added Midwest and Northeast dates.
Pete Yorn
Pete
Pete Yorn got back to personal business after recording and touring with his
side project, The Olms, last year. Not
since his 2006 promotional record store
tour has he ventured out on the road
alone. But after a few trial runs on the
West Coast, Yorn decided to keep going.
IE: What would you say are the challenges to playing by yourself vs. with a
full band, as far as your song choices,
etc.?
PY: Well, the cool thing about it for me is
there's no set list; it's very free, just me
being up there by myself and only having the guitar or whatever I decide to put
into the show. It kind of forces me to connect more with everybody; I can't hide
behind my band. The way I started performing when I was a kid was acoustic,
just me. But then I soon after had a band
behind me. There's no set list, I can jump
around, take requests… I'm playing stuff
from all my releases and some new stuff.
It's a cool challenge and ultimately, I like
10•2014
Speaking to IE while pacing a back alley
in Santa Monica, Yorn shares secrets to
the creative way he preps for his "You
And Me Acoustic Tour," the creative way
he writes, and the influence the creative
talents he's worked with have had on his
music.
IE: You've never played an acoustic tour
in clubs before. What made you decide to
do it now?
Pete Yorn: In May and early June I did
some shows on the West Coast and in the
Pacific Northwest, and they went great.
So I decided to do some more, so we
16 illinoisentertainer.com
october
that level of intimacy and connection I
feel with everybody, doing a show like
this.
IE : So no set list? Did you do anything
in preparation for this? I mean, you have
a pretty substantial catalog of songs. Do
you have in your head what might work
alone vs. what might not, and/or are you
taking requests?
PY: Well, the prep started months before,
and obviously I've been preparing for
the last 20 years. But there was a good
clip where I didn't play any of these
songs for a long time. When I booked
2014
those shows back in May, I saw my
acoustic guitar sitting in the corner, and
I made a pact with myself that every
time I walked by it, I had to pick it up
and play a song--I didn't care what it
was. So I just started picking up that
guitar and playing a song from the catalog, or I'd have my wife yell one out or
whatever, and I'd play it and I'd write it
down, and that would be it. I wouldn't
have to play it perfectly, I wouldn't
have to sing it loud, I just had to get the
wheels turning. At one level it was cool
tapping into all these old songs I forgot
about; it triggered something in my
brain or my DNA that made me feel it's
a real part of me, made me feel alive in
that way. But also after I kept doing
that, I realized I had a legal pad full of
hundreds of songs written down! So
now we play the jukebox game, where
I'll tell whoever's at my place or family
to pick a number between 1 and 7,
which would be one of the pages that
all the songs are listed on, then I'd say
pick a number between 1 and 20, which
would be the line on the page that a
song was on. So say 3-17 and I'd go to
page 3 look down and, "I gotta play
‘Under Cover'!" or whatever. Maybe I
could even play it with the crowd! I
didn't think of that!
Continued on page 57