A-Go-Go On Their Debut Album, “Today, Today”

Hailing from Ohio and Chicago, A-Go-Go’s music is always a feel-good listen. The band originally began releasing singles in 2022, and with time put into honing in on their craft, A-Go-Go released their debut album, “Today, Today,” on February 7th, 2025. The ten-track album combines a multitude of influences and genres, balancing folk, americana, and classic rock to name a few. Certain songs, such as “Hardly Saving,” “Picking Up The Pieces,” and “Comedown,” emulate the pillars of midwestern sound, such as fuzz yet sophisticated garage-style guitar rhythms, a metronomic kick and snare drum beat, raw vocals, and the occasional harmonica.

Bringing midwest garage to New York City, I sat down with Henry Schuellerman (vocals and guitar), Niko Francis (bass and vocals), and Jack Smithberger (drums) ahead of their 3/30 show at Cassette. 

If you could just do a brief history of how the band met and began? 

Henry: I kind of met all of them on separate occasions my freshman year at Ohio State, and everyone kind of came together. I met Niko skateboarding around when everything was closed during Covid. I met him [Jack] on a tennis court. I met him [Niko] skateboarding on the tennis court. And then my roommate I met on Facebook, you know how they do it, find college roommates on Facebook. His name is Case. We all just started hanging out.

Jack: We kept running into each other and then kept ending up in the same friend group with different people. It was just connections capturing us back to the same place over and over. I remember we had a friend who used to invite us all to parties all the time. She never had my number, so she would never be able to contact me. I always ended up there through a different person and saw them everytime.

Henry: And we started just jamming and stuff, and we wanted to play shows. Covid was kind of winding down. So by the time that it was socially acceptable to do a concert, we were ready.

Niko: We got to sweat out a lot of pent up Covid energy, basement shows and stuff. 

Comparing your latest album, “Today, Today” to the prior EP, “Best House,” I read that you said that your songwriting process is a bit different between the two. So in what ways has the songwriting and production process changed between these two releases? 

Niko: Those two releases were our first time working with a producer, our friend Jesse Henry and then also Colin Croom as well. And “Best House” were songs that we were considering putting on the album, but then we decided to put them out as their own thing beforehand. And those two releases were kind of an incubation process for us. 

Henry: They were written earlier, played forever, and never put out. And then a lot of the album songs were a result of sitting in a circle and playing the songs and critiquing them. And a lot more collaborative arrangement wise. Lyrically we kind of do them on our own. I'll write words for the song and then bring it to people. And then we kind of arrange it, come up with instrumental stuff. Sometimes words are written on the fly in a group session. But the record was much more collaborative in terms of instead of just being like, “oh, here's some chords and words and we're going to play the song,” it was like, we spent a lot of time arguing with each other over, like, “when should this guitar come in?” 

Niko: I feel like creative friction is important sometimes because it ensures that the best result happens. Because if we're all just agreeing with each other all the time, saying everything sounds good, that's not going to be the best product.

“Hardly Saving,” the track you open up the album with, was released as a single beforehand. What specifically about that song made you want it to open up the whole album as the first thing that someone will hear?

Jack: I feel like it's just a strong opening introduction to what we recorded for the album. I think it's very up front, it's very confident, a very strong step forward. I think why we ended up putting it first on the album is it’s just how we want to present ourselves, first impressions.

Henry: It's almost like an homage to Twin Peaks, the band. Which is a big common thread among all of us when we were starting out. So it was kind of cool to start with that.

Niko: And then getting to work with Croom too. The record was really fun because younger us were very inspired by Twin Peaks, whenever we were starting. So getting to work with him to help bring the record together, we all felt very full of trust for him knowing that he would know what we're trying to do and help us be able to do it. 

At the halfway point, right between the 10 songs you have, “Picking Up The Pieces” and then “Knees.” I thought that was a really interesting shift between sides of the record, and you really hear that shift in sound. I was interested in the track listing. Was that a purposeful choice to have led the listener from the beginning to the middle to the end?

Henry: Yeah, that's definitely the biggest stylistic shift between the songs on the album. “Picking Up The Pieces,” there's a big guitar solo that Case does. And then the next song is kind of a pause, and then he's singing. It seemed like kind of a cool way to introduce. That's the only song Case sings, “Knees,” so it seemed like a cool way to transition.

“Comedown,” I was most interested in sonically, the songwriting of that one really intrigued me. Walk me through the creation of that song specifically. Why did you choose to have this drastic tempo change halfway through? 

Niko: Yeah, that's one that I brought to the table for the record. And to be completely honest, it was two songs that I really liked, but just wanted to put them both together. It was two, one-and-a-half-minute songs. And then brought them to the band, and we were like, “oh wait, we can fit this into one song. Why not?” Then we figured out how to make it work in a way that was fun to play, and then it just kind of happened. 

So who's Bobby? [Refering to track nine on “Today, Today,” “Bobby’s Song.”] 

Henry: He's our old neighbor. He lived in one dorm over from me, and he's like six foot eight or something. And he laughs like Seth Rogen and you could hear it through the wall. And in my dorm sophomore year, I made this really stupid one minute long demo about Bobby. And then we were just coming up with songs on the album and we were like, “let's try to do this as a band instead of just one minute song.”

So how does he feel about that? 

Henry: He's oblivious mostly. He doesn't care, which makes me want him more. 

Niko: We need to write Bobby's Song 2.

What's one goal that you want to accomplish this year? 

Jack: We're working on more stuff. Another album would be cool.

Henry: Having another album recorded would be cool. 

Niko: There's no better feeling than having an album in the pocket and then you can release it whenever you want. Then also, just keep on touring and stuff like that. It's really fun.

Keep up with A-Go-Go on Spotify, Instagram, and their website. 

All photos by Tori McGraw (@afterr.hourrs)