The beat goes on

The guys in Beat Connection are always thinking about their next step. The Seattle-based four-piece is in between albums, but they’ve remained busy on the live circuit. On a Monday afternoon, they’re recovering from a stint at SXSW, where they played eight gigs in three days, and now they’re resting in Denver before a string of shows that brings them to Spokane on Saturday.

It’s been nearly three years since the band released its debut LP, and there hadn’t been any new Beat Connection material until a trio of singles started popping up online in late 2014. The band’s drummer, Jarred Katz, a Spokane native, says that the long wait for a new release was a strategic move.

“We decided that we needed to work on a record that was better than the last one, to be sure we had a full team onboard and to do it the right way,” he said. “We’re not a new band anymore, and it’s harder to seem fresh a few years in. So we decided to lay low and just work on tunes.”

During that period the group went through a lineup change, but they continued touring here and there and began writing one new song after another. The band specializes in dreamy DayGlo electronica, and you could just as easily zone out to their lean pop songs as you could dance along. You can hear the influence of artists like Washed Out, M83 and LCD Soundsystem (the band is, in fact, named after an LCD song), with a slight tropical vibe.

Beat Connection was founded by Reed Juenger and Jordan Koplowitz while they were students at the University of Washington, initially performing as a mostly electronic duo. Koplowitz eventually left the group, while Katz, vocalist Tom Eddy and bassist Mark Hunter were gradually added to the lineup.

“Luckily for the group – and this was a little bit before I joined – the first EP got a lot of blog love,” Katz said. “Getting that music heard by so many foreign ears made it a little bit easier to not just be a local band.”

That EP, titled “Surf Noir,” was released by an indie UK label called Tender Age in 2011, featuring Juenger, Koplowitz and Eddy. The band’s debut full-length, “Palace Garden,” was released after the addition of Katz and Hunter the following year.

Katz says they’re anticipating a summertime release for Beat Connection’s second LP – they’ll also likely be signed to another label by then – which has already been recorded and makes a few stylistic detours from the sounds of the previous album.

“Everyone is listening to different stuff today than they were then,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to recreate what we already did, since our interests and influences have changed. … I think the production is a lot better, and we’ve all been able to flex some songwriting chops. There’s a little bit more of an R&B influence as opposed to the chill wave pop stuff. I think it just came naturally with what we were listening to and who we are as musicians.”

Those influences come from everywhere – Katz and Hunter have jazz roots, Eddy’s interests lean toward folk and blues, Juenger still works as a DJ in Seattle – which is likely how the band was able to find their strange, infectious fusion of sounds.

“All those styles seem like they wouldn’t blend, but we definitely have influences where we all meet in the middle,” Katz said. “I think that’s what Beat Connection is created out of.”