Jersey Boy

Pete Yorn gets a record deal the old fashioned way and maintains the songwriter tradition.

The year 2001 was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great and profound year for music. Under the oily sheen of the odious popular music scene, however, the tradition of the highly industrious folk singer managed to maintain a steady simmer and hold its own. In a world rife with prefab boy bands, manufactured angst and over-produced cheesy pop-punk hooks, sometimes it's refreshing to hear simple songs sung without pretension, as evidenced by some of the year's most noteworthy artists such as Josh Joplin and Nelly Furtado. While 26-year-old Pete Yorn certainly falls under the singer/songwriter umbrella, his music isn't easily categorized. A mixture of influences too numerous to name, his sound has been compared to artists as diverse as Eddie Vedder or J Mascis to Michael Stipe or even last year's shining star, David Gray. 

"I think because I go by my own name - if they don't hear my music or see me live - a lot of people might lump me in with a David Gray or someone like that," Yorn speculates, "I respect him - he's great - but I think I'm kind of different. I consider this to be more of a rock band."

At soundcheck before a sold-out show at Philadelphia's Theater of the Living Arts, the shaggy-haired Yorn enters a small, dingy room set aside for the tour manager. Wearing a tiny denim jacket over a form-fitting red T-shirt, he exudes a decidedly non-rockstar vibe - despite his almost overnight success. Having just finished an interview for PBS piece on the new singer/songwriter, he seems quite unfazed. Yorn's story is the stuff of dreams - the movie version of the typical rockstar scenario: Boy shows up on the doorstep of a record label with his guitar and a dream. Boy is handed a rather sweet major label deal and becomes an official rockstar. While in real life it might not be unheard of, it certainly couldn't be further from the usual sequence of events actually unfolding for today's struggling artists. The majority of musicians spend years paying their dues before gaining normal recognition and slipping quietly back into the obscurity. After only three short years of playing gigs on the seedy Los Angeles club circuit, Yorn was signed to the behemoth Columbia label. Before signing, he had written the score for the Jim Carrey film Me, Myself and Irene and contributed two original songs, both of which also appeared on his Columbia debut, musicforthemorningafter. Of course, the dream sequence actually started with the requisite transplant from the working class, East Coast town of Montville, N.J., to (where else?) Los Angeles.

"My dad's from Newark," explains the scruffy-haired Yorn. "He had this scheme that if he could get my oldest brother to move after law school, he knew that my middle brother would follow, then I would follow. I'm the youngest, so if we were all out there, he could convince my mom to retire out there."

As a preteen in Jersey, Yorn's first musical tastes were steeped in the preferences and lore of his older brothers' Judas Priest and Iron Maiden albums. Luckily, his influences didn't end there. In his mid-teens, the singer made a drastic switch from heavy metal to British mope rock.

"I first got into the Smiths right around the time I was learning guitar," he says. "Those were my influences on guitar - and they still come through."

Since the early days, Yorn eagerly devoured any musical influences thrust his way. This fact is evidenced by the noncommittal sound of musicforthemorningafter. So many ingredients make for an album sounding like everybody (but nobody in particular) at the same time. Elements of alt-country and '60s Britpop mingle with the alternative sounds of the late '80s (imagine mixing Uncle Tupelo and the Byrds before adding the Pixies for good measure).

"A lot of bands or artists might make a record and say, 'this is influenced by this band or whatever,'" he explains. "But for me, in one song there are like five different influences that are completely unrelated."

All of the pieces of the Pete Yorn puzzle give the album an immediate accessibility. It sounds as if it's been done before - but in a good way. A free-and-easy rock 'n roll element coupled with the universal theme of love give musicforthemorningafter an undeniable appeal. In fact, one of Yorn's goals is to capture emotion and sing about love without becoming whiny or overly romantic. When concocting his songs, he strives to reach a level set by fellow New Jerseyan and Columbia labelmate Bruce Springsteen. 

"I don't think my music sounds like his at all," Yorn admits. "but he's able to capture emotion in his songs, to talk about love and broken hearts and all that, without being sappy about it. Kind of like a man's man."

In fact, Yorn and Springsteen have more in common than just a songwriting agenda and a home state. Both were signed to Columbia armed with only acoustic guitars and a handful of songs. Shortly after Yorn landed his record deal, he met the legendary performer backstage at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Springsteen was quite shocked to hear the label still signed artists in the old-fashioned way.

"He was like 'oh yeah, I didn't know they still did that,'" Yorn says in a pretty convincing Springsteen imitation. "And I was like, 'yeah, they just did.' He was just super cool. He wished me luck, gave me his blessing. It was totally cool."

Yorn couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out. Not only was he able to release his debut album on a major label, but he had the luxury of recording it at his own pace. Playing most of the instruments and working with some of the best producers in the biz allowed Yorn to do it his way every step of the way. With major labels bearing the brunt of a seemingly unending stream of bad press, it's refreshing to hear someone actually satisfied with their arrangement, rather than complaining about the injustices suffered from a signed, dotted line on the big, bad record company's contract.

"I know it's crazy," Yorn says, excitedly. "They're just so supportive and really proud of the record. When we go there, you can tell it's not bullshit. I'm going to do another record with them - definitely."