Yacht was once just you as a solo act, how did Claire join the fray?

We first met in 2005 when I was on a tour for my second album. On my day off some kids in Austin, Texas, told me about Marfa, a tiny town with this paranormal optical phenomenon – mystery lights that move around in the sky every night. I drove out there at three in the morning and my mind was blown.

The very next day Claire’s band and Yacht played together in LA. We met and it was ‘like’ at first sight. Through a mutual friend we met again half a year later and then it was love at second sight. From then on we’ve been collaborating on everything from making breakfast to recording music.

We since traveled to Marfa again and to see the lights together. That was the turning point in deciding to move to there and record the album, as well as how we found our voice for everything we say today – our ideology, the extracurricular activities around the music and all the non-musical companion items.

You’ve said that the spirit of Portland is punk-rock, and as a teenager you used to play in a punk band, so why did you then evolve to your current electronic sound?

I think that it all depends on your interpretation of the word punk. For years the North-West had a very isolated musical scene with a very DIY culture. A lot of the music that we consider to be really punk is probably not punk in a wider definition. It’s not leather jackets and spikes, it’s punk in the sense that DIY is punk – if there’s nothing there then you do it yourself.

We consider what we do now as punk in the sense that we’ve made it from nothing and completely on our own. The music writer Sasha Frere Jones talked about how an iPhone application that randomly deletes one number from every address book contact you have is maybe the most punk thing ever. We just believe that it’s more than a standard set of styles or sounds. We don’t record in a studio, we use a consumer level computer and a US$50 microphone. That’s punk.

You’ve previously said that Portland is so depressing, but you guys seem so cheerful!

We have to be to survive, you know! We don’t really live in Portland, our stuff lives there and our cat lives there but we’re touring all the time. Portland is depressing and dark but I think that’s also why there’s so much cool music and art there.

People retreat to their basements in the winter and create music or art to endure the horrible seasonal depression that affects everybody. After eight or nine months of putting up with that bullshit everyone emerges with these cool projects which makes the summer a really special event.

The song Psychic City came from your close friend and hero Rich Jensen, was that the reason why you chose it for the first single?

Rich Jensen is very old school Pacific North-West rock’n’roll and a sort of granddaddy to the band. He’s a perfect example of punk too, he built an infrastructure without which we, and even Nirvana, would never have been as successful.

In the 80s he was know as “the screaming poet” and Psychic City was actually one of his a cappella poems. We saw him perform it and witnessed the effect it had on people and immediately fell in love with the words and its message. It’s exciting for us to take something of his that never got its fair attention and pay homage to him by reinventing it.

How did you get signed by DFA Records?

LCD Soundsystem were on their first American tour for Sound Of Silver and their opening act from the UK couldn’t get work visas. The day before the tour we got a call and we asked if we wanted to tour with them.

In the middle of the tour we made Summer Song to put on the Internet as a free MP3. We thought we’d had our fun and that would be it but six months later Jon Galkin (DFA manager) called saying he wanted to put it out as a 12 inch. After making the video we were asked if we wanted to make an album. We were totally shocked because we thought it just would end with the one 12 inch record.

Was the video for “Summer Song” inspired by an actual experience that you underwent?

No, it’s actually a shot-for-shot remake of a scene from a 1980s movie called “Tape Heads” starring John Cusack and Tim Robbins that’s set around the early life of music videos. But making the video was an experience that did affect our lives significantly; I know that I never want to be covered in cold wet paint ever again. It’s our way of saying that we’re just as influenced by film as by music, and that we’re willing to put ourselves into strange positions in order to be part of a larger cultural context, not just electronic or laptop music or whatever.

How would you label your music?

Just as overspecialization for an animal in the biological kingdom is evolutionary death, overspecialization for a band is tantamount to cultural suicide. The more specialized the creature, the more likely they are to become extinct, and the same applies to art or music. We want to stay as diverse as possible and not become wrapped up in genres and niches. We consider ourselves generalists, not specialist.

What’s with all the triangles embedded in your band artwork?

Triangles are powerful symbols in many different civilizations throughout history and in nature, science and mathematics. As I learned through my brothers’ alcoholism, even the Alcoholics Anonymous symbol incorporates a triangle within a circle, supposedly to represent strength. Both of us have had many different experiences with triangles and symbols in our lives. We also have matching triangle tattoos on our forearms.

- Tim Pritchard & Gary J. Bowles

Yacht on MySpace

See the Brouhaha write-up of Yacht’s performance here and gallery of Yacht and more from both days of Clockenflap here.

Where does your sexual electricity come from?

Well, I have lots of sex! But really, it’s just part of the character of the music that we create. I was lucky enough to have a fairly open upbringing and my parents have never really taken offence to what I do. I probably watched too many Madonna videos as well.

Do you have a stage persona or is what you see what you get?

It’s definitely a different person up there on stage. It’s taking a role, like method acting. We call our act electro-cabaret and so to a certain extent we are acting, performing. But, for me, I am also overcome by the energy from the stage, like it’s from the ground itself. As soon as I step up there I’m so affected I’m no longer me.

We know that sometimes you may shock the crowd, but has the crowd ever shocked or surprised you?

Oh my god! These people! They threw their beer at me and beer is so expensive here. They were just throwing their money away. I was surprised by that, as well as how many young children there were. These people take their children to be fully exposed to our full scope which is something the last generation wouldn’t have done. It really is amazing seeing kids on shoulders while we’re singing about the things we sing about. That’s 21^st century child raising and I would do the very same.

When (guitarist and drummer) Huzi and Edo kissed on stage, was that just an act or are they romantically involved?

Oh no they are both really straight guys! Just, they occasionally like to kiss and grab each other’s butts. We have this thing for touching the improper, you know, we feel it’s a bit of a tease. We like to play with the crowd, give the audience a kick and in turn we feed off the energy it generates. I think it’s quite cathartic for the audience to see the improper.

You’ve just toured Europe – how did you find it?

The best thing was backstage they had these huge fridges full of alcohol. That’s the way it should be! They really know how to treat a performer over there.

Speaking of alcohol, what’s your favourite drink?

Well I like my drinks in large quantities and so that usually means cheap. But if we talk about my favourite drink… this sounds a bit fancy but a well made Manhattan is perfect. They’re like potato chips, I have one and I can’t stop!

Which Clockenflap act are you most looking forward to?

Oh definitely looking forward to YACHT. We promoted their Beijing shows and so we’ve had a taste of what they are like and I must say, I’m intrigued!

What do you think of all the HK musicians who are moving up to Beijing?

I think it’s great. The underground scene here is so small, difficult and most people here have to work day jobs and don’t really get time to explore the music. Moving to Beijing, where it’s so much better for the music, really is great.
You really do see a lot of Hong Kong musicians up in Beijing now. People there aren’t as quick to judge you by your name card – you are known by who you are individually and not your position. People there don’t even really hand out name cards like they do here. If they do, it’s almost embarrassing!

You’ve mentioned in a previous interview that you feel Beijing audiences are like a crowd of music critics. How has the crowd been in Hong Kong?

Oh the crowd here is great – we really got a response out of them and that was a great energy for us. The Beijing crowds are getting better but they are still really hard. But it’s good to play for a tough audience, it keeps you on your game and you really have to bring it. When it’s that challenging, it’s so much more rewarding when they finally uncross their arms and start to dance.  But in Beijing there’s so much competition and people there aren’t so easily impressed by reputation.

Would you want to come to Hong Kong again?

Oh yeah, definitely. It’s been so much more than we had hoped for. We’re hoping to do a medium sized gig in the near future, that would be brilliant.

One last question – it is our understanding that you have been naked with the band members for a photo shoot. Was that awkward?

Not really. You don’t really know your friend until you’ve seen him naked anyway.

-Alex Lendrum & Hugo Stanford (who by the above statement know each other as friends).

Pet Conspiracy MySpace

See photos from both days at Clockenflap on the Brouhaha gallery.

Day two began still reeling from a stupendous performance from Saturday’s headline act, Los Campesinos. The young six-piece gathered the remaining festival goers from all corners of the venue to join the already crowded and electrified mass squashed up to the stage for an unforgettable closer.

It would seem that remembering the great buzz from the night before pointed feet back toward Cyberport to enjoy the second half of the festival, albeit slightly dragged and hung over feet. It certainly seemed that many had told their friends as there were lots of new faces, beaming and fresh as if they had not just undergone a fury of drunken musical splendor the night prior.

Much like Saturday, Sunday was also a slow start. The children still had grass space to play on and the groups of old friends and newly made ones were firmly clustered. As the day went on, the crowd merged more into a giant collage of happy faces.

To begin with, there was an array of local bands and DJs that helped ease the audience into comfort with songs that served as aural Bloody Marys. Then came Radioactive Sago Project from the Philippines. All dressed in white, they shook some legs and clapped some hands. They brought funk, jazz and blues, all strung together with lyrics they had found from all over the universe.

Once the ball started rolling, it carried on a-rollin’. The crowd started to let down their hair, and threw their hands up in the air. It wasn’t until this point that we noticed, not only was the area around the stage full, but the whole of Cyberport was crawling with people having a gay old time!

Some folks relished a break from booming speakers to enjoy the creativity that came with the many short films being projected in the film tent. The 48 Hour Film Project, in which the entries had only two days to shoot their film, was a particular delight.

Almost everyone gravitated toward the stage once they realized Yacht had started. With an introduction of where they came from (Portland, Oregon) they brought on the bright lights and started what could be called bedroom dancing for musical scientists. Their eccentric, almost preacher-like singing combined with their “good feelings”  stage dancing created, for the audience, a whirlwind of unexplained excitement and a, “what’s going on? I DON’T CARE, IT’S MY TIME TO DANCE!” type of emotion. It was great.

But it wasn’t over yet. The night was to continue with a smooth Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy DJ set, which only buttered everyone up for the headlining performance that night, Blood Red Shoes. Someone decided to throw beer on them, which they didn’t like at all. Pet Conspiracy enjoyed that type of thing but it’s not for everyone. It didn’t however slow down the runaway train of fun and so back to the dancing everyone went. The show may not have been as powerful as Yacht’s performance, but they still brought forth tides of blissful listening followed by a torrent of cheers from their listeners.

And thus was Clockenflap.

As a parting gift, “Posin til Closin” played a DJ set allowing for some last minute body moving and/or chit chats on the grass. Quite a few chose the both whilst others took their loved ones or themselves home, leaving the remainders to stretch the good times for as long as they could until it was throwing out time.

- Alex Lendrum

With the onlooking sun perched high in the sky and a hitting heat that warmed the grass, the Clockenflap Music and Media-Arts festival started firmly in chill-out mode. The audience was lazily scattered across the stepped podium, listening idly to the early acts while pulling at grass, being fondly reminded of those summer afternoons where days were long and responsibilities short; where time was your own and the setting sun didn’t mark the end of your day but the beginning of your night.

When the sun started to wane, dipping below the horizon to send the sky a brilliant orange, things began to pick up.

Local band sensation Chochukmo wielded a raw energy which they fired off into the crowd with the thunderous starts of a trio guitar ensemble and intense vocals from Jan Curious. This combination kicked the audience into overdrive, eliciting screams and shouts – the first we had really heard all day.

From then on, the crowd was in that elusive sixth gear, that possessing trance which kept them standing and dancing through the Volt In Music DJ set until the appearance of Beijing sensation Pet Conspiracy.

As the five-person band sound-checked on stage the crowd was itching, anticipation occasionally getting the better of a few as they screeched encouraging remarks, not all of which were sanitary. A blast of red and blue and Pet Conspiracy were off, led by nymphet Helen to envelop the crowd with lyrics so sexually charged you’d wonder if Freud’s spirit was floating about.

The old psychoanalyst would have plenty to say when, over the blaring chants of a wildly animated crowd came a sultry voice: ‘This song is all about my pink.’ The crowd lost it. Pet Conspiracy, with all the panache of seasoned touring, upped the ante to culminate in one final act of true performance which started with ‘throw some water on me’, followed with drummer Edo and guitarist Huzi kissing on stage, and ended with that same sultry voice: ‘I want to feel your spray.’

-Hugo Stanford

Read our interview with Pet Conspiracy!

Photographs by Pow / powchung@ymail.com – a special thanks!

To see more photos, check out our Clockenflap Day 1 photos!