ICE
April 2003 - Issue #193
"Pete Yorn Yearns for More" pgs. cover, 6-7, 38
(Photos: AV Club. Story: Kurt Orzeck)
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Feature Story
Music for the Album After
Pete Yorn Strikes Again with Day I Forgot
CLASSIC ROCK MAY WELL be in vogue again, thanks in large part to
the so-called "new garage" movement, but few newcomers are as
well versed in its history as singer/songwriter Pete Yorn. The
New Jersey native often gives Bruce Springsteen due praise
during regular concert renditions of "Dancing in the Dark," "New
York City Serenade" and "Atlantic City." A deluge of other
covers figure prominently into his repertoire, as well: "Rain"
(The Beatles), "China Girl" (Iggy Pop/David Bowie), "Panic" (The
Smiths), "New Age" (The Velvet Underground) and, most recently,
"Suspicious Minds" (written by Mark James, made famous by Elvis
Presley).
Likewise, Yorn's deep excavation of Americana through his own
rootsy originals has seduced music lovers of all ages, not just
ones the 28-year-old might draw from his own age bracket (or,
through past tours with Weezer and Sunny Day Real Estate, even
younger).
Yorn's full-length CDs, this far, contain only self-written
material. His first, 2001's gold musicforthemorningafter,
was produced by R. Walt Vincent, ex-Failure member Ken Andrews
and Brad Wood (Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair) and sported the
single "Life On A Chain."
On April 15, Yorn follows up his bow with Day I Forgot,
his second disc for Columbia that again features those
producers, plus another guest spot by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, who
also paid a visit on the first release.
The Full track list: "Intro," "Come Back Home" (first single),
"Crystal Village," "Carlos (Don't Let It Go to Your Head),"
"Pass Me By," "Committed," "Long Way Down," "When You See the
Light," "Turn of the Century," "Burrito," "Man In Uniform," "All
at Once," and "So Much Work."
"I'm so happy to have a new record to pull from, finally," Yorn
tells ICE. "We were milking the last one... now we'll
have more flexibility." He adds, "I was less concerned with
trying to sound cool or mysterious on this record. You can hear
that I'm singing with a lot more emotion than I was on the first
record - I'm belting it out more."
After supporting musicforthemorningafter with 18 months
of touring and a short vacation afterward, Yorn entered
Vincent's garage studio in Culver City, CA in August 2001.
Roping in producer Scott Litt (R.E.M., Nirvana) along the way,
the team sealed Day I Forgot in December and shipped it off to
mixer Andy Wallace in New York, who Yorn picked largely due to
his work on Jeff Buckley's Grace.
Gossip swirled in late 2001 that a new set of material by the
now-Los Angeles resident was in the works; more rumors arose
late last year that the album would be ready for a Christmas
release.
"There was a glimmer of hope that it was going to be done before
Christmas, but I kept wanting to work," says Yorn. "I already
had a good record, but I didn't feel like I was getting a rush.
I wanted to take my time and let it happen naturally, not blow
through it. I definitely come from the punk-rock school, but I
like to take my time in the studio."
Actually, Yorn recorded 25 tracks for the release, all of which
he considers fully realized. He divulges, "At first I was
thinking, 'Should I go double record?' Then I decided that
there's nobility in restraint. I wanted to make a short, tight
rock record, and that's what this is."
Yorn regards the keepers so highly that one of the songs he
trimmed features Buck ("Fit In," a frequent concert selection)
and another has studio wizard Jon Brion ("I Got Yer Money").
Other parings include "On Top of the World," "Seventeen,"
"Bandstand in the Sky," "Sit Down" and "Hunter Green," all of
which may be released eventually.
Yorn based his decision-making on two main criteria: how the
songs would translate in a live setting and what emotions they
evoke. "I don't need to feel the same way twice on a record, so
I'll ditch a song that has a similar emotion to another," he
says.
Equally important to the release was textural quality, which
makes Day I Forgot markedly different from
musicforthemorningafter.
"When I listen to the first one, it's too clean," he admits. "We
used more vintage gear to make this one sound rough. We used a
lot of old mics and nice pre-amps. With the last record, I used
a lot of loops, which are very sparse on this record. I always
felt that was a crutch, to use technology to make it more
interesting. I wanted to focus on the melodies and keep it
minimal."
One exception is a brief loop that appears at the beginning of
"Committed." When asked about its original source, Yorn exclaims
"Bun E. Carlos! It's actually the drums from 'Surrender!'" He
relied on the Cheap Trick skinster's Bun E. in a Box Midi sample
collection - recorded by Steve Albini - for the segment.
Said Carlos is not to be confused with the one referenced in the
third track on the new CD. That one, according to Yorn, is "a
desperate character, like the one on 'Meeting Across the River'
on Born to Run. I like old Springsteen so much."
Originally raised as a drummer himself, Yorn plays the
instrument throughout Day I Forgot. He also dabbled with
the baritone guitar on "Crystal Village," which he unsheathed on
musicforthemorningafter's "On Your Side."
"Crystal Village" is one of the many tunes Yorn has yet to
perform live, even though he has dipped into a trove of
as-yet-unreleased songs lately. (PeteYorn.com features a
comprehensive account of virtually every Yorn set list.) Fans
actually petitioned Yorn to include on of the only songs they
are familiar with, "Turn of the Century."
Yorn cites, "All at Once" as the oldest cut in the lineup. "I
have hundreds of songs I wrote years ago, but that one I'm
relating to still." Another early cut, "Man in Uniform,"
features Peter Buck on mandolin.
"Come Back Home," which he has performed only once live,
acoustically also got the early shoe-in: "I'm very proud of the
structure of that song, and the chorus. I write poppier songs,
but sometimes you get the over-the-top big, loud cliché chorus,
and I think that was one I was able to get. It has a weird time
signature, too: it's only three measures instead of four."
When Yorn had a vague sense of what he wanted the album to
consist of, he actually aired it in a public setting... amidst
unwitting souls, mostly.
He reminisces: "I'd put all the songs together on a disc and go
out to dive bars where I knew some people at. I'd put it in and
crank it up on the stereo and be rockin' out by myself. I'd
start drinking and having a night out. Then, whenever a song
came on that took me out of the record, I'd cut it. I was trying
to make a good-time record, in my own definition of what a good
time is."
Not too long ago, Yorn also made significant contributions
(songwriting, guitar, drums) to the new Liz Phair album,
currently without a title but scheduled for a June 24 release on
Capitol. The two recorded a second, quasi-duet version of
"Suspicious Minds," which could appear on a soundtrack down the
line.
In fact, Lisa Marie Presley was so enthused about Yorn recording
his first version that she coerced the Sweet Inspirations - who
backed The Kind on the 1969 original - to record with him. It is
one of the many heretofore unreleased tracks in Yorn's swelling
oeuvre.
He's also fine-tuning a few other covers, potentially for his
upcoming late April-early June tour: "I Wanna Be Adored" (The
Stone Roses), "The Killing Moon" (Echo & the Bunnymen) and "It
Never Rains in Southern California" (Albert Hammond).
Last but not least, Yorn has Trampoline Records, a joint venture
with band mate Marc Dauer and Wallflower Rami Jaffee, which just
enjoyed a sold-out revue at the House of Blues in Hollywood.
While limited-edition versions of other Day I Forgot
additives were not scheduled as of press time, Yorn does mention
a making-of-the-album documentary and says, "I want to shoot
videos for every song on the record - multiple ones, cheap ones,
and put together a DVD of those. I'm always thinking of shit
like that." |
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