Back in 2023, New York duo Water From Your Eyes broke through on their experimental, avant-garde industrial pop debut Everyone’s Crushed. Two years after this record forced them into the public eye, they’re back with one of 2025’s most impressive and memorable albums – It’s a Beautiful Place. Jack Parker called up vocalist Rachel Brown and multi-instrumentalist Nate Amos while they were on tour.
Good morning Rachel. How’s the current American tour going?
Brown: It’s going pretty good. It’s our first official US headline tour, so I think we’re a little nervous about how it’s gonna go as we don’t have anything to compare it with. It’s a lot easier than we thought it was going to be.
The tour itself is in support of your brilliant new album It’s a Beautiful Place, the follow-up to 2023’s Everyone’s Crushed. What would you say is one main thing which sets the new record apart from its predecessor, and what’s one thing that keeps them connected?
Brown: It’s definitely more accessible. A friend of mine described it as more anthemic. It’s weird, because it’s more complicated yet also more accessible at the same time. Maybe Nate can speak to this better.
Amos: Well, there are more guitars. It’s primarily guitar-based this time instead of being primarily sample-based. I think that’s the fundamental difference; it’s more an instrument album than a computer one.
And yet one of the standout songs on the album, Playing Classics, is very much beat-driven. Can you tell me more about that song?
Amos: Rachel had been asking me to make a disco song, and I was trying to figure out the best way to do that. So while that song is sample-based, the sample itself came from a main guitar riff. All the chord progressions and the main riff were written using instruments.
In the time between records you also released a remix album, Crushed By Everyone. Did the process involved in creating that collection at all inform the way you approached this album?
Amos: No, it didn’t have anything to do with it, it was really its own thing.
Artists make art for themselves, but as this is your first release post-breakthrough did you – perhaps subconsciously – put yourself under any pressure to do things in a certain way?
Brown: No, I think it’s still for us.
Amos: I think we were very careful not to disrupt that ecosystem. I think what allowed this band to become what it is, is just the fact that we didn’t really have any concern for it being anyone other than us. There was definitely a realization that we had a platform now, and we became aware of that in terms of the vibe of the album. But in terms of the style, we realised that being uncompromisingly ourselves is what allowed this band to turn into what it is now. If we started doing it for other people rather than ourselves it probably wouldn’t be as good. Part of what makes this band what we are is that everything is kind of an accident and we’re never actually successfully making what we’re trying to make. If we were trying to make something specifically so other people would like it, we’d probably end up making something no one liked because it came out wrong. If you’re trying to make music for yourself then it doesn’t matter if it’s wrong, because no one else would know.
Rules are arbitrary. The album itself only has six full-length songs, along with four interludes. Was it always your intention to keep the record so, I guess, brief and succinct?
Amos: Looking back at the album now, I feel like if there were two more songs on it I would be quite exhausted as a listener. Part of what makes this album tick is that so much happens so quickly. I’d much rather have it be a little short than to overstay our welcome, especially with this kind of music.
So do you think you were able to tell all the stories you wanted to tell within this compact collection of songs?
Amos: Yeah, I think it’s balanced.
Brown: I’m happy with the way it all sits together.
On the other side of the coin, we’ve seen music videos with very interesting visual styles and aesthetics. Can you tell me a bit more about what informed this side of the album?
Brown: When the album was done, I tried to sit down and think about what it all looks like. In this case, it felt very collage-y and blue – those are the two main things. And since we had landed on [outer] space thematically a lot of the visual side was informed by sci-fi and futurism. As for the videos, I don’t like it when everything is too similar. It’s also important that if the other directors we work with want to take creative liberties, they still have to fit into that same universe. A collage, though, for sure. The album is a mixed bowl, so it felt important to me that the videos felt like that too.
Were there any particular sci-fi films or directors who you drew inspiration from?
Brown: So the lyrics were partially inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s book The Dispossessed, but when we finished the album I finally went and watched [Stanley Kubrick’s] 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I had never seen. I got to see it in 70mm and it was pretty life-changing.
As a young group releasing music during this Gen Z/TikTok era, do you feel like it’s easy adapting to the constant changes around you in terms of social media and content creation?
Brown: I think definitely more so than other people. I think we’re lucky because we’re able to say no to things and make decisions on what we want to be and how we present ourselves. That makes it feel true to who we are and still meet the demands of social media engagement. I think it’s easier for me because I grew up with it, I got Facebook when I was 13 and Instagram came out when I was in high school. It’s a lot more natural for me to just be thinking about an online presence. Nate’s a bit older than me.
Amos: I feel super awkward on social media, I don’t like it at all. It’s hard.
There’s this pressure you must feel from having to deliver not just on record, but also online. Do you feel like social media now is more of a help or a hindrance to new artists?
Amos: I think it’s a huge distraction. Personally, if I didn’t have to do social media stuff, I would be making way more music, and better music, frankly.
Brown: I think it’s a help. Especially with our music, you know? The majority of people who listen to music are listening to things that come towards them through the algorithm, and our music doesn’t necessarily fit into an algorithm. I don’t think it’s music that necessarily gets there easily, although maybe more so with this album. Our first album definitely wasn’t music that would pop up in an algorithm, like a popular song or anything like that. Having social media has allowed us to reach new audiences. I know Nate and I really disagree on this, but I think it’s important for audiences to kind of understand who we are just as people, so that they can better understand where the music is coming from. Without social media, people would think we’re just a bunch of pretentious art school kids. In reality, we’re two goofballs, and it’s important for people to see us that way rather than come to a conclusion based on the music.
Given the state of the world currently, do you also feel like there’s an obligation for artists to use their platform in a certain way?
Brown: Our music isn’t necessarily political and we aren’t writing protest songs, but if you’re a person, you’re participating in a political system. I think it’s important that anybody who has a platform and who has had the opportunity to be educated should have discussions and stay informed. It’s so easy to stay informed nowadays. It’s obviously getting harder to decipher what’s true and what isn’t, but at the end of the day it’s really not that difficult if you have media literacy. If you have any kind of platform, regardless of whether or not you’re an artist or just someone who people are interested in hearing from, it’s important to acknowledge what is possible. A lot of people feel like they’re supposed to be speaking about politics and world news as if they’re being treated like an expert witness, but I think it’s just important to acknowledge how fucked up things are right now, and what you can do. The most important thing we can all do as a collective is to maintain hope and belief in each other, and that we’re capable of joining forces and doing something. You’re not alone.
I think every artist right now concerns themselves with this on a daily basis.
Brown: I think it’d be crazy for these things not to be on your mind every day. You’d have to be in such a place of privilege and ignorance to be able to move through the world without knowing that – at this very moment – people are being bombed for absolutely no reason, or that there’s ethnic cleansing happening not just in Palestine, but also in Sudan and the Congo. Beyond war crimes, there’s human rights violations happening across the world. In the US, there are human rights violations happening every single day to Black people, trans people and homeless people. We haven’t reached a point where we can just sit back and relax. And on top of it all, at a global level, just knowing that Earth is quite literally screaming at us that it’s no longer feeling really sustainable for human life. I think everybody should feel obligated to be aware of these things, whether or not they have a platform. If you’re someone who’s had a “normal life”, it’s your obligation as part of the human species to understand the human condition.
Exactly. Touching on the human condition, I just want to segue into a question about David Byrne, who has covered a lot of ground regarding the human condition in his music. He’s popped up in some of the promotional shorts you filmed for this album campaign, how did that come about? Is he a fan?
Brown: Yeah, he’s a fan! He’d heard of us because we’re both signed to Matador Records, and he mentioned to someone at the label that he liked our band. I recently started making social media content with Stereogum, and they had the opportunity to interview him for the first time, something they’d tried to do forever. Since videos have become a lot more involved with interviews, Stereogum asked me if I could do it. I’d never really interviewed anyone before, but I was like, “yeah, I wanna hang out with that guy, he’s awesome”. It’s a Beautiful Place is out now.
