Pete Yorn has been surprisingly prolific of late. Consider that it was three years between his sophomore outing, 2003’s Day I Forgot, and 2006’s bracingly eclectic Nightcrawler, the latter largely restoring the potential of his brazenly accomplished out-of-nowhere debut, 2001’s Musicforthemorningafter. Another three years between releases, and Montville, N.J.’s favorite boho chick magnet suddenly had a lot more to say. Last year saw the release of Back & Fourth, followed by Break Up, a wispy collaboration with Scarlett Johansson inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s duets with Brigitte Bardot. Now Yorn has ditched his smokin’-hot muse for Frank Black, who encouraged the confessed perfectionist and overdub junky to strip away the studio varnish and rawk out for the new Pete Yorn (Vagrant). Yorn will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Yorn: My grandfather Herman, who we all call Pop, turned 100 years old in February. He’s a huge inspiration to so many people who meet him. Pop emigrated from Poland in the early 1920s, and now he lives very close to me in Santa Monica. He developed an exercise routine for himself years ago, when he was 80, and he still does it every day. It’s basically a series of deep knee squats he does at a railing in the parking lot of where he lives. He does 50 of them in his routine. (I’ve tried them with him, and my legs turn to rubber at 25!) Then he does a little jogging. He’s kind of a freak of nature, and he has taught me great discipline. I had to brag about Pop. I like to take him to this deli near where he lives, and he pretty much always orders a chicken soup and brisket sandwich. I guess this is how you live to 100. 🙂
