London trio Dream Nails have seen quite a few line-up changes in the decade since they first formed, including the departures of co-founding vocalist Janey Starling in 2021 and her replacement Ishmael Kirby in 2024. Step forward Mimi Jasson, who joined the band as bassist and backing singer in late 2017.

Out today, the Pixies-inspired "This is Water" is the second track from the band since Jansson took over lead vocals, following last year's "Control", and finds them "embracing [our] weird side," as guitarist Anya Pearson puts it.

Watch the Marieke Macklon-directed video below:

“The lyrics came from freewriting together, selecting lines and ideas that we wanted to connect like a deconstructed jigsaw puzzle," Pearson says, with drummer Lucy Katz adding:

“This song is inspired by a speech given by the late writer David Foster Wallace, who tells a story about two fish swimming along in the ocean. One fish remarks, ‘The water’s nice today!’ to which the other fish replies, ‘What’s water?’ We are immersed in ourselves! The lyrics convey the idea of becoming so stuck in our own sticky experiences and identities that we struggle to truly relate to one another. We are all fish, and we are all swimming."

"This is Water" was produced by Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Yard Act), who Jasson says helped them to indulge their playful side, "experimenting with pedals and exploring sounds that teased out the themes of the song ... When I said I wanted my voice to evoke something intimate on 'This is Water', he ran my vocals through a Hammond organ, the rotating Leslie speaker created a sound that resembles being underwater,” she adds.