Water From Your Eyes
Nik Soelter
Water From Your Eyes don’t take much seriously, but they are deeply invested in cover songs. The discography of Nate Amos and Rachel Brown’s Brooklyn-based project is partially defined by their versions of other people’s songs: In 2019 they released the aptly titled Somebody Else’s Songs featuring their take on tracks by artists like Eminem, No Doubt, and Carly Rae Jepsen. The passion is occasionally irrepressible: a song on their 2023 album Everyone’s Crushed titled “True Life” includes Brown singing, “Neil, let me sing your song,” a reference to their plan to interpolate Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” in a track but being denied by his legal team.
Today they share MP3 Player 1, an EP of new covers they made while working on last year’s Everyone’s Crushed. With a tracklist that includes deep cuts by Chumbawamba, and Third Eye Blind, plus Adele’s “Someone Like You” done in the style of The Cure, MP3 Player 1 is playful and free like a good time at the karaoke bar, one where a friend shows a side of themselves you haven’t quite seen expressed so clearly.
The four-track release could be read as a joke or a bracingly heartfelt endeavor, a tightrope that the pair have mastered navigating across their work together. Brown and Amos say they record the covers during sessions for their own music to clear their minds and try new ideas. Some people might take a walk, Water From Your Eyes record an earnest take on Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone.”
For a collection of covers, the new EP is remarkably in conversation with the band’s art-rock originals, maintaining both the stoner humor and disorientingly addictive take on DIY indie rock that made Everyone’s Crushed a breakout album for the prolific pair. Read on for Amos and Brown’s discussion of approaching the whole thing with a “kill your idols” approach, burying Avril Lavigne songs deep in the mix, and the one cover version they had to abandon.
The FADER: Talk to me about your whole deal with cover songs…
Amos: It was something that started originally as a practice thing. I would record bands in Chicago and it was a way to constantly be working on aspects of production without being personally tied to it. I moved to New York and stopped doing that for a time but wanted to get back to it. So I went on this tear and just started trying to recreate instrumentals from a bunch of songs I liked as accurately as I could, as sort of a challenge. And then at a certain point we started doing them, the two of us. It was something that we both just really liked doing. Now it’s become part of the ritual of making an album where we just kind of do that at a certain point.
How did you pick the songs that make up MP3 Player 1?
Brown: A lot of the cover songs have come out on compilations over the years, but these were the ones that still felt relevant to come out on their own. It wasn’t particularly difficult to settle on them, even though looking at them now most of them are songs by extremely talented and powerful singers which I am not.
Amos: It’s a combination of what we thought came out the best and what we thought were the more interesting choices. Covers are a weird part of the Water From Your Eyes universe, because it's such a different vibe than the albums tend to be. It's a very different itch to scratch. So it's already these weird curveball things so why not make the song selections themselves curveballs? We know no one's expecting to hear a Chumbawamba song. We like the constant distraction.
One of the covers is of a Chumbawamba song. It’s funny that most people, if they even know Chumbawamba, will know one song (“Tubthumping”) and that’s not even the song [“The Good Ship Lifestyle”] you covered…
Amos: I had a copy of that CD [1997 album Tubthumper] growing up. I can't even remember how I ended up with it. That album's awesome. It has some really good pop songs on it but I've never really encountered anyone who also knows the album really well. Everyone knows the one song but I've been like, “no, like you got to listen to this whole thing.” Also, it's like, gotta be some of my favorite cover artwork of all time.
I think my favorite cover on the EP is your take on “Someone Like You” by Adele.
Brown: Adele covers “Lovesong” by The Cure on 21 and I love that album so I thought it would be really funny to cover “Someone Like You” in the style of The Cure.
Amos: Rachel came over and was like, “I want to cover this Adele song in the style of The Cure.” And, I did not know the Adele song. And, to this day, I have a vague understanding of what they sound like, but I've never sat down and listened to The Cure. The only song of theirs that I am able to identify is like the days of the week song ["Friday I'm In Love"].
That cover was made entirely in like 40 minutes or something. I also wanted to try and get the words and melody from [Avril Lavinge's] "Sk8r Boi" into every one of these covers. But that was the only one that I ended up doing. So throughout that song, I'm singing little bits of "Sk8er Boi" in the background. It’s probably my favorite cover we've ever made. I have a really hard time not smiling when I listen to that, which is not the case for much Water From Your Eyes music.
"Motorcycle Drive By" is quite a deep cut Third Eye Blind song. What is its significance to you?
Brown: I relate to that song so much, can’t really explain it but it feels exactly like my life. I love that record, one of my all-time favorites and that is my top song on it. Gets me every time.
There is also a cover of Al Green’s “Tired Of Being Alone.” Did you have any reservations about taking on such a beloved classic?
Amos: It’s like, “fuck it,” you know? Kill your idols type thing. All four of these songs, even though some of them are sillier than others, are legitimate, earnest, loving homages. We're not making fun of anything. Some of it's a little absurd and that's fine. That's just kind of like how, how we tend to operate.
But it's all celebratory, you know? There's no inkling of malicious intent. It is all very full of love, even if we're kind of butchering some of these songs.
With the title being MP3 Player 1 is it fair to assume you plan more EPs like this?
Amos: That's the idea, yeah. We see it as a little series that is very clearly informal in nature. Maybe one day there will be this little series of MP3 player EPs and hours of covers for people to listen to.
Is there something specific that you’re looking for when it comes to covering a song?
Amos: The deciding factor is it feeling like it's not going to work. That makes it way more fun. And when it inevitably doesn't work you don't have to pretend that you were trying to make it work in the first place.
So the less likely it is, the more of a challenge it feels like. I really want to do an album that's all really long rock songs, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and stuff. It will be God awful, but awesome, you know?
Is there a song you ever tried covering and it was just a total disaster?
Amos: The only cover we've ever worked on that we've abandoned was “Face Up” by New Order and I think that was because we kind of just forgot about it.
Both of you guys are prolific, with active solo careers in addition to Water From Your Eyes, are you already plotting your next project together?
Amos: The next Water from Your Eyes album has been cooking for a while and I think the idea is to have that done in the next couple of months. So we'll see what happens. But new original Water music is certainly on the way. I've entered this pattern where I'm alternating between projects. I just put out the latest This Is Lorelei album so now it's Water time.
