YACHT recently released their video for the song “Hard World”. The track is off their latest EP Strawberry Moon. YACHT begins their West Coast tour this Saturday in Seattle.

The video was directed Mike Hollingsworth, Supervising Director of the Netflix show BoJack Horseman. He recently won a Cristal award at the Annecy International Animation Festival for Directing the BoJack episode “Fish Out of Water.” He’s also a producer of the monthly stand-up/animation show Picture This and the Los Angeles iteration of the International micro-animation festival LoopdeLoop.

YACHT says of the video: “This is a magnificently bleak animated short about Los Angeles’ favourite urban legend, the Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign. The Happy Foot/Sad Foot is the oracle of Sunset boulevard. On one side, it’s a happy, healthy foot, a spring in its step. On the other, it’s sad, toe bandaged, on crutches. It’s believed that if you pass the happy foot, your day is made, and vice-versa. Dark and light. Pain and joy. Good and evil. This video is an homage to the city we love, its monuments, and the stories we tell each other to make meaning from chaos”.

YACHT began as the solo project of Jona Bechtolt, a musician and multimedia artist who dropped out of high school in the 90s to play drums in a touring punk band. Jona began recording as YACHT in 2002, releasing the largely instrumental Super Warren MMIV (States Rights Records) in 2003, followed by Mega (2004), and I Believe in You. Your Magic Is Real. (200). During this time, Jona also collaborated with Devendra Banhart, Bobby Birdman, Mirah, Little Wings, and The Microphones, among others, was a prolific remixer, and created commissioned multimedia performances for PICA, Rhizome, The Kitchen, and MoMA.

Their 2015 album I Thought the Future Would Be Cooler was released on the back of a highly conceptual promotional campaign entirely architected by the band that was nominated for two Webby Awards. At the end of 2016, YACHT temporarily imploded. After a silence, they’ve returned with the five-song EP Strawberry Moon.

Claire L. Evans’ first book, Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women who Made the Internet, will be published by Penguin in March 2018.

YACHT 2018 TOUR DATES

02-03 Seattle, WA – Barboza
02-05 Vancouver, BC – Fox Cabaret
02-06 Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
02-07 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
02-09 Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
02-10 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom