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We caught up with Water From Your Eyes on the occasion of the promo day for the release of their new album “Everyone's Crushed” on a hot morning in Milan. As we arrive, Rachel Brown and Nate Amos are finishing a long telephone interview in the lobby of the Hotel Galles in great serenity, the kind of tranquillity that would put anyone at ease. We had a chat about their work, a bit of curiosity, and made some hints about the future, a sore point, tearing the veil of shyness that enveloped all three of us with a few laughs.
Hi guys, “Everyone's Crushed” is getting good feedback. How do you feel about it and how is the tour going?
Rachel: Really grateful. I mean, I feel so lucky that people have responded so well. It’s definitely better than I expected, not that I thought that it would be nagging, but I don’t think it could be so super-longingly positive. Thanks so much.
Nate: Yes, it’s a nice surprise. People seem less confused than I thought. Then it would be we’ve finished the album, it’s gonna be like “ok, see what happens”. It’s kind of a crazy mass. [laugh]
"Everyone's Crushed" is also your first album for Matador Records. How did the signing with the label come about?
R: One day our manager told us to get coffee with us, and so we got coffee, and then we got coffee again, and then…
N: We’ve just kept getting coffee… [laugh]
R: Yes, it took a long time, it took seven months before we finally signed. It’s kind of like a dream label, I think. Like I‘m in those I'd rather but I'd rather beyond. So yeah, I don’t know, kind of, it still feels like a dream…
N: It’s true.
For you this is a sort of new debut, much more choral and collaborative. Has something changed in your way of working compared to the past?
N: I think we’ve just really figured out our system at this point for creating music. We didn’t really sit down and change the process. I think we just became more comfortable with the personality, the band, and the way our two personalities fit into it. So we did less to the skills ourselves and it’s more this very much like both of us right up from. So I feel like it’s the most reflective of us as people.
Does the opening track “Structure” serve as a sort of bridge to your past production or is it just a coincidence?
R: It’s a prelude and it didn’t want to be a prelude…
N: We didn’t want to call it “intro”.
R: Yes, it’s like the sense “Structure” (the 2021 album) preludes “Everyone’s Crushed”. [laugh] I thought fierly, I don’t know…
N: And I thought it’s really funny. [laugh] You know, it’s just kind of, in a weird way in a lot of sense and it seems a ritual suggested that it was lacked in. It’s like “ok, this is what it’s gonna be”.
You have experimented in many directions in terms of sound over time. Were you listening to anything in particular while working on this record?
N: A lot of Ween, the band, and also Ben Johnston, the modern composer. Those were really the two main things, there are also some too.
Which is your most important song on the album, that you feel more yours, and why?
N: I think it’s probably different for each of us. For me it’s the title track, just because it was made in a really difficult time for me. A lot of this album is made when I was trying to get sober and I was struggling about. And follow this substance you do some choose. That's all, just for me was a particularly vulnerable moment, so to me that’s the most personal.
R: I think mine is probably “True Life”, because it aspires meaning to make it like "Short Skirt / Long Jacket" by Cake. It just came really naturally, and I talked about different themes like politics… I feel like it’s just really fun. Nothing else is the most fun to make it and fell the easiest to me.
"Remember Not My Name" intrigues me a lot. It reminds me of "something trip-hop". How did this song come about?
N: I don’t really remember how the music came about, but, however happened all the sudden the instrumental is there, I have some ideas for the vocals and just the friends from "remember not my name", that is very funny in a kind of way. "Victorian", like melodramatic "Pride And Prejudice" [laugh].
R: Or "Bridgertone". We make a sappy one song.
N: So we cannot just double down on it.
R: It's very sappy, sweet, to quite disgust…
N: Yeah. To me that’s the most "Ween song", on all thing the part with mellow string guitar: the instrumental sounds like a fruit gusher.
I watched the videos of the singles, the one from "14" is my favorite, and that track is thought for a visual performance. How important is the visual part for you in a work like "Everyone's Crushed"?
N: A lot of this project starts in a visual place and mostly taken place from paintings and then it goes into music, and then Rachel interprets the music and creates the visual.
R: Yeah, a lot of videos are so cinematic. I wanted it what wake refill like I guess. I went to school film, I studied film. So for me music videos are really important, obviously for emotions, the visuals connect to the emotions of the song, not necessarily like I wanted it, but so again feeling a lot. I think this is the first album where the visual is really important, but it’s also the first album where we had a budget. So… [laugh]
Is there an artist or a band you would like to collaborate with in the future?
N: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, definitely.
R: Yeah!
I ask you for a film and an album that are important to you personally.
N: Mmm… An album… "Climate Of Hunter" by Scott Walker. A movie… "National Treasure". [laugh]
R: That's a good one! [laugh] An album, I say "American Water" by Silver Jews, and a movie… "Chungking Express" by Wong Kar-Wai.
One of the main concepts of the album is to feel trapped. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the future?
R: It depends on the day. Sometimes i feel a lot more optimistic, and sometimes I feel a lot more pessimistic. Depending on what I see, what's happening… And I don’t feel particularly optimistic today, considered the world is burning. I see I don’t really think about the future, instead about how many more times at the end of the day it’s always beautiful.
N: I'd just really loved to remain at home someday.
So that's all, thank you so much for your time, and I hope to see you soon for a concert in Italy.
N & R: Thank you so much.
