[7] His brother Rick is a major talent manager in Hollywood and was responsible for teaching nine-year-old Pete to play the drums.

Yorn mentions the Nova Scotia-based band Sloan as one with great influence on him, even admitting after seeing them live in 1999, he was so blown away by their talent that he wondered whether it would be worth continuing to even pursue his debut album.

Rolling Stone Magazine named Yorn one of "Ten Bands to Watch in 2001"[12] and gave the album a favorable four-star rating.

Yorn went on to release the 2003 album Day I Forgot which had sold over 275,000 copies in the United States as of 2005 [13] and scored a third radio hit with the song "Come Back Home."

Yorn expressed that the "trilogy" was more of a diary of sorts; a person gaining new life experiences and simply commenting on them in linear order.

A music video was shot for the single, and the song itself was released for free on Yorn's official website for a short period of time.

"Can't Hear Anyone," a song that Yorn wrote during the Nightcrawler sessions, was used for a Mercedes-Benz commercial[16] and was released as a digital single on March 31, 2009.

[17] Yorn toured with Coldplay as an opening act through summer 2009 and collaborated with actress/musician Scarlett Johansson to record a project entitled Break Up.

In November 2012, Santa Monica-based radio station KCRW began spinning songs from a new record by a band called The Olms.

On November 6, 2015 in a statement to fans, Yorn announced that he had signed to Capitol Records[22] and would be releasing his sixth studio album, ArrangingTime in early 2016.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave Caretakers four stars in his All Music Guide review, calling it "...an appealing blend that sets it apart from most other albums in 2019".

The package comes with a concert film shot by director and longtime collaborator Jim Wright (at the same show as the album on August 28, 2009).

Liz Phair, Rami Jaffee (Foo Fighters, Wallflowers) and Tim Walker (Minibar) are some of the guest musicians on the 10 song studio album.

has made appearances on several Pete Yorn recordings, including instrumentation on the single version of "Strange Condition" and a number of songs from the Day I Forgot LP.

Yorn has shared bills with the Dave Matthews Band, R.E.M., Crowded House, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Coldplay, The Dixie Chicks, Semisonic, and Sunny Day Real Estate, among others.

Yorn gave the 2011 commencement address to the Visual and Performing Arts class at his alma mater, Syracuse University.

Yorn can be heard on Guided by Voices' 2007 Live From Austin Texas album, singing back up and sporadic leads on "Cut Out Witch."

Yorn's song, "Lose You" can be heard just before the ending credits of the episode "Simple Explanation" during Kutner's funeral on the Fox show House.