Nate Amos Is Becoming The Next Great American Songwriter
Article by Dexter Hargreaves, University Union Editorial Board
Staff Writer | Photo by Josh Chun
Cameron Winter, Haley Williams, and Jeff Tweedy have more than a few things in common. All are era-defining and hugely influential artists who have left a mark on indie and alternative music that few can match. They have also all covered songs written by Nate Amos. The guitarist from indie rock band Water From Your Eyes released his first studio album, “Box for Buddy, Box for Star,” under his solo pseudonym This Is Lorelei in 2024, establishing him as one of the most exciting acts in modern indie rock. His career as an artist goes back more than a decade, however, and in that time, he’s developed into one of the most captivating songwriters in modern music.
His style is a quirky mix of synth-pop, folk, and southern rock influences that carves out a unique sound for the album, but what truly sets it apart as one of the best of modern indie music is Amos’s songwriting. His lyrical work is superb in both range of style and emotion. His style can be described as a quirky mix of synth-pop, folk, and southern rock, but he’s developed one of the most unique sounds in indie music today. His affinity for eclectic instruments and synthesizers, as well as his use of atypical song composition and production, certainly set him apart from his contemporaries.
What is perhaps his greatest strength of all, however, is his songwriting. Amos draws from his past struggles, vices, and relationships to create some of the most captivating and emotionally rich lyrics that rock has seen in years. For instance, “I’m All Fucked Up” is a fun, fast paced song that can feel like a tongue twister that is at the same time a powerful reflection into his past destructive habits and dangerous youth.“Where’s Your Love Now” is another popular track that tackles growth and recovery from a past toxic relationship, balanced out by a twinkly toy piano melody.
What might be most interesting about This Is Lorelei to a first-time observer is that his most popular song doesn’t feature him at all. “Dancing in the Club - MJ Lenderman Version” sits at the top of his Spotify profile, a cover released on “Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Deluxe) in 2025. MJ Lenderman is a contemporary indie rock band that has seen a recent explosion of growth as well. What was originally a melancholy, yet danceable synth-pop track with heavily auto-tuned vocals and an electronic drum machine was transformed into a slow, solemn country-rock song. To many listeners, that is the definitive version.
Also released on the deluxe album were two more covers, one from indie rock act Snail Mail, as well as a rerecord of “Angel Eyes” featuring Nate Amos’s parents, Bob and Sarah Amos, a bluegrass duo of their own.
The covers aren’t limited to the official recordings either. Geese frontman Cameron Winter performed a piano rendition of “Where’s Your Love Now” during his sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan this past winter. Though no official recording has been released, videos of the performance have racked up thousands of views across social media from dozens of sources. The same song was also covered by the band Waxahatchee in a live studio performance with KEXP.
This Is Lorelei is associated with a new wave of indie rock bands with similar sounds and influences that are defining rock music in the 2020s. Among them are the aforementioned MJ Lenderman, Water From Your Eyes, and Waxahatchee, as well as Wednesday and Geese. Though This Is Lorelei is far from the most successful of these acts, it’s clear he’s a key figure within the scene.
Externally, his prowess is being seen on a much larger scale. Rock legends Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Haley Williams of Paramore have sung praises for Amos and have recorded covers of their own that will be released on Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Super Deluxe). This special edition releases on April 17, 2026, and contains reimagined versions of every song on the original album.
The amount of covers being performed and released, as well as being broadly embraced by millions of listeners, is truly unprecedented. It’s evocative of the work of Bob Dylan in the 1960s. More than anything, it proves that Nate Amos has an uncanny power to connect with people through his lyrics in a way that even the greatest artists in his genre admire.
2025’s Holo Boy performs the difficult task of capturing the vast range of his abilities as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist displayed across his career. Though his notoriety as an artist and songwriter has only come within the last two years, Nate Amos has been writing songs for over a decade. The newfound fame from Box for Buddy, Box for Star, inspired Amos to rerecord 10 songs he wrote for This Is Lorelei from as far back as 2014 to expose new audiences to his back catalog.
The future of This Is Lorelei is certainly one of the brightest in indie music today. From his work with both This Is Lorelei and Water From Your Eyes, Nate Amos is proving himself to be one of the defining figures in modern indie rock.
