“I just started spending most of my time thinking about space”: Water From Your Eyes on sci-fi atmospheres, live energy, and not overthinking

Water From Your Eyes. Photo credit: Adam Powell

Interview by Jordan Royal

With their new album It’s A Beautiful Place out today, Water From Your Eyes are reflecting on the strange balance between intimacy and immensity that shaped its creation. Like past releases, much of the record was created in Nate’s bedroom, but this time the songs were “arranged to be specially a rock band performance” Nate says.

The result is an album that shifts between folk warmth, metal backbeats, sci-fi atmospheres, and “absurd guitar solos”, while holding onto a sense of wonder at both the cosmic scale of the universe and the small, human connections within it. For Rachel, whose love of television and storytelling informs her lyrical voice, humour and intimacy thread through the songs too: “I like there to be something funny in most things because I like to laugh, and I like to make Nate laugh.”

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Jordan: Hey guys, thanks so much for hopping on the call to have a chat. I really appreciate your time. 

Nate: Thank you for having us. 

Jordan: You've made every Water From Your Eyes release in Nate's bedroom under the watch of a tattered Robin Williams poster, and I love that image. But this time you're imagining a full live band and this huge live energy with it. I was wondering how creating in that small familiar space coexisted with the bigger sonic ambitions and energy that you were writing for from this one?

Nate: You know, it's just kind of like information that gets put into the stew and comes out in some way. It's funny because really, there's only one song on this album that got put together once we had this full band in place and that's ‘Life Signs’, which was very much arranged to be specifically a rock band performance. That's really the only song in which that really came into play. The rest of it was definitely informed by live performance and the energy that comes with that, but I don't know, it just kind of happened that way. Still able to happen in the bedroom.

Jordan: Oh, that's awesome. Because you guys, obviously, since your last release, have been playing to huge crowds and have such immense live energy. It's so awesome that you could bring that into such a familiar personal space and create this record from it.

This album definitely feels like it breathes and grows in front of people. It's so unpredictable, there's so many shifting textures and sounds that I feel like on paper you wouldn't think would work together, but they fit in so amazingly. I'm thinking of ‘Playing Classics’ as a perfect example. How do you guys build songs with such range and what's the thread that keeps all these different sonic curveballs connected for you?

Nate: It just kind of happens. You try not to think about it too much and just let things be what they want to be and when you have a good idea, just trust it and follow it down the path wherever it's going. There isn't really a set of rules or a method or anything, it's just going with the flow, participating in the adventure. 

Jordan: Yeah, awesome. Going down like a little sonic rabbit hole with it. I feel like what caught my ear particularly was there are so many guitar textures and tones and voices that come in and I never know what's going to happen. I absolutely love it. That sort of takes me to my next question is across the record. There's metal backbeats, folk rock warmth, sci-fi atmospheres and country rock guitar tones too. Were there any particular sounds or effects or instrumental moments that you were especially excited to explore and bring into the mix? I feel like on ‘It's A Beautiful Place’ you're a little bit spoilt for choice. That's so many good sounds coming in.

Nate: You know, at a certain point, I kind of committed to there being like a lot of guitar solos on the album and each next one kept getting more ridiculous. It's like you need more and more to feel the same high the next time you do it. For me, the guitar solo in ‘Spaceship’ was the most absurd feeling I had in the whole creation of this album, because that's just not like a guitar solo song at all. It's a sound art piece and it happens in this really awkward place. I remember just laughing as soon as I got that solo down. So I'm excited for that song to come out, because that's definitely the most absurd guitar solo I've ever had anything to do with. 

Jordan: I love that so much, because I definitely get that - things where your ear, goes, oh, I was not expecting that. It's so much fun to listen to. I read that, I can't remember which song it was on, but you use a Frusciante guitar, like a Strat. That's so awesome. I feel like you guys bring in so many different influences and textures and different things into the mix. It's really exciting to hear. 

Rachel, I wanted to ask, I like the ‘Life Signs’ music video that you directed is amazing, and I love it andI love the like the sort of storyline of rotating characters and fitting whole lifetimes into just a couple minutes and I read that TV is a huge passion and you love to experiment with different genres, creating different universes. I sort of hear that in your music, too, like just taking little bits and pieces from different genres and mixing them together. Does your love for TV influence the way that you approach these songs in any way or vice versa?  

Rachel: I think that in terms of writing the lyrics and how much the TV affects that, I mean, I think a lot of my time has been spent watching TV. So in some way or another, that's probably affected how I view the world and how I write. I guess, perhaps in terms of writing in general, I do tend to write more conversationally. And perhaps that has to do with having spent a fair amount of time trying to or learning how to write television. Maybe comedy, I wanted to be a comedic TV writer, and I feel like I have a hard time… at least I like there to be something funny in most things because I like to laugh, and I like to make Nate laugh. 

Jordan: Oh, that's so amazing. I feel like your description of TV and what you like about TV, I can see some threads in your music, too. So that's cool, that comes through. But your vocals, too. That takes me to my next question, if there's between a bit haunting and robotic, a little bit ethereal, even at times. Lyrically, you carried The Dispossessed and There Is No Unhappy Revolution with you while writing, which I feel like are quite heavy content books. How did those books shape the ideas or tones or worlds that you wanted to capture in this record?

Rachel: I actually never even started There Is No Unhappy Revolution. The Dispossessed was funny because it's like a sci-fi book and I've read the beginning like three times and I'm like halfway through still, I haven't picked it up in almost a year. It's funny because Nate was thinking about space and then that book had me thinking about space because like in the first chapter, the guy gets on a spaceship, which tied in well because Nate was already thinking about how small we are on our little planet. I guess like the parts I skimmed of There Is No Unhappy Revolution and the parts I read about The Dispossessed is you have to put positive energy into the world if you're looking for a positive result, like if you're trying to build something like a better world, you have to be a better person. Like it starts from within.

Jordan: That's such an awesome meaning to take into, I guess like music as well into these quite heavy themes that are in these books as well. That's really interesting that there was like a connection between what you guys were both thinking in terms of space. It takes me to my next question too, this album holds space at the awe of the immensity of the universe, but also kind of gentle melancholy about our smallness within it. I was just wondering where that balance between wonder and uncertainty came from for you guys when you were writing ‘It's A Beautiful Place’?

Nate: I don't really know where it came from, it just started happening. I'm sure on a certain level, touring and seeing more of this world has something to do with it. That's something  I feel like, it's not like a new development for either of us to be thinking about that, that kind of thing. It falls neatly in line with how I think both of us have existed throughout our lives. I think for me, that was more kind of at the forefront of my mental process over the last four years. Probably as a result of, I struggled with substance abuse issues and after I've worked my way out of that, I just started spending most of my time thinking about space. So I think it's probably just by default what I think about.

Jordan: Yeah, true. Just like, I guess, yeah, going on little thought walks. I feel like it's something that's quite common to grapple with, I read that you said how music is such an important thread between a lot of those thoughts and I feel like that definitely connects with you guys traveling everywhere and seeing the connection that music can bring to these live audiences. You guys are going on tour. US, UK and Europe, which is huge. And this album was made with a live band in mind, live energy in mind. It's also filled with so many intricate layers and textures. Is there a particular sound, lyric, hidden little detail that you're excited for people to experience live? 

Nate: You know, it's always interesting to see how these songs evolve in the live format, because part of the reason the studio process is so kind of confined is to save that next step in evolution for the live band. I think it's important for this project to have the studio identity and the stage identity to have their own kind of goals and ambitions. As we've been learning the material, I'm particularly excited about the way that Nights in Armor’ is beginning to sound live. That one seems to be really growing in a way that's exciting. 

Jordan: Amazing. That one would be amazing to experience live. How about you, Rachel? 

Rachel: I'm just excited to kind of see what songs are the most energetic for the crowds. I'm pretty much in my own head whenever we're performing, so it's hard for me to really know what's going on out there. I like when people are active during the set. I don't really like when people just stand around, mostly because if I'm in an audience, I like the audience to be engaged that way. You're not like a freak dancing alone in the crowd, which I have done, but it's more fun when everyone's dancing. Yeah, I hope that all the music from the new album makes people just want to move. That'd be nice. 

Jordan: Yeah, of course. I mean, if I was at one of your guys' shows, I would definitely be like that freak that's dancing around and having the best time. I love that aspect of your answer too, of that evolution from taking these little songs and these little sonic universes into a live setting and seeing that interaction with a fan base too, and bouncing the energy off of each other. That's awesome.

But thank you guys so much for having a chat. I really appreciate your time, and I absolutely love this new album, so thank you so much. 

Nate: Thank you so much, Jordan.

Jordan: Thanks so much for having a chat and have a great rest of your day.

Rachel: Yeah, thanks for having us. Have a good day. 

Listen to It’s a Beautiful Place below.