PETE YORN
Prolific Stateside Tunesmith's Transcendent Debut
You're entitled to be suspicious about Pete Yorn. His record
company are pumping an obscene amount of corporate moolah into
promoting the LA-based singer-songwriter as 'the next big
thing', and the mainstream American media - from USA Today
to Elle magazine - has provided a fawning chorus of
support.
He's managed by his brother, a
Hollywood power agent whose other clients include Leo DiCaprio,
A third brother is a top entertainment industry lawyer. A conga
line of celebrity fans such as Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon and
Winona Ryder can be relied upon to turn out whenever he plays
trendy tinsel town hang-outs such as Largo and the Viper Room.
There'd be something wrong if you weren't cynical.
Yet if you've managed to catch up with
musicforthemorningafter, the fine debut album by the
quietly-spoken 26-year-old with the dark good looks of a screen
idol, you'll already know that despite the accompanying buzz of
the star-making machinery in hyped-up overdrive, Yorn is the
real deal.
"I like songs with a powerful emotion that take me to that other
place. Only music can do that," he says. "Maybe you can make way
more money being a movie actor. But you're playing someone
else's life."
His debut album - on which he plays most of the instruments - is
classic singer-songwriter fare with a strong Springsteen
influence. This is perhaps unsurprising given that he grew up in
New Jersey. Yet in his youth he recalls loathing Born In The
USA with rare passion. Instead, distant, rain-swept
Manchester seemed far more exotic.
"I gravitated to The Smiths, New Order and The Stone Roses when
I was starting to learn the guitar," he recalls. Even today,
songs such as The Smiths' "Panic" regularly feature in his live
show. "I remember learning those songs and trying to copy an
English accent when I was about 13." What really distinguishes
his own songs, however, is his ability to transcend the
confessional troubadour mode and turn a sharply analytical eye
on the world around him.
"Murray," for example, was written about the father of the
Wilson brothers after reading a biography of The Beach Boys. The
psycho-sexual dynamics of "Simonize" were inspired by the story
of Jack The Ripper and "Sense" by the character Cole Sear in the
movie The Sixth Sense.
"I can read a magazine article or a book or see a movie and it
sparks a train of thought weeks later," he says. "I've got about
400 songs and I've already recorded half of the next album. But
I guess I'm just going to have to learn to be patient."
Musicforthemorningafter is out now on Columbia. The track
"Black" appears on this month's Uncut CD. |