Pete Yorn’s Proving That New Jersey’s Loss Is L.A.’s Gain

The Lakers aren’t the only ones whose recent winning streak sent Southland fans into spasms of joy Wednesday night.

Rocker Pete Yorn may hail from the land of the New Jersey Nets, but since he turned L.A. denizen in the mid-’90s, his adopted city has treated him as one of its own. The reception he got from a packed house at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana on Wednesday probably was just a hint of things to come tonight when he headlines the Wiltern Theatre.

The nerve he’s touched with the alternately yearning, aching and comforting songs from his hit debut album, “musicforthemorning- after,” also indicates that the market for heartfelt empathy in pop will never bottom out.

There were moments in the show when his twentysomething fans looked on in adoration, the way their parents do when they go to hear James Taylor.

That’s due at least in part to the way Yorn, like Taylor, never gives the impression he’s faking it.

At times his songs simply mirror rather than transcend influences as varied as Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Lou Reed, the Cars and Pearl Jam. But his best numbers, exemplified by his breakthrough hit with the monster groove “Life on a Chain,” display a life of their own.

At 27, Yorn’s got more miles on him than all the teen acts to which he represents a more literate and thought-inducing alternative, yet with just the one album behind him, he’s still finding his identity.

In the 15 heady months since the album was released, Yorn has been called everything from a “mop-headed rocker” and “one of music’s best-kept secrets” to “a Jersey Eddie Vedder” and “a gloomier Bruce Springsteen.”

As far as he’s concerned, it’s all good.

“When you put yourself in play, you’ve got to be prepared to be in play,” he said this week as he neared the home stretch of a national tour that hasn’t let up since the album came out. “I prepared myself to expect anything, so nothing I hear really shocks me too much.”

The success of “Music,” which has sold nearly half a million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, has put his name in the mix with latter-day singer-songwriters such as Ryan Adams, John Mayer and Rufus Wainwright.

“That doesn’t bother me,” he says. “I think the best singer-songwriters over the years have had their own voice, their own sound, their own style. I just think it’s kind of lame just because someone goes out under their own name that someone will lump 10 of them together, even though musically they might be completely different. But it’s not like I’m losing any sleep over it.”

Yorn’s had enough other reasons to lose sleep, like one tour, festival or special event after the next as more and more pop fans have discovered him.

He’s gone from playing coffeehouses around L.A. to headlining the Wiltern as the wrap-up for the U.S. tour. Only after a couple more weeks in Great Britain playing the sprawling Meltdown and Glastonbury festivals and other shows will Yorn get his own morning after, and some time to reflect on his rapid rise.

Time has been a particularly rare commodity for him. Take his enthusiastically received appearance in April at the Coachella Festival.

“I’d been up in Edmonton, and I had to fly down from there [and] go play the show. I had maybe an hour to hang out, then I had to fly right back to western Washington. I missed all the bands I had wanted to see. I was so bummed.”

Despite such disappointments, Yorn couldn’t sound more upbeat and centered. Part of that owes to the solid emotional foundation he got early on in Montville, N.J., (population: 20,000) from his father, a dentist; his mother, who was a piano prodigy as a child; and his two older brothers, Hollywood talent agent Rick Yorn (once the drummer in Pete’s band), and entertainment attorney Kevin Yorn.

“For years my parents were like, ‘Get a job! It’s not going to happen!’ but my brothers would just say, ‘Mom, Dad--chill out,’ ” Yorn says. “They believed in me so much. They’re really happy for me now, but they also help me keep myself in check.”

Come July he expects to hunker down in the studio recording his follow-up to “Music.” He won’t guess at what sound or shape that album will take, but will say he’s pretty certain he’ll once again play most of the instruments himself, even though he’s reveled in performing in a five-man rock band on tour.

“For me, being in the studio and playing a lot of the stuff myself is one of the most fulfilling things I do,” he says. “It’s really fun for me, and I’m not about to deny that. I have parts in my head for some of the guys in the band that I know they’ll be great at.... But at the core, I’ll probably lay most of it down myself, because I’m able to capture it the way that I want it.

“Making the last record, I never stressed out,” he says. “I hear about people getting into the studio and getting all stressed, but I had the best time. It was so pure, it was a really happy time for me. So I’m looking forward to getting back to that place.”

Pete Yorn, with Jukebox Junkies and Minibar, plays tonight at the Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., 8 p.m. $23. (213) 380-5005.