{"id":72344,"date":"2026-09-09T14:09:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/09\/nate-amos-talks-new-album-songwriting-success\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T14:09:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T14:09:37","slug":"nate-amos-talks-new-album-songwriting-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/09\/nate-amos-talks-new-album-songwriting-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Amos Talks New Album, Songwriting Success"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tThe first time Nate Amos refers to himself as a songwriter in conversation, he uses air quotes. \u201cNow that I\u2019m a songwriter, quote unquote<\/em>\u2026.\u201d Amos says offhand during a recent interview. Why does one of the most widely hailed songwriters of recent years \u2014 the guy whose originals have been covered by Waxahatchee, Cameron Winter, Hayley Williams, Jeff Tweedy, and MJ Lenderman in the last 18 months alone \u2014 feel that those quote marks are needed?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI always thought of myself much more in terms of composition, production, and conceptual art,\u201d says Amos, who records as This is Lorelei<\/a>. \u201cI kept bouncing off the bottom of the rabbit hole, and at a certain point it seemed like the most creatively aggressive thing I could do would just be to rubber-band all the way back to the most bare-bones type of songwriting I could muster. Leaning into the songwriter thing was almost like a conceptual exercise. So I guess the quotes are because I didn\u2019t expect to make my in-character singer-songwriter album and have a bunch of people go, \u2018singer-songwriter Nate Amos.\u2019 That took a little while to get used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmos is referring to Box For Buddy, Box for Star<\/em><\/a>, an album that, in the two years since its 2024 release, has become an unexpected success story. For years before that, Amos \u2014 who is also in the art-rock band Water From Your Eyes<\/a> with vocalist Rachel Brown \u2014 treated This is Lorelei as a side hobby, his \u201csafe, secret world,\u201d as he puts it. It was where he dumped whatever off-kilter pop tunes he was working on, posting them online for a miniscule audience. Now, he\u2019s trying to figure out what it means to turn that passion project into a fast-rising, for-real career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Singer In My Band<\/em>, the straightforwardly upbeat roots record he released this month, is the first example of what that might look like. Amos describes the album, which is entirely devoid of the sampled backing tracks and digitally manipulated vocals that have heretofore defined many This is Lorelei projects, as \u201can exercise in self-exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI feel like Lorelei is in a very volatile state right now, and I\u2019m trying to find that balance between going with the flow and letting it be what it wants to be but also trying to think about it responsibly,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t want to grow to resent something that was such a source of solace for me for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFOR ALL THE existential talk about This is Lorelei\u2019s future, Amos doesn\u2019t appear particularly worried during a recent interview with Rolling Stone<\/em>. He discusses his brand-new album and the state of his two bands as he alternates between his vape and cigarettes. At his team\u2019s suggestion, we\u2019ve met at an ice cream place, where Amos downs a chocolate milkshake and waxes poetic about his recent discovery of fro-yo. (\u201cJust loading up on the fucking gummy bears and shit, it\u2019s so awesome,\u201d he marvels.) Throughout the conversation, he sounds bemused if not slightly mystified by the seriousness with which his music is now taken by the outside world. Somehow, the chill guitarist who likes to take the stage in camo Crocs and whatever Slipknot T-shirt he happens to be wearing that day has become something like the Carole King of 2020s indie<\/a> rock. When I float that exact comparison to Amos, he starts laughing.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSomething changed over the two years following Box<\/em> coming out,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just different now. I don\u2019t know exactly when it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor years, Amos preferred being the guy in the band who wrote songs while someone else does the singing. That\u2019s how it works in Water For Your Eyes, more or less, and he liked it just fine. His plan was to keep making music as a behind-the-scenes facilitator, to never end up being the frontperson. The title of his new album is, in part, an ironic commentary on the degree to which he\u2019s failed at that goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe very first time Amos says he ever heard someone who wasn\u2019t already in his band cover one of his songs was last year, when MJ Lenderman sang his Auto-Tuned Box for Buddy<\/em> highlight \u201cDancing in the Club.\u201d (Rolling Stone<\/em> named Lenderman\u2019s version the second-best song of 2025<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAmos was actually there for the session when Lenderman recorded the song in North Carolina. \u201cI think I had just hit a bong,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was like on the couch trying not to laugh while he was recording it. It was trippy. I remember sitting there and being like, \u2018This is weird.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLenderman might have been the first high-profile artist to cover a This is Lorelei tune, but others soon followed. By the time Amos began recording The Singer in My Band<\/em>, he\u2019d become aware of this trend to the degree that it shaped how he wanted to present his new material. Whereas in the past, Amos was inclined to disguise his voice \u201cto make it sound less like me\u201d \u2014 pitching his vocals up on the original \u201cDancing in the Club,\u201d for example \u2014 this time he challenged himself to present his songs with minimal adornment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for \u201cDancing in the Club,\u201d Amos is amused that that song, in particular, is the one that kicked off the phenomenon of other artists translating his music for a wider audience. \u201cThe bit for that song was that I was going to try to make a song that a pop star could cover,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember laughing as I was writing it, because I was like, \u2018This is the cheesiest piece of bullshit ever,\u2019 which it kind of<\/em> is. But I also think it\u2019s a better piece of work than I gave it credit for at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis time, Amos challenged himself to drop the bit. \u201cNo one likes their own voice, so if I\u2019m making something that\u2019s for me, then I\u2019m going to try to make me not sound like myself,\u201d he adds. \u201cI tried to get over that for this album.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmos\u2019 process for writing albums becomes much easier once he gets the first two songs down. \u201cIf I can get the chemical reaction between those two things, then the rest of the album will write itself,\u201d he says. For his new record, those first two songs were \u201cOh No Now My,\u201d a stormy guitar-rocker full of remorse and caution, and \u201cBilly Came Back,\u201d<\/a> a fast-paced ode to a karaoke legend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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