The thought that led to this short video was, basically, “Wouldn’t it be nice to document bands’ pre-show rituals?” As soon as I realized YACHT would be in town to perform a Full Moon Party, inspired by the traditional Thai full moon parties, something slightly larger clicked into place: YACHT are not just an electro-oriented band with elements of post-disco, new wave, synth-pop and the like, but a multimedia project with a cross-cultural view of ritual and philosophy. It’s an approach that informs the very core of how they operate, evident in their videos, their music, and their writings. (See their self-published book about their “business, band, and belief system” called The Secret Teachings Of The Mystery Lights for more on that.) So executing this idea with YACHT wouldn’t just be an exploration of tour life mundanity, but something more expansive about ritual in music. Jona and Claire were game, so we met up the day of the Full Moon show to talk about all of the above. It’s a mini-doc, here now. I’m calling it Know Your Rites, with all due respect/honors/shouts to The Clash.

Huge thanks and credit to filmmaker Sam Carroll for structuring and assembling the footage so wonderfully, and to Alex Eaton for filming it with Sam and working with me through the finer points. Thanks also to Ricky Camilleri for assisting on the shoot. And finally, big thanks to Matte Productions, and the Beekman Beer Garden (presenter and host of the Full Moon party, respectively) for letting us shoot at their show. Maybe Know Your Rites is a series. Or maybe it’s a YACHT-devoted one-off, since so few bands offer such an organically conceptual ritual element. Either way, it’s a good place to start, and it was a fun thing to make. If you have five minutes, here is Know Your Rites: Yacht:

And thanks to Zoe Schack for helping with the title card!