Pittsburgh's Eyewash continues evolution with heavy new single 'Bound'

The evolution of Pittsburgh band Eyewash continues with its latest single, “Bound,” which came out earlier this month.

Conceived during the pandemic, Eyewash formed in late 2021, started playing shows in 2022 and released its self-titled debut EP in March 2023. Bassist Rachel Hines founded the band with guitarist Alex Walsh, and the group now includes Gin Garner on synthesizer, Jack Wells on drums and Jake Curran on guitar.

Once described as “grungegaze,” their EP showcases their diverse influences, like the dream pop of “Guise” or the post-punk of “Kaleidoscope.”

Eyewash veers into more hardcore territory with their new song. Pounding drums and crunching guitars rip into the beginning, with a mix of clean and unclean vocals throughout balanced by an ambient, atmospheric section, before ending on a punishing note.

“It has a lot of contrast between the more contemplative poppy verses versus the more rage-filled choruses,” Hines said. “That kind of goes along with the idea of the song’s message of the indecision of accepting the love we deserve.”

Does the new song portend a full change in direction?

“In some ways, yes; in some ways, no,” Hines said. “So Alex, who had been in Shin Guard, did the lyrics for that one and was the one who decided to put screaming in it, which was a big decision just because that was very different from what we had been doing before.

“I don’t think that we’ll necessarily always have all of our songs be as heavy as that, but I think that generally we’re moving toward that kind of direction because most of us really like hardcore and go to a lot of those kinds of shows, so I think that has just influenced the type of stuff we like listening to. But for me, having the synth in it is always an important part of what we do,” she said. “I really love synthesizers and having that kind of sound. I like the way it contrasts with the heavier tones that we try to use at times.”

Hines cited bands like Deftones, Coaltar of the Deepers, Fleshwater and Full Body 2 as influences for Eyewash, which has several shows lined up. They’ll be playing with Princess and Tough Cuffs on April 27 at Smiling Moose in the South Side and opening for hardcore legends Gorilla Biscuits on June 7 at Preserving Underground in New Kensington.

“I feel like in general, I think we’ve come into ourselves. I think we’re a lot more confident with our live performance,” Hines said. “We have sort of moved a little bit more in a heavy direction. When we started, I was thinking it was gonna be a little bit more of a poppy project, but I think we’ve kind of gotten more toward the grungy, heavier side of things.”

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In the coming months, Eyewash is looking to focus on writing and recording another EP after recently signing to The Caller Is In the House record label. For now, their music is only available digitally at their Bandcamp site, but a tape with the EP and the new single is in the works.

“We have a lot of songs that we play live that we haven’t recorded yet,” Hines said. “I think our goal is to definitely try to get something together in the next few months. We just have been so busy with shows. This month, we have more shows than I think we’ve had any other months since we’ve become a band, so we’ve been so focused on preparing for those.”

“We’re hoping that after April we can kind of take a step back from shows a little bit and spend some time focusing on writing and then hopefully, once we get to that point, making some plans to record probably another EP, but it’s too early to say exactly. I guess it’ll depend on how much content that we really feel good about that goes together that we want to put out. But we do hope to be able to put together some new songs that we’ve been playing.”