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PORTRAIT OF A SONGWRITER Pete Yorn Embarks on His First Solo Acoustic Tour
COURTESY
by Aly Comingore
S
ix solo albums and 13 years in, Pete Yorn, believe it or not, has never taken to the road alone, but this week marks the singer/ songwriter’s first-ever solo acoustic tour. “I felt like I really needed to do it, and I wanted to do it,” he said as he strolled through his Santa Monica neighborhood last week. “I’m excited for it, but I’m also nervous as shit.” Looking back on his catalog, one can’t help but call Yorn prolific. Soft-spoken and self-assured, he writes folk-inspired songs that are easily digested but, upon close listen, tough to swallow, filled with ruminations on love, loss, and the human condition. Since 2001’s musicforthemorningafter, Yorn has offered up countless live EPs, written for myriad television and movie projects, and collaborated with everyone from Scarlett Johansson (for 2009’s Break Up) to GO IT ALONE: “I’m excited for it, but I’m also nervous as Frank Black (on 2010’s Pete Yorn) to shit,” says singer/songwriter Pete Yorn about his upcoming J.D. King (as The Olms). This Saturday, string of solo shows. He’ll play Velvet Jones on May 31. he’ll make a stop at Velvet Jones to play a weighted mix of older cuts and newer, unreleased songs. Below, we chat about collaboration, times where someone rubs you the wrong way and you’re process, and what comes next. seething over it, or something’s really bothering you, and you put it down on paper. And sometimes it’s good, and You’ve managed to stay busy over the course of a sometimes it’s more of an exercise for you to vent, and no decade. Are you a pretty disciplined songwriter? one ever sees it or knows about it. I think it works both No. [Laughs.] You hear about these people who get up ways. There are miserable people who are terrible songeveryday and make themselves write, but I never really writers, and there are people who face horrible adversity approached it workman-like. I always felt like, I’m not and can’t paint a picture to save their lives. Sometimes you going to force it. For a long time, I just wrote when I felt it, can struggle and turn pain into something beautiful, and and that was it. A lot of people have this romantic idea of that’s an inspiring thing to do, and other times something what songwriting is like; there’s a typewriter and candles, just comes out of you, and it’s channeled through you. and you’re alone on a beach. For me, it’s never like that; it’s in the shower, in the bathroom, random moments in the Do you have creative outlets outside of music? car. I still don’t write every day, even though people tell me I’m really interested in other people and the way they move I should. But I do keep an acoustic guitar sitting around through adversity. I feel like that’s a great life skill and kind in every room of my house, and sometimes when I walk of an art form, and the people who are great at it are very by, I dare myself to stop whatever I’m doing and write a artful in the way they do it, like an amazing comedian or song. I throw down the challenge, and pretty much every singer or painter. Music, call it what it is, it’s kind of my time I do, I’ll come up with something. Maybe it’s not the main thing, and it’s always been my main thing by default. greatest thing of all time, but sometimes I surprise myself. I don’t pretend to be a jack of all trades. [Laughs.] And I’ve never not been able to write a song. If I go weeks without writing a thing, I don’t bug out about it. Instead, If you had to put aside music tomorrow, what I tell myself, “Good, I hope you never write a song again,” do you think you’d do? Shrivel up and die. [Laughs.] and something always follows. I just fuck with my head But no, if I didn’t have music, I’d probably be some kind of therapist or life coach, and I’d continue to spend a lot of a little bit. time with my family while I can. Do you believe in writer’s block? I don’t believe in it. I think it’s a head game, and I’ve developed cognitive You’re also working on a new record. Do you tricks to push through perceived writer’s block. Someone want to talk a bit about the songs or the direcmade this analogy to me recently: They said it’s kind of like tion it’s taking? Really, I like to let the music speak picking a scab, where at first there’s just pus coming out, but for itself. I will say that the guy I’m working with is an old eventually the good juicy blood starts flowing. That’s what friend named R. Walt Vincent, and he produced my first it is; you just need to sit down, fight through the boredom two records, musicforthemorningafter and Day I Forgot. and the judgmental moments, and all of sudden you’ll get We hadn’t worked together since then, and so this has been in the flow, and good stuff starts to come out. I think if you a reunion of sorts. Maybe it’s a bit of the old razzle-dazzle just learn to get out of your own way there should be no mixed with where I’m at now. It has that kind of sound. such thing as writer’s block. A lot of musicians struggle with this idea that good art comes out of emotional turmoil. Do you subscribe to that school of thought? I go back and forth on that. I’ve written some of my greatest songs, for me, when nothing’s really on my mind. They just come out, and you’re like, “Great!” And then there are other
The Rack Treasure House
at the Music AcAdeMy of the West Unique Home Furnishings • Fine Quality Clothing Recycle, Reuse, Embrace Green Noon – 3, Tuesday – Saturday 1070 Fairway Road, Santa Barbara 805.969.1744 • musicacademy.org Proceeds benefit the Music Academy of the West.
Donations are Welcome! Recycle your clothing and household furnishings. The Treasure House accepts donations and consignments.
EQUIVOCATION by
BILL CAIN
directed by
IRWIN APPEL
MAY 23-31
UCSB HATLEN THEATER
CLOSING THIS WEEKEND! Tickets available at www.theaterdance.ucsb.edu / 805.893.7221
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Pete Yorn plays Velvet Jones (423 State St.) on Saturday, May 31, at 7 p.m. Call 965-8676 or visit velvet-jones.com for tickets and info. may 29, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
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