Breaking news. How can one lone kid be at his home on the rural eastskirts of Virginia, dialing-up on his 56k modem that rarely gets better than 33kbps, yet get in touch with another fine being somewherest in the windmilled land of Holland?

Technology my wooden-hipped trunkster - the marvels of the 21st century and the lines that connects us.

Yacht is technology - a digital landscape where her sole resident of one (thee Jona Bechtolt) roams, feeds and nurses on the creative nipples she offers her only son. MEGA, the orange and red bound audio/visual guide to this land of Yacht, holds the
secrets to this promised land.

The following script is a result of these lines crossing many lands and possibly being seen by others - now for all the sun to shine.

+ You seem to be on the road quite a bit - likely touring with the many other bands you take part in. Do you record alot of material during these trips?

Totally, totally, totally. Most of the newest product I made, MEGA, was recorded or whatever while on tour in Europe with Lucky Dragons and Bobby Birdman. It was the first time Rob Birdman and I had ever been in Europe at all, so our minds were pretty much blown. The name MEGA is directly taken from rad European marketing; a ton of stuff ranging from the lottery to candy to bus-lines are peppered with MEGA all up in their business. I'm a big fan of what I call "Rad English," which includes things like spelling "night" like "nite," etc. Yeah, back to recording while on tour.. . I get a lot of spontaneous bursts of liquid idea and it's awesome to have immediate access to laptop that can act as a journal and recording device.

+ As well - your site leads the reader to believe you're the techy type ( "I designed the mnemonic device for Infone" ), did you create your own software to record your Yacht goodies?

Not yet and maybe I never will. The Lucky Dragons boy, Luke, has made some software for me with Max/MSP that I really love and used to use before I installed Mac OS X Tiger and my cracked copy of Max died. I'm not really into spending time learning things that don't serve a practical purpose. Propers to the people spending tons of time on making crazy stuff, but I've got to spend my time on touring and making this music, girl!
I am a busy motherfucker!

+ Mac user, correct? (question came prior to the above answer - kept for the love of the fruit!)

'TILL I DIE.

+ Did you create the FANTASTIQUE!!!! DVD that accompanies Mega yrself?

I think I only made the still-camera video montage. Most of the DVD was made by an artist named Matt Chambers whom is currently living in Los Angeles. I met him in Miami at one of the best shows I've ever played. He made the show. He was Miami to me! Also I owe a lot to E*Rock for his animations and drawings on MEGA. I basically just gave these guys a copy of the music and let them do whatever they wanted. I couldn't be happier with the output.
DUDES KILLED IT!

+ The "secret" live performance on the DVD threw me back to Tom
Cruise's character ' Frank T.J. Mackey ' from Magnolia ("Respect.. . The.. . Cock".) [* in a very cross-alienated method*], am I alone in this sequence of greatness? How often do you perform as YACHT?

I love that scene, for sure. P.T. Anderson is one of my favorite
directors. I don't think I was going for that character, though. Now I feel really weird. I hope I don't come off as a misogynist.. . I'm a feminist. FUCK MAN. How often do I perform as YACHT? Do you mean like that character? I don't, ever! YACHT is fake! I mean, I'm real! I mean.. . what happened? I play as much as possible. Del Taco, you got it. I played on a slip-n-slide.

+ Liner notes on the album (MEGA) state you come from Nashville
("he was the golden boy of Nashville".. ) - dispel the rumors..

Well.. I can't exactly explain that. I didn't see any of that until there were 1000 of them stuffed in CD cases on a table in front of me. I come from the river. Nashville? I come from the river. Right now I come from inside of a very, very dark wave. I don't know how long this shit will crash, but it's dark as fuck.

+ Among your many remixes (thus far) is a [version] of Adrian's [Thanksgiving]
"Now it is all over like the birds" - are you 2 boys tight like birds? What type of birds?

I haven't seen Adrian in a while. We've toured together and it was awesome. There has been a rumor that we were roommates and I have no idea where that came from. We've never been roommates outside of touring. If we were birds together I think that he would be a brown finch and I would be a pigeon.

+ This Ultraeczema site has pulled the #15 project [ radio /
phone ] due to bandwidth issues - you contributed to it, correct? Where can we hear your jam?

There is a new Ultraeczema coming out that I just did while being
stranded in Belgium. I think there will be something like 100 hand-drawn copies. I'll make sure to get those on my site for sale, for sure. There was a Blow song on the #15, but I don't think a YACHT jam.

+ What's next?

I made a split-album with the aforementioned Lucky Dragons. It's a tribute of sorts.. a surprise. It's coming out on Marriage Records and Kid 606's Violent Turd labels, together. Now I'm making two records and a movie/collection of movies. One record will be focused on sweetness, softness and acoustic interpretations of pre-Nirvana northwest America and post-Pop Rocks eastern Idaho. The second record and visual counterpart will be good. That's all I'm going to say about it right now.

+ Are you excited about the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
"remake"?

Marginally.

+ What makes Jona / Yacht / Whiskers happy?

Nothing right now. Girl, I'm in this wave. DARKNESS WARSHED OVER THE DUDE.

 

Love,
Jona