"I’ve just spent Thanksgiving in Portland – I’m here shooting for the beautiful people of AnOther – and Claire L. Evans and Jona Bechtolt of YACHT are in town after doing some final touch ups on their new album in LA. We decided to spend some time hanging out. To be honest it is an honour as the hype around the new music is getting big and things have been kicking off.
It was my first Thanksgiving experience, and hanging with Claire and Jonas’s families was amazing, they were so comforting and welcoming. To be honest I didn’t realize the importance of it all until I saw the effort that was put in. Holy God it was epic!
To get into all the history and the wrong and right side of taking over a continent, I could go on for a long time, but everyone there knows what went on when the land was discovered and make light of the fact they celebrate it. The main concentration of the day is to be with family and have a day off work.
Black Friday! Now that is a strange day. It’s the day after Thanksgiving, when all the big department stores have a massive sale for about six hours only and open as early as 4am. It is apparently the maddest experience. People get hurt: some have even been killed trying to get bargains.
The jigsaw puzzle you can see in one of the pictures was of New York, they tried to finish it but the food coma kicked in. Before that Jonas and Claire played us all a couple of tracks from their new album – it sounds so good. While it was playing the puzzle was being made. It was so nice to hear Claire sing along to it under her breath while putting together a 2D NYC in front of me."
Niall O’Brien is a London-based photographer who specialises in capturing the gritty and spontaneous. His recent solo show, Good Rats, displayed the fruits of a three-year project during which O’Brien documented the lives of a group of south West London punks.
