'Negative' music really feel-good, Yorn says

Jen Mulson

Pete Yorn isn't depressed. He's not suffering the slings and arrows of heartbreak.

But one might get the impression otherwise.

In numerous press interviews, the overriding question is, "Are you a pessimist? Your music is so negative and sad."

"Musicforthemorning-after," his debut album released a year ago, is filled with a thinking person's songs, ranging from straight-up catchy pop-rock to more introspective ballads. He opens for Weezer on Wednesday night at the City Auditorium.

Bringing up the pessimism theories opens the floodgates, and Yorn rambles with feeling.

"This record is very hopeful," he says by phone from a barbecue restaurant in New Orleans.

"It's a feel-good record, and if you look at the lyrics, there might be things disguised as melancholy. I like to embrace that.

"But I'm not whining or complaining about things - it's cool. I'm fine with it, the situations. I've learned from it, I'm ready to move forward, it's all good."

Yorn is still adjusting to life in the spotlight. The 27-year-old is single, disheveled in a debonair way and charming - perfect fodder for the gossip columns, where he increasingly finds his name.

The biggest change he's found, though, is the amount of travel.

"I was always at home doing my thing, and now I'm always on the move. It's a different way of living my life."

The singer-songwriter taught himself to play drums on his older brother's drum kit at age 9.

At 12, he progressed to the guitar and began writing songs, discovering the best way to do that began with finding a great beat.

"I would just be able to write songs off that. It's a really natural way to write. People don't realize it.

"Drums are the engine of a live band, and it's building from that place."

He added singing to the mix after a talent show at his New Jersey high school in 1990.

Band mates persuaded Yorn to sing a Replacements song.

It was a success, and a competing band was so impressed that they urged him to sing with them. The days of hiding behind the drums were over.

He moved to L.A. after graduating from college in Syracuse, N.Y., and worked odd jobs while performing gigs at local clubs.

At one of those clubs, a producer of the Farrelly brothers movies "Kingpin" and "There's Something About Mary" caught his act.

He asked Yorn to send some demos of his music for possible inclusion in the 2000 film "Me, Myself and Irene." The songs "Strange Condition" and "Just Another" made the soundtrack, and both are on his current album. And the Farrelly Brothers asked him to score the movie.

Another bonus track: His single "Under Cover" is on the soundtrack to "Spider-Man," which opens today.

"I always thought my songs had a cinematic feel to them. It's cool to see the marriage between songs and film," he says.

Not only is Yorn working on his own career, he's trying to help other bands get a shot at success.

He's started a record label called Trampoline Flowers, and he's signing on friends who put out great music but aren't receiving the recognition they deserve.

THE DETAILS

Pete Yorn

Opening for Weezer

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

WHERE: City Auditorium, 221 E. Kiowa St.

COST: $27.50; 520-9090

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