A Conversation with Pete Yorn – HuffPost 9.27.10

Mike Ragogna: Pete, you have a new, self-titled album, but I’m a little confused about its timeline. You recorded it with Frank Black, right?

Pete Yorn: Correct.

MR: Of course, we know Frank Black from the Pixies and his many projects on and off camera. Pete Yorn was recorded somewhere around the time of the Mike Mogis producedBack And Fourth album, right?

PY: Right. Before it, actually, like two weeks before.

MR: What was the genesis of that project?

PY: This was the summer of ’08, and I knew I was going to work with Mr. Mike Mogis in Omaha to make Back And Fourth sometime later in ’08. So, I had that set and ready to go, and I had the songs picked out and everything. Then, all of a sudden about two weeks before I’m supposed to go, I get an email from Frank Black and he says, “Hey man, want to record some songs?” That happened because we had a mutual friend who I didn’t know was really close to him at the time, and I played her some of the new music I was working up on my guitar and she was like, “You should record with Frank Black.” I said, “That would be great,” but I didn’t know him or anything, she didn’t say much about it, and I didn’t think much about it. Then, a week later, I get an email from him saying, “Hey, let’s record some tunes.” So, she was for real. I talked to Frank and said, “Yeah, I’d love to do some stuff.” But I wasn’t sure logistically how I was going to do it. I talked to my manager, and I remember, at first, he was like, “What do you mean? You’re going to Omaha, you’ve got to do that, stay focused.” And I’m like, “What do you mean? I’ve got to go work with Frank Black. That guy is one of my heroes.”

So, we talked about logistics a little bit, and Frank said, “I’ve got some players up in Salem, Oregon, and I’ve got a little studio my friend has. We could do it up here.” I was thinking maybe we’d just bang out an EP, like a little five song thing, but he said, “No, man. We’ll go for a few days and we could make a whole record.” I was thinking I’d be happy just to get one song, but the cool thing was that I had written so many songs that were ready to go, and it worked out that I had the material. So, I just bought a ticket, Frank picked my up at the airport in Portland, got me a hotel room, and was like, “Alright man, play me what you have.” He hadn’t heard anything before I went up there, so I just pulled out an acoustic guitar and started singing him these songs. We worked on them a little bit, then, the next day, we went in and started recording them. We went for five days, and I got the flu on the second day and felt like s**t, but we got it done. It was a really interesting session, and Frank was really cool to work with. I learned a lot from him, and it was interesting.

MR: This is a really solid record. Plus you have Back And Fourth which you started recording a couple of weeks later, it also being a solid record. This was a really fertile creative period.

PY: Yeah, I had a lot on my mind. I was just writing a lot. It’s weird because if I listen toBack And Fourth, that’s the more introspective, mournful, regretful record, and then I listen to the Black record, and it’s got a lot more faith, moving forward, and power in it. That’s what I like about it–when I listen to it, it gets me up off the couch and gets me pumped up, and I need that in my life at times. So, it’s good.

MR: When did you record your album with Scarlett Johansson, Break Up?

PY: Recording-wise, I did that first. I did that one at the end of ’07, maybe earlier, but I’ve lost track. Regardless, I did that a good deal before Back And Fourth or the Black record. That was also a fun experience.

MR: But wasn’t that album released a little bit after Back And Fourth?

PY: Yeah, Back And Fourth came out in June of ’09, and Break Up came out in September of ’09.

MR: You’ve had a good run with this being your fifth solo studio album?

PY: Fifth solo studio album if you don’t count Break Up because that’s a different thing. There is a lost sixth album, which is my real first one, that I still have yet to put out. It’s this record I made in ’98 with a guy named Don Fleming, and it’s a really cool record. One song from that album made it onto musicforthemorningafter, is called “Simonize,” the last song on musicforthemorningafter. What happened was I made this record and I loved it, but then I got into a whole different thing making music for musicforthemorningafter, and I just got caught up in that. So, that’s the record that came first, but I do have, technically, six studio records in the can.

MR: I know that a lot of people love musicforthemorningafter, it introduced a lot of people to Pete Yorn. But with each album the writing just keeps accelerating.

PY: Thanks, man.

MR: When it comes to art versus commerce, do you find yourself having to sit more in the latter camp because of your increased output?

PY: I think I know what you’re saying. I’ll say this–a lot of people who are paid only to be business minded are like, “You’re crazy putting three albums out in a year.” And I really couldn’t care less. For me, it is expression. It would be one thing if the songs on all three records were things that I didn’t feel like I wanted to say. To me, all three records sound so different, are totally different expressions, and are all things that I want to say. So, if I focus my effort on making the strongest record that I can and putting my energy there, I believe that the business part of it falls into place a lot more simply than some might think.

MR: Did you get the final mixed version of Pete Yorn in the midst of working on Back And Fourth?

PY: Before. The whole thing was done in five days, so I had a final mixed version of it when I went to Omaha, and I loved it. I remember, I was sick as a dog for a week while we made the record, and when I was in the studio, it was hard to tell if it was good or s**t. I was fighting through being sick, but I was getting along with Frank, and he was definitely adding some cool stuff and bringing stuff in a really interesting direction. It wasn’t until the plane home that I put on my headphones to listen to it a little bit. So, I was on the plane listening to it and I was like, “This stuff feels good.” It had a good energy to it, and It was a lot more sparse of a record than some of my other work–there are not many overdubs and it’s just pretty simple. At first, I was a little worried that it might need some things, but as I listened to it, it just had this energy to it. There was something about the way it was recorded that without certain things being there, other things just seemed bigger. So, all the things I was worrying about ended up becoming my favorite things about the record. I’ve been excited about this record for quite some time, and I’m really happy that it’s finally getting a release.

MR: How do you contain yourself when you know you’re sitting on an album like this but your mission is to record yet another album? That must have been a very hard period for you.

PY: It was painful, frankly. For me, everything has been a reaction to a mood. If I do something that’s introspective or I’m in that kind of place, then I bounce out of it with something else, something more like the Black record. So, I feel like I had to have both, but I remember at the time thinking, “This record feels so good. Right now I just want to do this. I don’t even want to go to Omaha.” As it worked out, I went and had an opportunity to work with Mike Mogis which was awesome, but I remember like a couple of days before that, I almost bailed. No one knows this but us and everyone else we tell about this now. But I was thinking of bailing because I felt like I had a fun record that I liked and I didn’t want to waste my time there. But then I went and made Back And Fourth, and you know what? It was a really rewarding experience, and I left there having learned a lot and getting to watch Mike Mogis work, which is super cool, and I think we came out with a really strong record there as well. If the master plan was laid out by the man upstairs, this is how it was meant to be, so I’m not going to question any of it.

MR: That album also was a wonderful collaboration, so I can understand how you could be conflicted having already recorded another kind of record.

PY: It taught me, if anything, to capture stuff while you can. If I had gone the other way and just focused on the Omaha record and not worked with Frank, then who knows what would have happened, but I I wouldn’t have had this record that I love. You’ve just got to go with the experience, and sometimes when you might not feel like doing something, you have to force yourself and see. The main thing is taking all the experiences and being able to learn from them to keep moving forward, you know?

MR: Yeah. Let’s talk about another one of your songs, “Rock Crowd.” That seems like a song of gratitude to your fans, is it?

PY: It is, in a big way. I wrote that song in Vegas, and I remember I was at my friend’s bachelor party, for some reason, being my own worst enemy in that time of my life, and I couldn’t enjoy myself. I wasn’t into being in Vegas. I had crazy anxiety, and I remember everybody going nuts because it was July seventh, ’07, which was 7/7/07 on the calendar, so it was supposed to be the luckiest day to be in Vegas.

I couldn’t sleep, it was like five in the morning, and I just started writing these lyrics out. It’s kind of cliché, but the only time that I felt normal was when I was on stage. Everything leading up to that during the day was just not a good scene, and I didn’t feel good. I don’t know, this idea came to me like, “Rock crowd, put your arms around me.” It was something acknowledging the fans and how they get me through, especially during shows. Afterward, I remember thinking that maybe it would be my lucky charm because I wrote it on 7/7/07, it could be a cool thing. The song turned out well and I played if for Frank. He had some cool production ideas on it, and I think the version that we got together is a good representation of what I had in my head.

MR: Yeah, it’s a cool track.

PY: My whole thing in the end is the line, “When you’re done, put me back where you found me.” That, to me, acknowledges that some people can lose themselves in the glitz of it all and being surrounded by people like that. But for me, when it’s over, I come back down to Earth and be a real human being. So, it was important for me to acknowledge that in the song.

MR: You have “Paradise Cove I,” as you’re designating it, on this record, but you also have “Paradise Cove” on Back And Fourth. What’s the story behind that?

PY: The original version I recorded with Frank Black up in Oregon. So, when I went to Omaha, I had the finished Black record with me, and at one point, I was hanging out with Mogis and I was like, “Check out these tunes I just did with Frank Black.” Because I was pretty excited about them, and he really loved the song “Paradise Cove,” he was like, “Dude, we’ve got to record that song here.” But I told him, “No, that’s for the other record.” He talked me into it, and I think he talked to the band on the sneak, so I knew that they were kind of jamming this cool version of it and we just captured it. What I like about it is that both versions have a very different feel and a different energy. So, I’m able to enjoy them both, and I think it’s the only song of mine that’s made it onto two different records in different incarnations.

MR: After releasing many albums, this is your first self-titled one, may artists do ti on their first. Was there a reason for the wait?

PY: People keep asking my, “Why is it called Pete Yorn, it’s your fifth record. Your first record is supposed to be called by your name. It’s just an abomination calling it that.”

MR: (laughs) Right, that’s the word I was looking for. Abomination.

PY: The truth is, after I finished the record, among my circle of friends, it was just known as the Black record, and everyone knew that. That’s why I made it just a simple black cover because it’s just kind of known as the Black record. I just had to put my name on it somewhere so people would know where to file it, but it’s the Black record.

MR: You have a couple of introspective songs on here. I’d love to hear your thoughts on one of those.

PY: I have one I’d love to talk about, “The Chase.”

MR: Can you go into its background?

PY: For me, I think it’s human nature to want what we don’t have or take things for granted. That’s a theme I delve into a lot on this record, and “The Chase” is certainly no exception. I’m in Santa Monica, California, right now, and I used to live about three minutes away from this beautiful museum called The Getty Center up on a hill in Brentwood. They built it a few years ago as this modern structure, and it’s amazing. Everybody’s always raving about the Getty, “Oh, if you come to L.A., you’ve got to go check out the Getty.” I lived very close to there and people, when I told them where I lived, were like, “Have you been to the Getty?” and I was always like, “No, I haven’t been.” Years would go by and I never went to the Getty, and it would always be that thing like, “Why haven’t I gone? I know I should go.” It was right there and I could always get a chance to go, so there was no urgency to it.

That phenomenon, I think, is very consistent in humans, where they take the things right in front of them for granted, especially relationships or things that they have that they just forget how awesome they are because they see them every day. So, “The Chase,” if you listen to the lyrics, says, “I can see you anytime, that’s why I don’t care. I want what isn’t there.” That little story kind of sums up what the song means to me, and when I hear it, it reminds me, “Don’t take s**t for granted.” Because that’s a trap that you fall into. So, it kind of helps me have a greater appreciation for things in my life.

MR: Nice, now you’re a Jersey boy, right?

PY: Uh huh.

MR: If you poll ten New Yorkers, I’ll bet you that seven of them have never been to the Empire State Building.

PY: Exactly, I’ve never been to the Empire State Building.

MR: Do you have any advice for young, new artists coming on the scene now?

PY: Don’t believe anything anybody says about you (laughs).

MR: (laughs) Care to elaborate?

PY: As an artist, in general, that’s my advice to any young artist, whatever you’re doing.

MR: Short and sweet. Thanks mans.

PY: Anytime, man.

Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney