Pete Yorn - playing for keeps

Mon 6th Nov, 2006 in Features

Pete Yorn is finally on Australian soil and he seems very happy. We’re sitting on the deck of a Sydney hotel, each sipping a schooner. The New Jersey-born, husky-voiced singer/songwriter seems very settled beneath his hat, as he gazes out to the neighbouring marina.

Interestingly, the first topic we discuss is Yorn’s dentist father, who has retired now, but I inquire whether his paternal influence has made him terrified of dental surgeries. “If my friend’s fathers were a dentist, they would go to someone else, because it was too close to home to see their own father. But my dad was my dentist and he always used to be like, ‘Get in the chair!’ But I never had major problems with my teeth. I had braces that were put on by my father’s college room mate, but I only had those for a year and a half. I just resent that my father never used Nitrous Oxide. I never got that to have that fun treatment,” says Yorn, wistfully.

The release of Yorn’s third album, Nightcrawler, was the perfect excuse for him to finally make his touring debut to Australia. Our audiences have been robbed of opportunities to hear his extraordinary music, which Triple J considers to be too commercial. Unfortunately, commercial radio stations deem him ‘too Triple J’, so Yorn’s singles have always fallen between the cracks in our radio network. The little exposure we’ve received has been through the soundtracks of movies like Orange County, Me, Myself and Irene, Shrek 2 and Spiderman.

But now Pete Yorn gets to take to Australian stages, where there is less chance of him being ignored. At the time of our interview he has already played the Brisbane leg of his supporting tour with The Dixie Chicks. He will also get to play his own headline show at Sydney’s Metro Theatre.

Yorn’s music is hard to pigeon-hole. There are influences that spur in every direction. Rolling Stone have compared him to a young Bruce Springsteen, whereas other critics can’t help but compare his raw sound to the rock of Neil Young. The only true comment that a person could make, is that Yorn’s style is always turning on itself, with his louder, electric moments (For Us, For Nancy) being just as honest and emotive as his aching acoustic ballads (The Man, Just Another) and even his Gomez-like electronic experimentation (Georgie Boy).

Originally a drummer, Yorn picked up the guitar in his early teens. It was around this time that he fell in love with The Smiths. “I became a super Johnny Marr fan. I was also into Peter Buck [REM] and that kind of playing. I discovered what they were into and then went back and listened to what had inspired them. My picking style and my rhythms were influenced by songs like Bigmouth Strikes Again from The Queen Is Dead. I remember hearing the double-time acoustic strumming in The Cure’s Inbetween Days and thinking, ‘Holy Shit!’ Those songs have gone into my style, my minor to major changes and chords, but I’ve never become as good as Johnny or Peter in my solo-ing ability,” confesses Yorn.

Some writers try and pin Yorn as ‘alt-country’, but it’s not an appropriate generalisation for such a diverse songwriter. However, he is very quick to wax lyrical about his love for Neil Young. “I love Neil. The first time I ever sang in front of a band was to Rockin’ In The Free World at a talent show at my high school when I was 15 years old. Sometimes you grow an even bigger appreciation for an artist when you cover one of their songs. I really got into Neil and went back and listened to Harvest and Zuma. One of his later records that I love is Silver + Gold. It has a song on there called Razor Love, which is gorgeous. I like Neil because he’s such a great guitar player. He has his own style. I also really liked his Pearl Jam collaborations,” explains Yorn.

Some artists grow tired of playing their own material, but not Yorn. He finds that his songs constantly evolve and change in meaning as he gains more life experience. Yorn provides the example of one of his most famous tracks, Life On A Chain. “For years I was singing, ‘I live in on a chain, you share the same last name.’ It had a relationship theme about me, my family and close friends. There’s never been a divorce in my family, but over the years I’ve had people coming up to me and saying that Life On A Chain helped them get through their divorce, which is great. I’d never experienced it myself, but over the past year my oldest brother has been getting divorced from his wife and they have a baby girl. It’s going as well as it could. It’s not like it’s an ugly divorce. But Life On A Chain is so literal; she’s bought a house up the street, my brother lives around the corner. It’s like a fortune telling of what’s been happening. When I sing it now, that’s what I think about. But it’s great, because my brother and his wife have still remained good friends,” says Yorn.

There’s no denying the honesty of his craft, which captured raw moment after moment on his debut musicforthemorningafter and The Day I Forgot. His latest release, Nightcrawler (which has a guest appearance by Dave Grohl), completes a day/night metaphor. When the night arrives, we are all a little wiser then we were the previous evening. Hopefully this day has made you wise to the music of Pete Yorn.

www.myspace.com/peteyorn & www.peteyorn.com

Pete’s Sydney sideshow (and Australian debut) went for a mesmerising two hours, covered most of his body of work and even featured a stellar cover of The Smiths’ ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’.

Sound Bites
Four quick grabs from Pete…

2006?

“It’s been a bittersweet year. Artistically, it has been good. I’ve released a record and toured. But my grandma died and my brother got sick, so I’ve had personal stuff that has sucked. It bounced all the fun out, but that’s the way of the world. It’s been a very full year emotionally. But I’ve had a lot of opportunities, like my inaugural trip to Australia.”

“For sure, my songs always take on different meanings for me, depending on what’s going on in my life. A song I’m singing might hit home in a different way when I’m dealing with something and that could certainly be very cathartic. But I embrace that. I think it’s one of the great things about music and performing. It makes you feel alive.”

“No way. I’ve never gotten sick of playing anything that I’ve released. I’ve written the songs and designed them in such a way, that the meanings evolve for me. That’s one of the fun things about it. Songs take on new meanings for me as I experience more or where my head’s at on a certain day. Nothing I’ve released has lost significance, if anything my music has grown in significance for me.”

“It wasn’t my original intention. The whole writing process has always been mysterious for me. I’ve learnt a lot about myself during interviews, because I don’t really open up about my music to my friends. I learn more about the process by doing these interviews because I have to come up with answers. I’ve realised that I’ve been focused on themes that I keep going back to since the first record. Themes like relationships, love, materialism, jealousy and our own mortality.

“When I made musicforthemorningafter as a 24 year old, I had certain perceptions of what all those things meant, but then I travelled much of the world and met lots of different people. When I went to make a second record, I had different views on those same themes and I continue gain new perceptions as I experience more in life.”