By Jodi Root
Last March was a CRAZY month packed full of new music. Two of my biggest nights involved Jona and Claire from YACHT; particularly their super fun dance party at Schuba’s, and then of course, getting my groove on coincidently alongside the duo during Kanye at SXSW. Way too much fun—noticing a trend here? I think so—the fly beats and visual experience that make up YACHT are undeniable. I cannot wait for their upcoming release, “See Mystery Lights,” which, according to their press release is due out soon (“late spring”). Jona Bechtolt was kind enough to answer some Q’s for our reoccuring 5 Questions feature.
Could you lend some information on the recording process of the See Mystery Lights? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you’ll apply towards future recording sessions?
We recorded most of the album in Marfa, Texas, a small town in the Far West Texas desert home to an unexplained optical phenomenon called the “Marfa Lights,” extensive rare minimal art collections, and, most recently, the setting for both There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men. It’s an incredibly special and rare place with wide open skies and blinding light. Marfa was a huge influence on our lives and our work, and has largely changed the way we approach not just recording music, but the world at large.
We recorded the album in a casita connected to a small house we rented and lived in for two months at the beginning of 2008. We used an electric guitar, electric bass guitar, two keyboards, a small drum set we purchased on Craigslist, various percussion instruments, a single condenser microphone, and an iMac computer. We feel that our process and production technique is very high fidelity setup at low fidelity prices. We pride ourselves in doing most things completely on our own.
At your Chicago set this past weekend (questions submitted last month), you mentioned that you will be heading down to SXSW next week. What are your plans for the fest–forgive me if my memory does not recall correctly, but you mentioned you weren’t actually playing but just attending, correct? Have you played the fest in the past? Are there any bands you’re looking forward to checking as a fan?
We had a really fruitful SXSW experience this year; although we’ve played the festival in the past, we decided to cancel all of our planned performances and focus on what really matters to us, which is one-on-one experiences. With location-based Twitter updates, we managed to meet with hundreds of people over the week, talk honestly with them, and hand out our pamphlets to those seekers who were curious. This was an experiment in using the social as part of our medium, but, honestly, it was a relief to get away from the intense corporatization of music that the festival represents and have some real encounters.
Your stage setup includes a very extensive audiovisual presentation. What is your inspiration/motivation for the imagery? How were the different visuals created?
The visual element of YACHT shows is just as important as the music. We consider the video and audio to be two sides of the same coin. All the material comes from the same place of research, the same deep love of symbolic imagery, the same core experiences, and works together to tell a complete story. We collaborate on the video material using various animation softwares, still cameras with “movie mode,” and present them live with Apple Keynote and a wireless remote with laser pointer.
We’re perpetually thankful that we have the tools to present ourselves this way.
We’re always looking to uncover new favorite artists, are there any band(s)/record(s) that you could recommend to our readers?
We feel very fortunate to belong to an inclusive community in the physical and digital realms that has produced some of our favorite contemporary works. We feel that you should learn these artists if you haven’t been fortunate enough already.
White Rainbow
The-Dream
Idol Fodder
Telepathe
Hedford Vachal
Lloyd & Michael
Hawnay Troof
Planningtorock
The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?
We would not be where we are or who we are without the Internet. That is without a doubt. We use the Internet for everything from direct communication with fans, hiring interns for various tasks, running our business, laying out our ideas in an open and comprehensible way, to a pure abstraction of manipulating data and form for aesthetic purposes. The Internet is our primary medium, it’s the substrate from which everything else comes. This is why we’re not particularly afraid of the Internet somehow hurting the salability of our music, which is something that a lot of artists currently worry about. When music becomes openly available to the people who seek it, illicitly or otherwise, it becomes much larger than the people who made it in the first place. Everyone owns a piece of it.
We think of it this way: the pieces are already in place, the current has already taken hold, and the battle of “intellectual property” is unwinnable. In the end, it’s not about being upset if someone buys our records or downloads them, and it doesn’t even matter how we feel about it, because we have no real control over the dissemination of our music. We have to be satisfied with allowing the future to take its course, and we’ll continue to use whichever tools are available to us to make the best work we can.
