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Best known as the frontman for Boston indie rock band Beeef, Perry Eaton took a different tack late last year. After amassing a backlog of tunes, he hit the studio and reemerged as Ivy Boy. His debut LP under the moniker, Ivy Boy, dropped at the end of October, showing off a more rustic and pastoral side of Eaton. We spoke with him to discuss the origins of the project, distinguishing Ivy Boy from Beeef, and his dad’s contribution to the LP.
Can you explain a bit about how Ivy Boy came to be?
I started writing Ivy Boy songs around 2020. My band Beeef had just put out a second album and we were beginning to work on a third, but once the pandemic happened, it kind of put a hold on all of that. I did a few live streamed Beeef sets in the early days of COVID though and it led me to do some more writing on acoustic guitar. By the time that we circled back to recording the rest of that third Beeef album, I had already written a whole new batch of songs, and they felt a little bit different from Beeef—a little folkier, more acoustic-centered. So I had the idea to try putting together a different project at the same time that Beeef was readying a record. I was lucky enough to meet Aaron Brown and Ryan Katz around this time, who run a studio called Hot Take Recordings. They not only tracked and mixed the whole first Ivy Boy record, but played as the Ivy Boy band on it. This brought a whole new life and dimension to these songs and truly made it a debut record that I was proud of and sounded distinct from the Beeef songs.
“New Walk” was the first Ivy Boy song put out into the world. Why did you choose that one to be your introduction?
“New Walk” was the first Ivy Boy song that I wrote, so in that respect, it felt like a good way to introduce the project. It also happens to kind of be about making a transition in life and finding a new stride, so I think that suits the song well for a cool reintroduction. We had all of the songs of the record completed by the time I released any singles, but this one just felt like it made a fitting statement. That, and it’s one of the shorter songs on the record, so it’s a good length for a single!
What moments across the album are you proudest of?
A couple come to mind. The mix of keys and strings on “Honeybee” and “Heavy on the Vine” is really special to me, because it’s a level of songcraft and production that I would have never considered when first writing these songs. I’m so grateful that my friend Elio DeLuca, who runs a studio called The Soul Shop in Medford, MA, agreed to write and play some parts for this record on piano, Rhodes, vibraphone, and other instruments. And I’m super lucky to have had Noah Leong compose and record some strings parts for these songs—it gives them this whole new orchestral element that really brings them to a different level. I’m also really proud that I was able to play on a song with my dad, Henry Eaton, who tracked lead guitar on the final track, “Olive and the Gibber.” My dad played in a Boston band of his own for a long time called Duke and the Drivers, and he’s always been an enormous influence on me, both musically and otherwise. So it was really special to have him play on that track, and he totally rips it!
Besides the folksier, acoustic leanings, how do you feel you know if you’ve written a Beeef song or an Ivy Boy song?
That’s a good question, and the boring answer is I think I just kind of go into the writing process knowing to aim for Ivy Boy vs. Beeef. But I also feel like for Beeef I can write to some of the strengths and styles of others in the band. Beeef has always gone for kind of a “bigger” sound, and I think Ivy Boy is meant to be able to work both in a full band context but also in a singer-songwriter context, so I feel like there’s that intention going in.
My favorite song on Ivy Boy is “‘80s Babies,” and I’d think that because it was a single it’s one of yours too. Could you speak a bit about how that one came to be?
I like that one too! I think that one is just really fueled by the nostalgia of being a teenager in the summer. There were a lot of direct images in my head about both the rebellious and the sentimental qualities of adolescence and I tried to paint those visions directly into the song. It’s a cool one because it’s a slower song, but it also rocks pretty hard at some certain points too. Aaron (Brown) has some excellent guitar work on it, and our buddy Sam Paek also played some lapsteel on it which locks in really well with the guitar parts. It ended up being kind of an alt-country ballad and I really love that about it.
What, if anything, do you think was the most challenging or enlightening part of putting together this album as opposed to the Beeef albums?
I really didn’t have many expectations at the beginning of putting this project together—I thought it was just going to be me and a guitar. And I’m so glad that it ended up being more than that. I think the enlightening part of that experience being that people are ready and willing to help if you ask and reach out. This idea went from something pretty minimal to me being able to meet and collaborate with a bunch of people who made this album sound so much better and more interesting. There were definitely some creative challenges to that too, but only the good kinds of challenges. I felt super comfortable putting a lot of faith in Ryan, Aaron, and the other folks who played on this record, and everyone brought something really fantastic to it.