track is my tribute to some of my favourite flicks, such as “Halloween”, “Hush” and “Friday the 13th”. I wanted to write a synth heavy classic rock track with lyrics portraying a madman and his obsession about one girl.

 

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

 

Ludvig: I feel like I speak on behalf of the entire group that we hope to make the audience feel better about themselves after we have left the stage. This world is filled with negativity and hard times, so if we can make your evening a little bit better – we have done our job. The second thing I hope we have achieved is actually performing well live *laughs*.

 

 

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

Ludvig: We come from Falköping, a small town in Sweden. It is located about an hour from Gothenburg, the second largest city in Sweden. If I needed to describe my hometown in five words it would be: small, cosy, ghosttown, beautiful and cold.