Night Teacher

“Maybe the person you currently are can’t survive something,” says Lilly Bechtel. “But a new person could. So, you become that person.” Bechtel, the songwriter and vocalist behind the indie recording project Night Teacher, is speaking from personal experience. The title of her sophomore record Year of the Snake refers to the Chinese Zodiac of 2025—a time for transformation, and it was written during a phase of notable personal hardship—family challenges, a breakup, a relapse after twelve years of sobriety, all intensified by the isolation of Covid. “I kept asking myself, ‘Can I survive this?’” Bechtel works with producer and collaborator Matt Wyatt to create the music of Night Teacher—a gritty, propulsive, and off-kilter sonic world with comparisons spanning Margaret Glaspy, Thom Yorke, Cate Le Bon. Their debut album Night Teacher came out in 2020. The songs of Night Teacher arrive like notes slipped under the door or winks across the table, little hints of solidarity that acknowledge a struggle, without demanding explanation or solution. “Healing doesn’t have to be linear,” says Bechtel. “It’s usually not.” The project's moniker nods to her preferred professional setting—she has worked as a trauma-informed yoga instructor for the past 15 years—but more poignantly, to the nature of the lesson. As Bechtel puts it, “Pain can be a teacher. It can have some really important things to tell you—if you’re willing to listen.”