Personal evolution is a hot topic among a talented and diverse crop of female singer/songwriters these days, and Lilly Bechtel is no exception. The title of her second Night Teacher LP, Year Of The Snake (First City Artists), references the transformative nature of 2025 in the Chinese zodiac. Scoff if you will, but there’s nothing New Age-y or contrived about the album’s gorgeous new single, “Everything I’ve Had,” its unabashed sincerity like a blast of fresh air from an open car window.
“The song is about the experience of falling in love and the way tenderness and hope can also bring a fresh awareness of all there is to lose,” says Bechtel. “It’s about trying to open your heart again—and being scared that you won’t be able to.“
Born and raised in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, Bechtel currently resides in Charlottesville, where she’s also a poet, a local-radio producer and a trauma-informed teacher of yoga, breathwork and meditation. As a kid, she earned the family nickname “Birdie” for her constant singing. Her tumultuous teen years were marked by an expulsion from high school and struggles with eating disorders and substance abuse. She got her life together and attended Bard College in New York’s Hudson Valley as a student in its celebrated literature and sociology programs. Afterward, she dabbled in songwriting during stays in New York City and Barcelona. But nothing solidified until her chance meeting with Charlottesville-based producer Matt Wyatt (Lowland Hum, David Wax Museum).
In ensuing years, there were family issues, an ugly breakup and a relapse after a dozen years of sobriety. Through it all, music served as a sort of existential guardrail for Bechtel, though she admits that her 2020 debut may never have happened without Wyatt’s prodding and encouragement. She returned to his Tree & Booms Studio to record Year Of The Snake, a more centered and serene response to Night Teacher’s jagged striving for catharsis. That newfound ease is especially true of “Everything I’ve Had.”
“It’s about the inherent connection we have to each other and how fragile the whole arrangement is,” says Bechtel. “And the way love seems to make that reality more vivid, terrifying and precious.”
We’re proud to premiere Night Teacher’s “Everything I’ve Had.” Look for Year Of The Snake on October 31.
—Hobart Rowland
