Pete Yorn
Down In The Groove
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NATN: You're getting a lot of press. Rolling Stone called you one of the best new bands of 2001 and Details called you "The Next Big Thing." That has to put some pressure on you -- how are you dealing with it or do you care?
Yorn: It's awesome. I made this record and I didn't compromise at all creatively. I didn't write songs that I thought might get on the radio or people might like. I just made a record of songs that I like and music that made me feel good when I was driving around in my car. If I get any notice for that, it's great. But, I know I did it for all the right reasons. A friend showed me a copy of the USA Today, and they're [comparing me to] Springsteen and Mick Jagger. I don't want that, but it is so cool because I idolized those guys.
NATN: I've seen you compared to Pavement and Springsteen, and now you are saying Mick Jagger.
Yorn: I've never heard Jagger until today. I was like 'what?' I don't really think so at all, but I'll take it. Now someone is going to be bucking for me though.
NATN: You are one of the few rock acts set to break pretty big lately.
Yorn: The record I was making was not fashionable at the time. I was like 'I have to make a record of songs that I love.' In two years, say nothing happens with the record -- the label doesn't get behind it and nothing happens - at the end of the day, at least you had a record that you can listen to and you were honest about. All the stuff going on with the press and all that is fucking amazing. I've had friends release amazing records that just got no attention at all. I feel very fortunate to be in the position I am now, and I am having fun playing with my friends. Everyone in the band is my old friend, and we are just having fun.
NATN: How do you go about writing from a songwriter's standpoint? Because you really have the singer-songwriter thing down -- you kind of take that Lenny Kravitz "I can do it all" mentality and introduce a more folksy heart to it, kind of rough around the edges.
Yorn: It was even rougher. Brad Wood and R. Walt Vincent, who produced it with me, spent hours fixing little things that I didn't even notice. I was like 'don't fix that.' I wanted it even rawer than it is. People probably wouldn't even notice, but I noticed it. I am really into Guided By Voices and lo-fi rock. I wanted to make a record that could capture that, but that was not too much of an indie rock record.
NATN: You kind of went with an indie vibe, recording in the basement.
Yorn: Yeah. We did it in the basement and in Walt's garage. We did it [there] because it was really cheap to do it that way and we didn't have the pressures of being in a $2,000 a day studio, which I think a lot of bands when they first get signed fall into. I had the luxury of having some knowledge of recording myself, and I also had an amazing -- perhaps the best I've ever worked with ever -- recording engineer in R.Walt Vincent, who actually plays bass in the band now. We are both purists where we love old analog equipment, but the whole record was made on a computer. The thing about Walt was he was able to just pull out sounds that sound natural and warm and vintage. He really impressed me with that. It is not so much the car as the driver - I've seen bands go into these amazing studios and turn out a bunch of shit.
NATN: You mention in your press release that you are trying to mix Brit-pop with American roots. Explain that to me.
Yorn: It is like a lot of my songs were just basic acoustic alt.country songs: "Life On A Chain," "Murray," "Strange Condition." I didn't want to make a straight-up alt.country record even though I love that music. I just wanted to do something else. I am super into Brit-pop and British dance music, so we took "Life On A Chain" and we put it into a different bag. That took a while and it was really hard, but we did it and I love the way it sounds. It sounds different to me and that was sort of the idea for the record - to somehow make a record that captures all of both those elements, but not make it forced. You'll hear a Southern rock guitar and people will throw some loop over it. If you notice, on the record all of the loops we use are all completely custom-made for the project. I think that helped make it not seem forced.
NATN: You wrote some of the songs off of the drums. That is rare -- where do you think that came from? Is it because it is the first instrument you picked up?
Yorn: I'll hear a drumbeat. Like "Black" was written off the drums -- it was just the beat. It reminded me of early '80s, it was a mix in my head and it might not sound like that to anyone else, it was some sort of new-wave drumbeat with that floor tom-driving thing, like the Velvet Underground. It felt good and it just inspired the rest of the song. [I thought "Black"] is the song that needs to be on top of these drums. "Strange Condition" was like a '60s beat, and I didn't even notice until months after I wrote and recorded it that there is a Mamas and the Papas song that starts off exactly the same way. My brother had it in his car, and it came on and I was like 'holy shit!' I've never even heard that song, but maybe in my subconscious I did. Things like that inspire me.
NATN: Seems like you draw a lot of inspiration from pop culture. You wrote "Sense" for Cole Sear, the kid from "The Sixth Sense," and you wrote "Murray," after reading "Heroes & Villains," a biography of the Beach Boys and Murray Wilson. You seem to draw everything in and process it.
Yorn: A lot of times when I'm writing I don't know what the hell it is about. The main thing is if it sounds cool. Then it will be weeks, months, years after that I realize the influence.
NATN: You have Hollywood connections with your brothers (Entertainment Lawyer Kevin, who reps Ellen DeGeneres among others, and Manager Rick who works for Mike Ovitz's Artist Management Group), and the Details article played up how these connections got you major-label success. The music industry is tough, and your brothers may have gotten you into the door, but label execs could kick you out quicker. What do you think when you read stuff like that? Do you think it cheapens the music?
Yorn: I love my family. I'm so proud of my family. My brothers and me are like best friends. I'm six years younger than my middle brother and nine years younger than my oldest brother, and I've always been little Yorn. I was always in their shadow. My middle brother, big Hollywood manager, used to be the drummer in my band for years, fucking playing Guided By Voices covers. So we've been die-hard music fans forever. We are just so psyched to get the record out now and the music speaks for itself.
NATN: What kind of approach do you take to the live shows? How is it different from the way you approached the album?
Yorn: I play most of the instruments on the record. Walt played some and Brad played some, but I played all the drums. It is easy in the studio to get it done that way, so you don't have to hire all these people to come in. But if you really care about your live show then at some point you have to work to put a good live band together that captures the record. In this case it is a very personal record so you can't just get away with studio guys playing it all, which I thought I could do. I was like 'The label will help me put together a band.' I went through 45 drummers, but in the end I settled on all old friends. The drummer, who I met recently, also grew up in Jersey the same way I did and just got it. He is awesome. Two college buddies on guitar and keyboards/guitar, and Walt who plays bass. To me the live show captures every part of the record. Every weird synth thing or sample is there. When I go to a show and there is a little riff that I love and it's not there I'm like fuck. The live show blows up more than the record. Some of the songs we play a little faster, a little heavier. In some sense some of the subtleties are lost, but for the live environment I think it works better to rock it out. I didn't want people to think I am the sensitive singer-songwriter guy. We get up and rock it out.
KEVIN MAURER |