Pete Yorn: Yearns For Validation From The Simpsons

02/26/07 5:30pm

by Jen White (CHARTattack)

Singer-songwriter Pete Yorn has finally completed his trio of themed albums — Musicforthemorningafter, Day I Forgot and Nightcrawler — and is out on the road for his aptly named Morning, Day And Night Tour. ChartAttack spoke with Yorn over the phone from his backyard in Mar Vista, California before he embarked on an extensive North American tour. While paint fumes wafted through the air, the New Jersey native reflected on his latest album and his beefier sound.

ChartAttack: When you made your first album, Musicforthemorningafter, did you intend to develop the morning/day/night theme with the albums that followed?
Pete Yorn: No, it just kind of evolved after the fact, after I had some perspective on the work. I could see the parallels in it. It kind of happened somewhere between... definitely after Day I Forgot, even. Kind of as I was putting Nightcrawler together, it kind of happened as I examined the work as a whole. I saw the parallels there.

Your album titles seem to have a broad range of meaning. So what's the significance of the title Nightcrawler?
It kind of represents a later phase in life, a later perspective.

What was it like working with Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines (from the Dixie Chicks) and Dave Grohl on this album?
Hellish... Kidding! It was great, it was cool. They're good friends and they're extremely talented people, so it was a breeze. It's easy to get good parts out of them, so it was fun.

Did they bring a certain vibe to the songs that they appeared on?
Well, if you listen to "For Us" with Dave [Grohl] playing drums, it definitely has that Nirvana bounce, that rhythm trademark. I kind of knew the aesthetic that they'd bring to the song and I'd pick the songs accordingly.

How has your sound evolved?
I think it's beefier.

Really?
Well, this last album certainly is. It has some of the quieter, sweetest moments I've ever recorded, and it has some of the heaviest and most "out there" moments I've ever recorded all at once. I think the evolution comes from… well the parallel from the three records is kind of the way that I recorded them. I approached recording as a style, in kind of the same way for all three records. So I think the biggest change is who I am — I mean, I'm always very connected to who I was as a kid and who I was years ago when I made my first record. But you take what you've learned along the road and you add that to your persona and the type of music that you write and the way you put together a record and the whole thing has a subtle change.

So who is Pete Yorn now? Who is this persona?
I don't know [laughs]. He's a lot of different people at a lot of different times. He's the guy standing in the backyard in Mar Vista, California, breathing in paint fumes right now. Not huffing. There just happens to be people painting around me and it's wafting through the air.

Is there a quintessential Pete Yorn sound?
I don't know. You'd have to ask the fans that. I guess I don't try to analyze my own work that much to figure out what it really means. One person might say one thing, another person will say another thing. But it's all good. It's called Pete Yorn for a reason.

Your music has been on the soundtracks for Dawson's Creek, Spider-Man, One Tree Hill and Me, Myself And Irene, to name a few. What's it like to have your music everywhere?
Well, it's not really everywhere. You take it wherever you can get it, and it's always great when it's a show or a movie that you like that wants a song and it could possibly expose more people to your songs. It's tough out there, so it's always a good thing.

Is there a soundtrack that you'd like to be featured on next?
I hear that there's a Simpsons movie coming out, finally. Maybe I could get a song on there. That'd be cool.