YACHT is a synth pop band from Portland, Oregon, who has made waves with its quirky music and entertaining videos. It features Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans, who also have been in a romantic relationship for the past decade.
Unfortunately for the duo, Bechtolt and Evans recently discovered that a sex tape they made had allegedly been stolen from them and leaked onto the Internet. The response of the couple, though, was different than you might have guessed. Instead of trying to prevent the Internet-watching world from seeing it, they’re joining in on the action and selling the tape themselves for $5 a pop.
For one, neither Bechtolt nor Evans need to apologize for making a private sex tape that apparently was not for anybody else’s eyes. Secondly, it must be somewhat empowering that they’ve decided to use this violation to their own advantage. This was what they later wrote on Facebook.
Hi everyone. We’re deeply touched by the overwhelming support you’ve shown us. This is an uncomfortable and pretty bizarre situation for us to be in, but it’s made better by the evidence that we have fans like you. Since this happened we’ve been researching sex tapes. It shouldn’t have come as any surprise that Pamela Anderson never saw a dime from the tape she filmed with Tommy Lee, and Paris Hilton lost a court battle with the man who leaked their private video. We’re not as savvy as the Kardashians, but something occurred to us this morning: we could try and distribute the video directly to you ourselves. Lemonade?
This video is out there now. We can’t change that. But we can try to be “as YACHT as possible” about it and take some kind of ownership over what has happened. So we’re asking you one thing: if you feel like you 100% have to see this tape, don’t stream it on some tube site, or download a torrent. Instead, we beg of you to download the video, Louis C.K.-style, directly from us.
If you’d like to watch, all you have to do is not chuckle at the URL—https://fuck.teamyacht.com/—click the link, and then pay.
As YACHT wrote on the website, the band won’t judge you if you want to watch. But the duo also wants you to pay to see it. As YACHT wrote, “Controlling how this video is seen, and who profits from it, is the only form of agency we have left over this exploitative situation. Please do the right thing.”
Update 1:12pm CT, May 10: According to Jezebel and a video posted on Pornhub, the unauthorized sex tape is a hoax. Jezebel reports that Claire L. Evans, one of YACHT’s two band members, sent an email to a Gawker writer on April 6 that said the following:
For the upcoming music video for our song, “I Wanna Fuck You Til I’m Dead,” we’re faking a sex tape leak.
In the days leading up to the video’s release, we’re going to pretend we were hacked, share and delete confessional social media posts on the subject of our privacy, then try to “get out in front of it” and sell the sex tape, fake a server crash, etc.
On Tuesday, a three-minute video appeared on Pornhub that features Evans and Jona Bechtolt dancing for each other, kissing, cuddling, and tickling each other. Then, they pull off masks, revealing that they’re aliens who are apparently having sex.
YACHT did not immediately return a Twitter message asking for comment to the Daily Dot.
H/T Fader