Nate Amos and Rachel Brown met at a DIY show at Amos's house in Chicago in 2016, dated briefly, and started a band together anyway — Amos played Brown New Order and the two decided they wanted to make their own version of a sad dance band, which is where the name Water From Your Eyes actually comes from.
They'd been making music together for the better part of a decade, moving from Chicago to Brooklyn along the way, before Everyone's Crushed, their 2023 album, turned them into an actual industry story — Matador Records signed them off the strength of a record that landed on year-end lists at the New York Times, Pitchfork, the Guardian, and Rolling Stone alike.
Live, the core duo now plays as a quartet with guitarist Al Nardo and drummer Bailey Wollowitz, a lineup that's opened for Interpol in front of crowds as large as 160,000 people in Mexico City — a long way from two exes making noise together in a Chicago house show.