by Elizabeth Braaten (@lizbraatens)
It’s been five years since New York-based dream pop outfit A Beacon School first arrived onto the scene with his debut album Cola. The LP’s eleven tracks oscillated between uptempo indie-pop, heavenly shoegaze, and complex, electronic dreamscapes — and the project became an instant hit with listeners. While Patrick J. Smith, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind A Beacon School, had been making music under the name for nearly a decade at that point, Cola proved to be a pivotal moment in his career. The album became a rotation favorite on KCRW’s popular radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic and was heaped with praise by music blogs and fans alike. A Beacon School steadily amassed a worldwide following, leading to tours with the likes of El Ten Eleven and Ruby Haunt, an expanded vinyl edition of Cola released in conjunction with Fat Possum’s House Arrest label, placements on shows like Hacks and Shrinking, and a whopping 50 million streams.
On October 13th, Smith made his long-awaited return with highly-anticipated sophomore LP yoyo, the official follow-up to Cola. He recently sat down to talk with me about what went into making yoyo — and what’s next on the horizon.
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Elizabeth Braaten: It’s been five years since Cola was released. I just wanted to see if you could catch us up on what you’ve been up to since then.
Patrick J. Smith: It never was supposed to be that long. I guess that’s kinda just how long it took. I started working on this one pretty much as soon as we put out Cola. We did the 2019 version, so that was the re-release with a few more tracks. So then after that, I started working on this. I did a lot of music with my other band, Maxband, with Max from Parquet Courts. We did an EP, we did a full length that’s gonna come out next year. Then I just was working on this stuff constantly. Just slowly but surely. I’ll blame the pandemic. Two years don’t count, even though that was probably a great time to work on music, but we’ll ignore that. All of a sudden I looked up, and it had been a long time.
EB: With yoyo, what did your creative process look like? I know the pandemic kinda threw a wrench in everything, but I wanted to see what was different if anything from when you made Cola.
PJS: It was pretty much the exact same. I did everything myself, just on my computer. This time I tried to be a little bit more ambitious. I recorded real drums this time, so I went to studios and did that. I recorded real guitar amps, whereas the first time I just plugged straight into the computer. But other than that, it was just the same. Just making it on my own for the most part. I also just reached out to a few more people to help — mixing and mastering — but other than that, it was pretty much the same creative process. I think I just had a loftier target this time.
EB: What was it like recording with drums and amps in the studio this time?
PJS: It was cool. I did all the drums at the end. I would make the songs with my sampled drums or whatever and then for the ones that sounded the most like traditional rock songs, I was like, “These fake drums sound weird,” so we at the end recorded live drums. I don’t recommend doing it that way because most people record drums first, so getting them to mesh was a challenge. We kind of ended up using a hybrid like 50/50. Then guitar amps, that wasn’t that challenging. It’s just slightly more effort to set up my amp and put a mic in front of it. But the drum stuff was interesting. I would love to do a real studio recording one day, but for the most part it was just all at home and then laying in some live drum stuff on top.
EB: yoyo is described as “an untainted exploration of the unconscious artistic self and the oscillation of time.” What inspired you to dive into those themes on the album?
PJS: That’s mainly just what we’ve always said about this project in general. The reason it hops around genres and stuff, is because, just for me, it’s a free for all, whatever I want to do. There’s no conceit behind any of it besides just doing what I want. People ask, “Why is there an electronic track next to this shoegaze song?” and that’s why. Similarly, we looked at it after it was done, and were like, “Okay, what’s this about?” So I don’t think it was a conscious decision.
One, there’s a lot of back and forth. I’d say this record is more negative than the first one. Not purely negative, just a little bit more complicated. Like everyone, I’m freakishly obsessed with time. So that was what we landed on, but there’s definitely no overarching idea to explore necessarily going into it. It was just I’m gonna make these songs, put them together, and then it’s like, what do we have?
It’s been really exciting hearing people’s interpretations about it. I just put it out and then see — what am I actually saying?
EB: Is there a meaning behind the title?
PJS: I needed a title, and I was gonna go super long title and then put a whole line from a lyric. Then my girlfriend was listening to a band, and I was like, “I like this, what is this?” It was a band called The Lo Yo Yo, and then something just about that word, yoyo. It just fit, just summed it up. Going back and forth with yourself but then also taking it a step further from that, looking at that struggle, the internal back and forth. The idea of it just being a toy. You’re just playing with yourself…kind of being self-obsessed in a way that’s unhealthy. So it just works that way. Then I read a review of the album that tied in certain lyrics to that idea and I was just like, “Wow! Yeah, that works, too.”
I also just like giving short titles to long things. It felt like a long, sprawling album, and this was just a nice little easy title on top.
EB: Do you have a favorite song on the album, or one that was the most fun to write or record?
PJS: The song “Jon” is probably my favorite now, just cause it’s satisfying to make something in that world that I hadn’t fully gone for yet. Musically, that's probably my favorite. Lyrically and emotionally, “Mantra,” the last song, is a favorite of mine. We’ve been playing it live for the first time and it really feels cathartic and fun. I like how it ended up. I like the lyrics.
EB: My personal favorite on the album is “Mantra,” which sounds really upbeat but has really hard-hitting lyrics. What goes into making a song like that?
PJS: It’s funny. It’s so blunt, and I think that’s why I like it. I’m sure there’d be certain days I’d wake up and be like, “Oh no, that’s so emo and whiney.” But I just feel like it’s a universal feeling.
EB: Are you someone that listens to other people’s music while you’re making an album and if so, is there anything that really inspired you? Any movies, books, anything you were interacting with while you were making this record?
PJS: I really don’t like listening to other people when I’m making it. As soon as I’m done, I love listening to other music. I definitely have a running Spotify playlist of songs I’m inspired by, whether it be a really literal cool idea, like, “I want to make something like that.”
I tend not to draw too much direct inspiration from any media. I’m very practical when I’m making something, to start with a musical idea and then build off of it. Whenever I start out with something too specific, it never works. If I was like, “I want to make a My Bloody Valentine song” or something, it wouldn’t sound right.
I do remember my friend Chase, we were in the car, and he wanted to play the new Alvvays album. I was like, “Oh I don’t want to hear it, it’s probably so good, it’s going to make me feel like shit.” And he’s like, “It’s so good, it’s so good, it’s so good, you have to hear it.” And I was like “Fine,” and he played it. And I was like, “Yep, fucking amazing, I feel like shit.” I feel just totally inadequate. He played the song “Belinda Says” and I was just like, goddamn. Anything close to what I’m doing, I don’t want to hear it. It’s so good. That’s the worst feeling, when you listen to other people, and you’re like, goddamn. But I guess it pushes you to try and be better.
EB: In Start-Track, you mentioned that it would be a dream of yours to produce for other artists. I wanted to see if there was anybody you had in mind when you said that, or some of your dream collaborations.
PJS: In general, I’d love to work with really good singers. I feel like I am not very vocal forward. Whoever wants to do it, let’s just make it work. That’s kinda the M.O. of this whole thing. Just working with what you’ve got.
EB: How did you come up with your stage name?
PJS: It’s going off of that theme of working with what you’ve got. We started this in college as a four-piece band, and we needed a name, and my friend Nick had used that name before. He’d just put out a couple songs on the Internet under the name A Beacon School, and we were like, “That’s a cool name, let’s just use that.” Everyone else left the band, and then I inherited the name.
I know he told me he had seen a flag outside of the school that signified that it was a beacon school. I guess it’s a classification. It’s the same thing I was talking about with the album, not going in with any idea of what it’s going to be. So if anyone can see the band name and interpret it to mean whatever, then cool. But there’s not much to it for me beyond it’s just kind of the name that stuck over ten years ago at this point. Almost like being born and having someone give you a name. You make it your own.
EB: Now that the album’s out — what’s next on your radar?
PJS: I’m excited. I’m working on new music, and then I’m kind of in an organizing phase. Going through everything I have. I always come up with these extremely lofty plans that probably won’t happen, but I’m sketching out four different releases I want to do. The idea is to start splitting off and make more cohesive things. So maybe I have one thing that’s all electronic, and then one thing that’s small and guitar, and then maybe I’d love to do an ambient thing. But these are all grand huge ideas that probably won’t happen.
Then we’re gonna start touring in April. Nothing I can announce officially, but some on the East Coast and some on the West Coast.