Pete Yorn

Peter Joseph Yorn (born July 27, 1974) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.

Yorn graduated from Syracuse University in 1996.

His brother Rick is a major talent manager in Hollywood and was responsible for teaching nine-year-old Pete to play the drums.

His eldest brother Kevin Yorn is an entertainment lawyer.

Yorn mentions the Nova Scotia-based band Sloan as one with great influence on him, even admitting after seeing them live in 1999, he was so blown away by their talent that he wondered whether it would be worth continuing to even pursue his debut album.

Yorn composed the score for Me, Myself & Irene in 2000.

His songs "Strange Condition" and "Just Another" appeared in the film.

He first gained international recognition after his debut record, Musicforthemorningafter, was released to critical and commercial acclaim in 2001.

He is known for playing the bulk of the instruments on his records.

Spin magazine, in a career retrospective article dated March 26, 2021, recognized Yorn as one of his generation's best songwriters.

Yorn’s 10th full length album, Hawaii, was released on June 17, 2022.

Yorn was born in Pompton Plains, New Jersey, and raised Jewish in Montville, New Jersey, the son of Joan, a former school teacher and real estate agent, and Lawrence K. Yorn, a retired dentist and former Captain in the United States Army.

Yorn attended Montville Township High School.

Yorn released his debut LP, entitled musicforthemorningafter, on March 27, 2001.

It went gold on the strength of the album's lead single, "Life on a Chain."

Rolling Stone Magazine named Yorn one of "Ten Bands to Watch in 2001" and gave the album a favorable four-star rating.

Yorn and his band Dirty Bird toured for 18 months straight in support of his debut record.

Sloan would later tour with Yorn in the US in 2002.

Yorn went on to release the 2003 album Day I Forgot which had sold over 275,000 copies in the United States as of 2005 and scored a third radio hit with the song "Come Back Home."

Q Magazine, in its 4 star review, described the record as simply "wonderful".

The record also featured "Crystal Village", and "Turn of The Century".

The latter was featured in the 2004 film The Girl Next Door.

On the heels of the extensive 'Day I Forgot' tour, Yorn released a double live album, "LIVE From New Jersey", which was recorded at the Community Theater in Morristown, New Jersey.

In 2006, Yorn released his third album, Nightcrawler and toured extensively in support of it.

He preceded every show with an instore acoustic appearance at an indie record shop in the town he was passing through.

All of these instore performances were recorded, thus creating an extensive series of Live EP's. (complete list of instore EP's below).

Nightcrawler was named one of the top 20 records of 2006 by Paste magazine.

Pete Yorn's third studio release, Nightcrawler, completes a conceptual trilogy of sorts, which spans his first three albums (EPs not included); beginning in the morning with the musicforthemorningafter LP, continuing through the day with the Day I Forgot LP, and arriving at nightfall with the Nightcrawler LP.

In September 2006, in an interview with silentuproar.com, Yorn elaborated on his true intentions behind the trilogy, remarking that it was at least partially a conscious trilogy but wasn't meant to be taken too seriously: "I didn't mean like a Star Wars trilogy where it's one story at all."

Yorn expressed that the "trilogy" was more of a diary of sorts; a person gaining new life experiences and simply commenting on them in linear order.

"So it's a sort of continuing analysis of those topics, and the Nightcrawler LP would represent a later phase," Yorn said.

In 2008, Pete Yorn recorded with Frank Black and released a new song, entitled "American Blues Vol. 1." A music video was shot for the single, and the song itself was released for free on Yorn's official website for a short period of time.

Concerning the song, Yorn has said "I wrote American Blues Vol. 1. on the 4th of July after reading the morning paper. It's unlike any song I've ever written. I was moved by how much negativity I was reading about and how even groups were boycotting Independence Day because they were so disgusted with the state of our Nation. I was hoping things would improve...they obviously haven't yet...but I know they will in time."

Yorn appears on Canadian artist Matthew Good's 2009 album Vancouver performing backing vocals.

"Can't Hear Anyone," a song that Yorn wrote during the Nightcrawler sessions, was used for a Mercedes-Benz commercial and was released as a digital single on March 31, 2009.

Columbia Records released his Mike Mogis-produced album, entitled Back and Fourth on June 23, 2009.

Yorn toured with Coldplay as an opening act through summer 2009 and collaborated with actress/musician Scarlett Johansson to record a project entitled Break Up.

The album was released on September 15, 2009, and its first single—"Relator"—was released digitally on May 26, 2009.

The record has since gone platinum in France.

Yorn released a self-titled album on September 28, 2010.