Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson Bring 'Laid Back' Vibe on 'Break Up'

When Pete Yorn decided he wanted to do record duets album 'Break Up' with actress Scarlett Johansson in December 2006, he wasn't exactly in his right mind. After months of touring, Yorn was home in Los Angeles for the holidays, prepping for another year on the road starting in February – and he wasn't handling it well. "I think I'd gone a week without sleeping," he tells Spinner. "I think that makes someone go kind of cuckoo birds. I dozed off for maybe 30 seconds and woke up with my heart was racing. I just had this anxious feeling, like I'd left the oven on I had this quick flurry of thoughts happen in like a millisecond -- 'make a duets record. You love Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. Brigitte Bardot, Scarlett Johansson.' So, I texted Scarlett and said 'We gotta make a record.'"

Despite knowing Johansson for years, Yorn wasn't sure of her musical talents. "I never really talked music with her and for some reason, the image of Brigitte Bardot just took me to Scarlett," Yorn says. "I didn't even know she could sing and I don't even think it mattered to me at the time. I think it was just she was right for the context of the project I wanted to do."

After Johansson consented, Yorn headed to producer Sunny Levine's garage studio to begin work on the album. "Scarlett's a busy woman, so I was only able to get her down there for two days," Yorn says. "I got as much done as I could before that and she came in cold. I taught her the songs on the spot -- the cover of the album is me teaching her the songs -- and we didn't know our voices would sound together. As Scarlett likes to say, if it didn't work out we'd go get lunch."

As luck would have it, their voices did work and Johansson, who hadn't recorded her album of Tom Waits covers yet, was a natural. "I would just have her cover as much ground as possible on every song so I could pick and choose where her parts would be," Yorn says. "I was honestly blown away by how fast she picked up the songs. To give you an example for perspective, Nancy Sinatra -- who's brilliant -- recorded one of my songs. She'd heard my version a bunch and her phrasing was way off. Scarlett had this crazy ability to microscopically get the phrasing exactly how it was meant to be. I was very impressed with that."



Despite her lack of experience, Johansson also felt at ease. "The whole recording process was very casual," she tells Spinner. "Pete and I have known each other for years, so it really felt like collaborating with an old friend. Pete is so incredibly talented, with a laid back, rock n' roll attitude -- the perfect combination for capturing the off-the-cuff sound on the album." As Yorn hoped, the project did recreate the Gainsbourg and Bardot recordings in their own way. "Our project is a lot more innocent in tone," he says. "When you hear it, it's kind of more like school kids rather than these hot lusty French people."

And now that the pair have found the time in their busy schedules to release the album, Yorn and Johansson will play a few gigs in Paris and Los Angeles to see if they feel up to going on tour. In the meantime, you can check out Spinner's exclusive stream of the full album before it's released Sept. 8.