B.Asking in the winter sunshine and admiring the colorful houseboats that line the narrow curves of the Regent Canal, Water from Your Eyes discusses the long and winding journey it took to get here. The skies of February afternoons are uniquely bright, making the world feel at home for experimental pop duo Rachel Brown and Nate Amos. “Something’s finally happening to our band, and look where we are today,” said producer Amos, taking in his quaint surroundings as the light caught his ring. Show with gestures.
A few hours later, the two are headlining one of London’s most famous indie clubs, The Lexington, but they’re in a dreamy and singular moment. Brown and Amos have been working on selling rooms abroad for the past six years, starting with her DIY home studio setup entirely. Their electro-his sound is both brutal and healing. Primarily inspired by early New His Order, the songs are wrapped in heavy fuzz, crackling, and gorgeous, expansive tones, but remain decidedly self-contained.
Braun and Amos rule a world of their own, blending influential pop with a quirky sense of humor. Yet its subversive spirit is less dependent on the punch line than the erratic pacing and subtle, surreal jokes. The 2021 EP Somebody Else’s Songs kicks off with a dead-eyed cover of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” harking back to her culture of early social lo-fi memes of her media. The groundbreaking album Structure, released later that year, took it a step further, utilizing Brown’s candor to great effect.My love is lost somewhere underground / They know their way out, they growled and sang drones on “My Love’s.” Nation Of Language’s lilting synth-pop is easily comparable, but Water From Your Eyes’ charming and strange sincerity is all theirs.
“We’ve learned to balance each other in certain ways,” says Amos. “The music is heady and intense, but it’s also underlyingly related. It’s that juxtaposition that makes our collaboration stand out.” You can hear it in the upcoming “Everyone’s Crushed” (coming May 26th). [Snail Mail, Lucy Dacus] And the best and most carefully considered collection they’ve ever created. On the album’s standout ’14’ and the shimmering ‘Out There’, Brown’s crystal-clear, broadcast-inspired vocals are at the heart of his style, while Amos’ production gives the songs guts and heartbeat. Ultimately, the band’s vision for 2023 – all mismatched sounds and gentle abstractions – is wrapped up in oneness.
“Things went from zero to 100 these days,” says Brown, leading us down a leafy road when discussing label-mate Interpol’s current European support slot. It was as if we had started to strike a balance, it was strange that we didn’t go on tour very often for the amount of time we spent working on the album. Do I have to?”
T.The pair, who met on Chicago’s indie scene before moving to New York, are gloriously normal oddballs who are at their most confident and acrimoniously hilarious on record.As we talk, curiosity and warmth bubble through their conversation, as if we’re still learning new things about each other. Riotsays Amos, describing his bandmates as “positively funny.” He’s not wrong.As a “Terminal Online” teenager, Brown aspired to perform stand-up and write TV comedies, and shared his stories across “jokes” Facebook groups, including one dedicated to legendary guitarist Santana. Posted shit regularly.
Today, though, Brown regularly looks back at the band’s previous records, most notably 2018’s “All A Dance,” where every track is written from the point of view of an unnamed supporting character in the film – between playfulness and sincerity. An early song by Water From Your Eyes as an example of the “cacophony” of . “I’ve spent a long time hiding the vulnerabilities I have with humor,” said Community, noting that he won a “class clown” award while studying at his college. Then the two say. “It was really bad for my mental state. Before I met Nate, I wasn’t really serious about music. I refused.”
Any major shift in the relationship between Brown and Amos would change and reshape the music they wanted to make. In early 2019, after dating for four years, they broke up but agreed to remain collaborators. They played shows in New York every week and burned themselves out answering all band-related emails without a manager or booking agent. “The amount of work we put into maintaining this band felt like an unpaid internship,” they added.
After spending a month apart from each other, the band began work on “Structure” while Amos spent time recovering from an addiction problem that plagued him in his early twenties. Even after that, making music was a lot of fun,” says Amos. “If either of us had tried to come up with something like Water From Your Eyes on our own, we wouldn’t have been able to make something like the one we made together.” continues to It shouldn’t work, but we stopped trying to find an answer. ”
W.When they were making “Everyone’s Crushed,” almost all of Brown’s and Amos’ trajectories had to be readjusted. They moved into new separate apartments and learned how to build and maintain better boundaries when it came to gig schedules. Curling is a sport in which the final goal is achieved in real time as the player moves slowly towards the goal. “Even after everything happened, Nate is the most important person in my life,” they say shyly.
For Brown and Amos, completing the album’s standout, ‘Barley’, was a rather unsettling slow-burner, but a record deal means their trajectory as a band is finally on the upswing. It was the first sign that “What’s really happening with our band right now is that all the work we’ve been doing feels justified,” says Amos. “This is the right thing that we are doing together. I did not know-“
Brown’s mouth is closed. The reason we kept doing this was because it was so much fun for both of us, regardless of the outcome.
Arriving at Camden Lock, a slow, relaxing stroll quickly turns into a mission to dodge the crowds meandering around the food market. As a group of young children run around us, brandishing toy swords above their heads, Amos and Brown let out a gentle chuckle, pause for a moment, and get dizzy in one of London’s busiest areas. Bring in the atmosphere. Their chaotic and spooky world may be expanding, but Water From Your Eyes are happy to see it evolve into something new.
Water From Your Eyes’ new album ‘Everyone’s Crushed’ will be released on May 26th via Matador Records.
Radar Roundup: Sign up for our new weekly music newsletter
Other Articles
