WHITE
“You can’t spell Shangri-La without LA;” and the “LA” tattoo on Claire L.
a space that is separate from the rest of the world, you end up isolated from the
Evans’s shoulder exactly matches the font from the neon sign hanging in
things that make being a human being valuable, which is change, engagement
YACHT’s living room. On the title track from their latest album, named Shangri-
with others and the challenge of others,” says Claire. “That kind of explains
La after the earthly utopia from James Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon, Claire
why we moved away from Portland too,” replies Jona. “Some people see
and YACHT’s other half, Jona Bechtolt, sing about finding their own such place
Portland as a utopia, and it’s cut off from the world in some ways.”
in Oregon, West Texas or Los Angeles—the places where they’ve felt happiest, though it could be anywhere.
For Jona and Claire, a harmonious life requires balance—not the uniformity that blankets a sheltered, peaceful town like Portland. Uprooting to LA last
After a year spent discussing ideas from 2009’s supernaturally inspired See
fall wasn’t a career-move but a mental and artistic choice. It’s the classic
Mystery Lights, Jona and Claire decided to tackle something more concrete
plot from dystopian fiction, like when Toby McGuire’s character escapes the
for Shangri-La. “A Utopia is a commitment to your ideas in a really profound
black & white ‘50s world of Pleasantville to face the multi-colored peril of
way—an actual place where you can enact any ideology that you have. As we
reality. “There’s kind of a post-apocalyptic feeling about LA—an anarchist,
made the record, we discovered that it’s not really possible. Once you delineate
unhinged, dangerous feeling,” explains Claire. “And that level of darkness is