Bechtolt was born in Madison, Wisconsin and was raised in Astoria, Oregon. Bechtolt began playing music as a teenager. He never attended high school, instead opting to play drums and tour the U.S. with his brother Joel Bechtolt in their punk band, Allegro. He started working with electronics in the late 1990s. He has been a vegetarian for most of his life and a vegan since 2000.
In January 2006, Yacht was commissioned for two performances for the New York based art and technology platform Rhizome, as part of their "Crap-tops vs Laptops" show. In February 2006, he performed at the Museum of Modern Art's P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center and produced an hour-long internet radio program with Clear Cut Press; a Northwest-based publisher of new literary work.
In 2007, Yacht released I Believe in You, Your Magic Is Real on Marriage Records. For the release party, Bechtolt performed a concert on an actual yacht on the Willamette River in Portland.

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