Water From Your Eyes are New York based duo Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him)
They started making music together in 2016 while living in Chicago, after Amos played Brown some New Order and they decided they wanted to start a “sad dance band.” Both musicians in their own right (Amos as ‘This Is Lorelei’ and Brown as ‘Thanks For Coming’), and a couple at the time, they made their self-titled debut EP in a week. Over the next few years, Water From Your Eyes’ music drifted toward rangier and less conventional sounds, incorporating serene industrial polyrhythms, ambient drone music, and contemporary composition.
Eventually, Amos and Brown broke up, moved to New York, and began working on Structure. That album found harmony between the duo’s pop and experimental impulses, the tracklist bookended by gossamer pop songs that were a testament to both their keen grasp of vintage hooks and their trollish sense of humor. Despite finding solace in the band, both describe 2021 as one of the worst years of their lives – Brown grappling with the malaise they felt upon seeing the way that capitalism and establishment politics were kicking back into overdrive as the pandemic entered its later months, and Amos working through substance abuse issues with Brown’s support.
As a result, their 2023 record Everyone’s Crushed – their first since signing to Matador Records – is shot through with unresolved tension, its nine tracks skittishly refusing to seek out resolute endings or stick to traditional structures. Everyone’s Crushed maps the liminal space between humor and darkness, between cracking up and freaking out. In the album’s closing moments Brown speaks in direct terms, “Clap those hands/Buy my product/There are no happy endings/I’m spending/I’m spending.” It’s playful and totally serious, punky bordering on anarchic, and a resolution to the record’s opening sentiment – “I just wanted to pray for the rain/Wishful thinking for sunny days.” .
Following the runaway success of Everyone’s Crushed, the duo followed up with Crushed By Everyone, a remix album featuring contributions from Mandy Indiana, Nourished By Time, Sword II, The Dare and more.
PRESS FOR WATER FROM YOUR EYES
“One of the most exciting bands out there right now” -Rolling Stone
“Like Sonic Youth if it had been raised on memes” – The New York Times
“So mesmerising it’ll give you a contact high” – Pitchfork (8.3, Best New Music)
“Thrilling” – The Guardian (****, Album of the Week)