Sans Fear

Album: Pete Yorn (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This is the first single from American singer-songwriter Pete Yorn's self-titled fifth solo full release. The album was recorded on the spur-of-the-moment, in the summer of 2008. Yorn was in the middle of making Back & Fourth in Nebraska when he got an email from Pixies frontman Frank Black suggesting that they record some tunes. Intrigued by the notion of experimenting with the alternative rock legend, Yorn hopped a plane to Salem, Oregon, where the pair set up an impromptu studio. They recorded the album in just five days, despite Black going down with the flu two days into the process. "Frank didn't give a s--t about getting sick, so we stayed in the flow," recalled Yorn. "He has an incredible ability to distill a song down to its core."
    Black added, "Pete told me he wanted to better define himself as an artist. I think he just wanted to rock out. But as we headed down a path of realization I stripped him down a whole bunch. We battled in the best sort of way. I tried to get the session into a fearless and raw place, and to his artistic credit Pete took his song writing to a fearless and raw place. This listener will find his or herself sitting right next to Pete on the couch. And the record totally rocks out."
  • On this song Yorn veers between soaring harmonies and ravaged lead vocals as he contemplates a relationship's end.

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