Magnet
June/July 2002
"Morning Glory" pg. 48-52
(Photos: Christian Lantry. Story: Matt Hickey)
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Why is
musicforthemorningafter, last year's debut by Pete Yorn, still
gaining momentum? Meet the latest in a long line of New Jersey
working-class heroes.
Pete Yorn is standing behind a curtain on a Burbank, Calif.,
soundstage, waiting to play The Tonight Show. The
late-night appearance is another in a seemingly unending series
of promotional stops and tour dates in support of
musicforthemorningafter (Columbia). Yorn's stunning debut,
which continues to have legs more than a year after its release.
New Jersey native Yorn figures it'll be Jay Leno introducing him
and his band, but instead of hearing Leno's smarmy whine, it's
the voice of fellow Garden State rocker and show guest Jon Bon
Jovi that beckons.
In Amsterdam a month later ("It's fucking nuts here; I've got to
get out of Dodge quick.") and enjoying a day off from yet more
touring, the 27-year-old Yorn relates the Bon Jovi story in a
sleepy, mellow tone matching his vocals on
musicforthemorningafter.
"It was funny," he says. "I was expecting to hear Jay Leno's
voice, and I was like, 'That's not Jay-that's Jon, that's Jon!'"
Growing up in Jersey, Yorn admits, "Everyone knew Bon Jovi. I
was into 'She Don't Know Me' and 'Runaway,' then they got huge.
Everyone loved hit. It's a rite of passage."
The experience wasn't exactly a Jersey boy's wet dream come
true--that would've meant Bruce Springsteen being involved--but
having a home-state rock icon introduce his Tonight Show
spot added another wacky chapter to Yorn's pre- and post-musicforthemorningafter
story. He's had songs in films (including Edward Burns' No
Looking Back and Sidewalks Of New York, the latter of
which featured a character singing "A Girl Like You,"
musicforthemorningafter's hidden track), scored the Farrelly
Brothers' Me, Myself & Irene and hobnobbed with heroes
(meeting Springsteen--"I was like, 'I'm on Columbia, man. I'm
from New Jersey, man,' like a total dork"--and cutting a new
version of music's "Strange Condition" with R.E.M.'s
Peter Buck). Yorn has also be lauded by the like of Elton
John--when John isn't slobbering over Ryan Adams--and linked in
the gossip rags with hot actresses Winona Ryder and Minnie
Driver.
Oh, and let's not forget Yorn created one of last year's best
records. music has been criticized for its supposed
reliance on Yorn's admitted influences, ranging from Springsteen
to the Smiths, but they're subtly distilled rather than copied.
Sure, they're evident--the slack, Stephen Malkmus vocals and New
Order bass of "Black"; the glossy, Don't Tell A Soul-era
Replacements pop of "Life On A Chain" and "Closet"; the
acoustic-based, Jackson Brown/James Taylor, pseudo-confessionsal
singer/songwriter vibe of "EZ" and "A Girl Like You"--but
music is still just about the most endearing record of 2001.
At first listen, you're thinking, "Hey, this guy is good"; a few
spins later, you're thinking, "Hey, this guy is great."
THE NATURAL
The song of a dentist father and pianist/schoolteacher mother,
Yorn became enthralled with music while in the single digits.
He' listen to 45s on a Sesame Street record player and
admiring watch his older brothers--Kevin, now an entertainment
lawyer, and Rick, an agent (whose clients include Leonardo
DiCaprio) and partner with power broker Mike Ovitz in Artists
Management Group in Beverly Hills--practice cover songs for
their high-school bands.
"I had this one record I use to listen to over and over again at
a really young age," Yorn remembers. "It was a fucking terrible
song--'The Logical Song' or something. Who played that? Right,
Supertramp. I'd play it over and over. Now I hate that song."
Yorn learned from Rick to play drums at age nine. His brother
was bowled over at how quickly young Pete became so adept. "A
week after I taught him how to play a straight-four beat, I came
home from school and heard someone in the basement sounding like
John Bonham," marvels Rick. "I was like, 'Who in the hell is
that?' I had friends who were pretty good drummers who would
sometimes be over at the house, but I walked downstairs and just
saw sticks because Pete was really little. It was amazing. I'll
never forget it."
Pete recalls the moment with a chuckle and a slightly different
take: "Rick came home, and I was playing Van Halen's 'Dance The
Night Away,' with the cowbell and everything. He was like, 'What
the fuck is going on?'"
Picking up a guitar at 12, Yorn soon began penning his own
melodies and was successful fairly quickly as well. "All of our
bands, for the most part, were playing cover tunes, and the
songs we were writing frankly weren't that good," says Rick.
"From a very young age, Pete was writing all originals, and they
were amazing. He was very prolific, one after the next. You knew
that something was different about this kid. He's a freak. When
was in high school and college, he would play me tapes of his
songs, and they were just unbelievable. We knew he definitely
had a gift and had to pursue it... God looked down on this kid
and said, 'We're giving it to you, man.'"
THE GRADUATE
After earning a speech communications degree from Syracuse
University in 1996, Yorn packed up and headed to Los Angeles,
briefly contemplating law school before deciding to give music
his full attention. There's a mistaken perception that Yorn got
off a plane and was handed the Columbia deal and the
high-profile Me, Myself & Irene job due to the influences
of Rick, his big-shot agent brother. In actuality, the
label-less Yorn worked as a bank teller and film production
assistant while gigging around town.
"When I first moved out and put the band together, it was me and
Rick and one other dude," says Yorn. "I remember going, 'We're
gonna rock, we're gonna get a record deal tonight, first gig.
Straight outta college.' Then, of course, it didn't happen for
about four years."
In addition to playing at L.A. clubs like Cafe Largo--the famous
songwriters' enclave where folk/pop luminaries such as Aimee
Mann and Michael Penn often hold court and Farrelly Brothers
producer Bradley Thomas spotted him--Yorn was also distributing
his demo tapes around town.
"Pete sent me some demos about three years ago, before he was
signed, and I was impressed with his songwriting and his style,"
says producer Don Fleming (Sonic Youth, Screaming Trees,
Posies), who heard enough potential to want to make a record
with him. "I've always found more substance to artists who can
explore a darker side, and I felt Pete was really writing some
great material."
The duo convened in New York and cut a full album's worth of
tunes, with Yorn playing all the instruments. The finished
record was shopped around, and while Columbia offered a deal,
the Fleming-produced final product was scrapped; by the time he
was signed, Yorn had already written reams of new songs.
"I had hoped Columbia would do the logical thing and release the
album that we did first, but it didn't work out that way," says
Fleming. "But I thought musicforthemorningafter was
great. I would have loved to produce that record, but that's
showbiz. Mostly, I hope the full record that we made will see
the light of day." (Yorn says it will probably surface later
this year with the title Pete Yorn.)
"There was a label that was going to put out [the
Fleming-produced record], and then it just fell apart," says
Yorn. "At the same time that was happening, as luck would have
it, everything with Columbia came around, and it didn't seem to
matter. I was recording all of these great new songs and had met
(co-producer) R. Walt Vincent. We were just kind of in the zone.
I was doing this whole new thing that I was more into at the
time. Like everybody, I think you get into certain things and
then you grow out of it and get into something else. I just
wanted to go what I was more into."
Though "Simonize" from the Fleming sessions did end up on
music, the new stuff Yorn came up with is just as
remarkable: melodic and romantic, with lyrics that are emotional
and touching but without melodrama. They're direct and to the
point, yet are obtuse enough for alternate interpretations-- not
that Yorn would, or could, provide such analysis.
"Writing is still a mysterious process for me," he admits. "I
try not to think about myself too much, but I'm sure it all
comes from a place that obviously is me. When I first started
writing songs, I put too much of myself into some of them and
got sick of listening to them. My writing's more laid back now,
as far as I'm concerned, but it's definitely from the heart or
somewhere. I don't like stuff to be sappy or whiny. There's a
way of presenting things that doesn't have to be too freaked
out."
Yorn, handling most of the instrumental duties, recorded his
debut in Vincent's Culver City, Calif., garage, with Brad Wood
(Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins, Sunny Day Real Estate) joining
Vincent and Yorn as a co-producer. Wood pledged his services to
the LP's creation immediately after hearing the Fleming-recorded
product. "I thought it was awesome, plain and simple," says
Wood. "It was really well don, and I just really wanted to work
on [the Columbia record]."
Wood concurs that Yorn was writing so many good new tunes that
the older stuff was destined to remain in the vaults. Though
Vincent and Wood played large roles in how music turned
out, Yorn was confident and focused on how he wanted the record
to sound. "Pete had a really strong idea of what he wanted to do
and how he wanted to do it" says Wood, who's currently mixing
the upcoming Bangles comeback record. "He was nice enough to
give a lot of leeway to interpret stuff and toss things in
there, but it was definitely his ship to steer."
"It wasn't really about confidence," counters Yorn. "It was
about enjoying doing it, and it was making me feel good.
Sometimes music can make me feel bad because I'm not into it,
but I was just enjoying it at the time. The record really
captured that moment in my life, and I always think back on that
time fondly."
What Wood and Yorn do agree on is how much they like the
results. "I love it," gushes Wood. "I think it's a really great
record, on of the best I've ever worked on. I'm really fond of
it. It's strong and unique sounding. When people hear it, they
respond to it."
"I remember right before we got it mastered," says Yorn. "Me and
Walt were listening to it, and I was like, 'This record is all
over the place. I had no idea if there are people out there who
like this kind of music, like I still do.' We kind of didn't
know what was up, but we knew we liked it."
They're not the only ones. Just ask Rick Yorn what he thinks of
music and about the grumblings of his brother's success
owing more to nepotism and connections than ability. "The record
speaks for itself, and it's on the best label in the world," he
says. "We're a powerful management company, but there are a lot
of other powerful managers. Every big, important manager wanted
to manage Pete. We sat and talked about it and though it would
be silly for us not to. It's a coincidence that we're in the
business and that we've been doing this a long time. In a day
where it's about singles and not about complete records, I
thought this kid made a complete record. You can listen to the
entire record, and I don't think he dropped the ball once. I
know that's coming from a brother, but listen, I'm very direct
with him. I always five him my honest opinion. But I know in my
heart that it's one of the best complete debut records that has
come out in a very long time."
Liz Phair is also a fan, so much so that she asked Yorn to help
with her upcoming An Evening With, scheduled for late
summer. "I felt like he voiced the male persona I would most
like to Scotch tape over my current boyfriend," she says. Though
Yorn's role isn't as extensive as has been reported--he played
on some tracks Phair cut with Vincent but isn't producing the
record (Michael Penn is)--Phair enlisted him to serve as "an
inspiration and a challenge because he's sort of a songwriter
whose style is more like my own. He was just starting out with
all this fire. I felt competitive, and it made me want to kick
some ass."
THE SURE THING
Though happy with his work, Yorn cops to having no real sense of
how it was going to be received. "I hoped it would do well, but
I just wanted to get the chance to do what I wanted to do," he
says. "And I've already had that way more than I ever expected."
Since the record has been almost universally lauded--with the
exception of those who enjoyed playing "spot the influences"--Yorn
hasn't had to revisit those thoughts, but he was prepared for
whatever the reaction was going to be.
"I would've kept moving if it hadn't done well," he says. "At
the end of the day, I thought about that kind of thing, and
that's why I made the record the way I did--you know, with
friends, kept it simple and at home. I figured I would at least
have something that I really like," He pauses before adding with
a laugh, "Which sounds kind of sappy, but it's true."
The record's success and long shelf life have given birth to a
post-release existence that's been both surreal and hectic. Take
the re-recording of "Strange Condition," which appears on the
most recently released two-CD special edition of music.
The full record is on one disc, while the second contains four
videos and cover versions of the Smiths' "Panic," David Bowie's
"China Girl" and Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" and "New
York City Serenade." ("Panic" and "Dancing In The Dark" are
staples of Yorn's live show.) Peter Buck liked music so much
that he agreed to play on the new version of "Strange
Condition." Yorn is aware of just how ridiculous the concept
sounds--that a New Jersey kid shouldn't be able to call one of
his idols to record with him--but it didn't dissuade him.
"Oh, my god, it's crazy," he says. "It's kind of mind-blowing to
me. I fucking love Peter Buck, his guitar playing, and always
was a big fan of it. Live, 'Strange Conditon' rocks more, and I
was thinking, 'What if we had a version that's more like the
live version? If we're going to do it, let's ask Pete to play on
it.' And he was into it. He plays some cool guitar on it, but
it's not like Carlos Santana. It's just subtle, man."
Though his life is crazed with constant touring, interviews and
promo obligations, Yorn has found time to record more than a
dozen songs for his next album, which he hopes will be out in
the fall. Working again with Vincent and ex-Failure frontman Ken
Andrews, Yorn says the album will be more of a rock outing and
perhaps not quite so focused on love. "Though I guess it's
always about love, isn't it?" he wavers. "The new stuff isn't so
much about relationships or the end of relationships. It has
different kinds of views, which I think makes sense."
As if suddenly remembering he's in Amsterdam--a tangled maze of
a city with more than its fair share of possibility and
temptation--Yorn heads out into the night. "I'm gonna go get
into trouble," he warns. "I've been trying to hold back. All
hell's gonna break loose."
Touched by God, knighted by Elton John, introduced on national
television by Jon Bon Jovi--Amsterdam doesn't stand a chance
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