One of the most exciting duos on the alternative scene are heading to Australia. Water From Your Eyes, whose recent album It's a Beautiful Place is firmly in our to-be-announced top albums of the year, will head to Sydney and Melbourne in March 2026. Brooklyn-based Nate Amos and Rachel Brown recorded the album last year in Amos' bedroom, with the dynamic of a band and bringing the album to life on stage in mind. The result is an enticing sonic trip questioning our place in the universe, political theory, sci-fi literature and religiuos beliefs. We spoke to Nate and Rachel about crafting the album and what's next:

Your album is so cool and clever and exciting. Tell us about the catalyst for these songs. Do you remember when the album began to take shape and feel like a world was forming? 

Nate: Sometime in early 2024 it went from being a pile of scraps to feeling like a project - I think when I figured out One Small Step/For Mankind would be a good bookend system it came together pretty fast. 

Rachel: I remember listening to the demos in my car while I was on my way to visit my Po Po and it felt the album had somehow just materialized in Nate’s hands while we were running around the world. I finally sat down with Nate in August of 2024 and wrote all of the lyrics within a few days. It kind of always feels like we are both inherently tapped into the same conceptual well, but especially this time since we were both in an existential headspace drawing from similar themes we hadn’t actually talked about.

Where did you create these tracks? Are you studio people or home studio etc? Was the environment important in creating the music?

Nate: Fully home studio vibes, I don’t like working with other people in the room so in that way it’s definitely crucial to the process.

Rachel: I feel like it’s a vulnerable process for me since I’m pretty shy when it comes to being creative. I feel pretty stupid most of the time. Nate is the only person I’ve ever really collaborated with so I think it would feel strange if there was anyone else in the vicinity. I think working in the comfort of his house makes it possible to do what we do.

How do you think living in NYC has influenced your sound? 

Nate: Everything you make is a reaction to your environment - I’m not sure exactly how living in NYC affected the album but to say that it didn’t would be silly.

Rachel: I think the artists we have been fortunate enough to know in New York have inspired us to keep doing what we’re doing without yielding to any preconceived notions of what music is supposed to sound like. I think there are a lot of people who we were around in our early stages of this band that are so uniquely themselves and being a part of a community where everyone is exploring their own processes was instrumental to us having the freedom to grow into the project we have become.

Did you have an intention behind the project? Was there something specific you knew you wanted to feel at the end of making it, or a goal you worked toward?

Nate: We wanted the album to have a more positive aura than EC but beyond that it was just a process of rolling with whatever was happening.

Rachel: I wanted to be able to say that I maintain hope in humanity and against all odds the flame in my heart continues to burn.

Is there a track you’re particularly proud of?

Nate: I think Spaceship might be my fave.

Rachel: I think naming the first and last tracks “One Small Step” and “For Mankind” has to be a highlight for my comedic career.

What is your creative community like? Are there other producers, directors, editors etc that you work with that have helped shape your world?

Nate: The musical creative process is super isolated but this sounds like more of a video question so Rachel probably has more to say here.

Rachel: Al Nardo and Bailey Wollowitz who play with us live have their own project called “Fantasy of a Broken Heart” and I feel like their world has allowed ours to grow. I think everyone I meet opens things up in ways I can’t really substantiate, but I know it’s happening. I’m lucky to have a bunch of friends still working in film from university and friends in music that I have known since moving to New York.

We love the visuals for the album. What was on the moodboard or in your mind? Was it obvious from the beginning how this album would look or did it take time as the songs formed?

Nate: I knew I wanted space to be involved but Rachel was in the driver’s seat visually.

Rachel: I knew the album was International Klein blue immediately. It was one of the first photos on the deck. I also knew I wanted the visuals to land somewhere in between Soviet space age iconography and the turn of the millenium. The aesthetic of this project is deeply rooted in surrealism to me, and it is important to me that the absurdist qualities of the music translate visually as well.

Best moment on the journey of making It’s a Beautiful Place?

Nate: To be totally honest I can’t remember, the most important steps for me were all a long time ago.

Rachel: Whenever it felt like everything was done and I could take a nap.

Which other artists are you excited about right now?

Nate: Right now I’m listening to very little other than Dopesmoker by Sleep. Also The Moody Blues.

Rachel: Sword II just put out an amazing record, but honestly I have been listening to Norman Fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey on repeat for the last week because my heart kind of hurts.

What’s something you guys are passionate about aside from music?

Nate: Dinosaurs, Bigfoot, Planets, Pho, Corndogs, Crash Team Racing, Tacos

Rachel: Movies and TV, geography, Chinese restaurants, playing games on my phone, Smiskis, trains, Twitter, taking selfies, the impact of media/propaganda on human rights, being culturally Catholic, being from Chicago, Chicago Pope, falling in love, vintage clothing

What’s next?

Nate: Just more music.

Rachel: I’m writing this on the ferry between England and France so I guess just solid ground until the next body of water.

Listen to It's a Beautiful Place HERE.

@waterfromyoureyes