{"id":62802,"date":"2025-08-12T15:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62802\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T15:03:07","slug":"water-from-your-eyes-contend-with-the-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/62802\/","title":{"rendered":"Water From Your Eyes contend with the universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The point of Water From Your Eyes<\/a>\u2019 new album, \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019, is that it doesn\u2019t really matter. The songs on the eccentric New York-based indie<\/a> duo\u2019s sixth album encompass dizzying changes in direction, earworm melodies arising from dense and intricate thickets of sound, and references that range from nu-metal to Americana to dance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s brilliant, and sure to send them further into the indie rock cosmos that they\u2019ve been orbiting for the last few years, signing to Matador Records and touring with the likes of Interpol<\/a> and Snail Mail<\/a>. It\u2019s just that what they\u2019re trying to illustrate \u2013 an idea tied together by the sci-fi-esque ambient opening and closing tracks, \u2018One Small Step\u2019 and \u2018For Mankind\u2019, that sound sort of like robotic whale sound \u2013 is that this all seems insignificant compared to the actual cosmos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we do within normal expression, in this case being rock music or whatever, can feel like this huge variety of different things,\u201d says Nate Amos, the member of the duo who writes and produces the music, speaking to NME over Zoom alongside vocalist\/lyricist Rachel Brown. \u201cThen, you realise that that whole range of expression is still a very small thing in the context of everything. [We were] using that as a way to reflect the contradictory sensations of everything we do not mattering at all on a cosmic scale, and also mattering a whole hell of a lot on a personal scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are big ideas, but \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019 is by no means heady or high-concept. The music is janky and off-kilter, all recorded, as always, by Amos in his bedroom. By their own admission, The Dispossessed \u2013 the Ursula Le Guin novel that lent Brown much of their inspiration \u2013 was only half-read and half-recalled. It\u2019s like the musical equivalent of two friends getting stoned, staring at a poster of space, and blowing each other\u2019s minds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNate and I are both pretty existential. I think that was one of the things we bonded over [when we met] \u2013 the philosophical nature of existence, and conspiracy theories, and aliens,\u201d Brown says. Amos agrees: \u201cI think we both find a sense of solace in accepting the fact that we as a species don\u2019t understand as much as we like to think we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water From Your Eyes began in 2016, shortly after Amos and Brown met at a gig and began dating. But it didn\u2019t really come into its own until they broke up. When they got together to work on their fourth album, \u2018Structure\u2019, it was the first time they\u2019d spent alone since the end of their four-year relationship, and there was a newfound sense of ease. \u201cI feel like when we met each other, there was a sense of our lives [being] entangled somehow. And the only way that we really knew how to go about pursuing that was dating at first,\u201d Amos says. \u201cOnce the band was the focus, it was like, \u2018Oh, this is what it was supposed to be\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ironic that \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019 is an album with its eyes set on the cosmos, because in fact it\u2019s the duo\u2019s most earthbound and accessible album in a while. Instrumentally, \u2019Structure\u2019, which was released in 2021, built menacing, industrial synths and quasi-melodic loops into six- or seven-minute-long textural experiments, while 2023\u2019s \u2018Everyone\u2019s Crushed\u2019 consisted of chaotic, brash noise collages.<\/p>\n

On \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019, however, guitar is at the forefront. Sometimes Amos wrangles it into wacky shapes, like the buoyant groove of \u2018Nights in Armor\u2019 or the skitterish, playful \u2018Spaceship\u2019, but on other songs it\u2019s surprisingly straightforward, like the hardcore riffing of \u2018Life Signs\u2019 or the meandering Americana of \u2018Blood on the Dollar\u2019. For the first time, owing to Water From Your Eyes\u2019 now full-time touring schedule, Amos has been consciously trying to improve as a guitarist and actually enjoying the medium.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we bonded over [when we met was] the philosophical nature of existence, and conspiracy theories, and aliens\u201d \u2013 Rachel Brown<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like [on] our first tour, you were like, \u2018I hate pedals, I hate solos, I hate guitar,\u2019\u201d Brown recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I was very anti-guitar for a long time, and then I realised that guitar is actually really funny. Like, nothing\u2019s funnier than a guitar solo,\u201d Amos says. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018OK, every song\u2019s getting a fucking guitar solo\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amos\u2019 exaltation of funniness is striking. It\u2019s true that Water From Your Eyes\u2019 strange and inscrutable twists and turns often end up feeling like an inside joke, like Amos and Brown\u2019s main intention is to chase the choices that amuse them most. \u201cMaking indie-rock is like, a funny thing to do,\u201d Amos agrees. \u201cNothing makes it more awkward than when you take it more seriously than it needs to be taken. \u2018Cause at the end of the day, like, dude, you\u2019re making fucking indie-rock. It can only be so serious. I find that self-seriousness holds a lot of music back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like being silly is inherently creative,\u201d Brown adds. \u201cWhen you\u2019re silly, you\u2019re making choices that otherwise wouldn\u2019t be made because you would think it\u2019s too silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WaterWater From Your Eyes credit: Adam Powell<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s definitely one working rule that we have: nothing is ever off bounds for being too silly,\u201d Amos says. \u201cNothing can be sick without being a little silly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given that silliness, the music\u2019s obstinate strangeness, and the pair\u2019s insular dynamic (no other person has ever been involved in the recording of their music), it\u2019s surprising to both of them that Water From Your Eyes is now a big deal in indie\u2019s mainstream. With a new level of resources and clout to hand, some bands would take the opportunity to level up their process, leaving the bedroom and bringing in a producer or collaborators. Not Water From Your Eyes, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the identity of this band is inherently linked to the process in which the music is made. The vibe of the vocals and lyrics very much depends on the relationship that we have when no one else is around,\u201d Amos says. \u201cIt\u2019s a tricky thing to maintain, because there has been pressure to switch it up. But I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything that would kill Water From Your Eyes faster than bringing a producer into the room, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing is ever off bounds for being too silly. Nothing can be sick without being a little silly\u201d \u2013 Nate Amos<\/p>\n

So what has kept the delicate ecosystem created by these two exes and best friends afloat for the best part of a decade now? \u201cOne of the things is that I love to talk. I love to chat and be social and use words, and communicate, and connect. And Nate loves to make music that no one else can understand how it\u2019s made,\u201d Brown says.<\/p>\n

Amos laughs. \u201cYeah, I think the balance of our personalities is part of what makes the music tick. It allows me to explore some areas that would be kind of impenetrable if not for Rachel\u2019s presence being so directly relatable. We also have very different tastes in music, which makes it so that the thing that comes out is not what either of us would have done on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lucky \u2018cause Nate makes music that I couldn\u2019t even dream up, and I get to participate, and it\u2019s so much fun,\u201d Brown affirms. \u201cBut the one thing we\u2019re both really good at is hanging out. We have been kicking it for a decade.\u201d Forget cosmic insignificance \u2013 for Water From Your Eyes, this is what really matters.<\/p>\n

Water From Your Eyes\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019 is out on August 22 via Matador Records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The point of Water From Your Eyes\u2019 new album, \u2018It\u2019s A Beautiful Place\u2019, is that it doesn\u2019t really…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,1770,136],"class_list":["post-62802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}