YACHT
More Than Just A Dance-Pop Duo, YACHT Is a Way of Life.
By JESSICA SUAREZ
Photographed by DOUGLAS ADESKO
For most of its existence, YACHT was the solo project of Jona
Bechtolt. Under the YACHT name, he made three albums, helmed
experimental Internet radio broadcasts and was commissioned to perform
at P.S. 1. He was busy outside of YACHT, too, collaborating with
the Blow and co-creating one of the first blogging collectives, Urban
Honking. Strangely enough, you could call that YACHT's slow period.
See, in 2007 Bechtolt and collaborator Claire Evans made a pilgrimage
from their homebase in Portland, Oregon, to Marfa, Texas, to witness
the Mystery Lights, unexplained glowing orbs that have danced in the
desert since before cowboys and Apache roamed the land. Bechtolt is
technology-obsessed and Evans was a science journalist, yet neither of
them could explain what they saw. "We entered something that was
genuinely real, that was at the same time completely unexplained and
completely paranormal and mysterious," Evans says. Bechtolt puts it
another way: "Our minds were blown. After we saw the Mystery Lights
in Marfa together, it only made sense for us to work on every single
thing as a collaborative effort."
Call it a rebirth -- it changed YACHT forever. Evans became a permanent member and the pair became inspired to make things you could see, touch and feel. "After the Mystery Lights we kind of understood the gravitas of real experience," Evans says.
Call it a rebirth -- it changed YACHT forever. Evans became a permanent member and the pair became inspired to make things you could see, touch and feel. "After the Mystery Lights we kind of understood the gravitas of real experience," Evans says.
It's no surprise that they returned to Marfa to record a portion
of their latest album, Shangri-La. The album's ten songs explore utopias
in all forms: politically planned societies, religious communities,
downtown Los Angeles (where they also recorded). They call their own
utopia "a place made up of songs." You'd want to live there. Their
brainy, darkly optimistic pop songs (think Talking Heads and LCD
Soundsystem) make the dance floor a party where, in the spirit of many
utopian communities, they run the show. Some tracks on Shangri-La are
slightly too fast to dance to, forcing the sort of manic, fast flailing that
religious (or chemical) ecstasy provides. But YACHT is about more
than getting people to move. For Bechtolt and Evans the band includes
every act they undertake, whether it's "making breakfast or making
videos or publishing books or making flyers or stickers or T-shirts or
music," Bechtolt says. "We don't place importance on one aspect of it
over the other." They meticulously plan nearly everything they do --
from the colors of their clothing to how you're allowed to print their
name (YACHT, always all caps). But not everything goes according to
plan. For instance, they once tried wearing Nikes onstage as a morbid
and cheeky reference to the Heaven's Gate cult. "We wore them for
two shows and they nearly destroyed us," Evans says. "There's just too
much weight to a corporate brand like that, especially for two kids from
the Northwest. It felt like wearing boulders on our feet."
WHAT'S ON THEIR SUMMER PLAYLIST
"Right Here," Purple & Green
"Don't Walk Away," Bobby Birdman
"Living It Out," Planningtorock
"A Certain Person," Light Asylum
"This Week," Jeffrey Jerusalem
MORE FROM PAPER'S SUMMER MIXTAPE
WHAT'S ON THEIR SUMMER PLAYLIST
"Right Here," Purple & Green
"Don't Walk Away," Bobby Birdman
"Living It Out," Planningtorock
"A Certain Person," Light Asylum
"This Week," Jeffrey Jerusalem
MORE FROM PAPER'S SUMMER MIXTAPE
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