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It all comes easily for New Jersey rocker Pete Yorn Date published: 10/16/2003
THE FREE LANCE-STAR The music business, Pete Yorn said, is a crap shoot. The 26-year-old New Jersey rocker is right, of course. But Yorn is playing with loaded dice. He was born with genes and an environment that made failure unlikely. His mother was a concert pianist, and she taught him some piano at ages 7 and 8. Older brothers Kevin and Rick both played guitar and drums, and Yorn learned to play his brother's drums by age 9. He was playing guitar by 12. Yorn recognizes that he's been blessed. "I'm really fortunate to be able to play stuff naturally," he said. He was too hyperactive as a kid to sit still long enough to learn to read music from his mother, he said. But that didn't matter. "I could hear music and play it on guitar, drums and piano," Yorn said. Still, he thought of music as just a hobby. "It was never like 'I'm going to be a rock star,'" he said. "I just love doing it. It made me feel good. I didn't see it as a career option, but I thought it could be. Then it was like, 'It can't be this easy.'" Yorn started a band and signed with Capitol Records after a spur-of-the-moment performance of his song "Life on a Chain" for a label representative. That was pure talent at work. But he also had a brilliant stroke of luck. A year before his debut album, "Musicforthemorningafter," was to come out, one of his demos found its way into the hands of film producer Bradley Thomas. The Farrelly brothers then picked some of his songs for "Me, Myself & Irene" and asked Yorn to score the film. Yorn's songs also were heard on TV's "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek" and in other movies, including "Spider-Man." His current album, "Day I Forgot," reached No. 18 on the Billboard 200 chart. It is a grittier, more traditional rock record than "Musicforthemorningafter." Yorn would rather talk about Trampoline Records, the label he's started with a group of friends, than go on about himself. He called the label "an excuse for me to get drunk and play music with my friends." Beneath that veneer, he's genuinely excited about the opportunity to help young bands. One he's particularly enthused about is Nadine, a progressive alt-country group from St. Louis. When Trampoline unearths a diamond like Nadine amid piles of demo "coal," Yorn said, "it's a lot of fun."
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