TRAIN SINGER JUMPS OFF FOR SOLO ALBUM

Pat Monahan of Train talks about his debut solo ablum, ‘Last of Seven’ being a life changing experience.

Lead vocalist for the Grammy Award winning band Train, Pat Monahan has released his solo debut album ‘Last of Seven’ and the album was a life changing experience to make. After years of writing and co writing many hit songs for Train, Monahan felt the timing was right for the release of his first solo album and he knew immediately that he wasn’t writing an album for Train.

We caught up with Pat recently to get his thoughts on the recording process of ‘Last of Seven’ being perfecct timing and knowing he was writing songs with a solo album in mind instead of another Train album.

“I knew long before it was time that I was in the middle of making a solo record just by the songs that I was writing. I wasn’t writing with my band at the time and I was in love with what was happening and didn’t feel it was right if I went to the guys in Train and said ‘Hey I just wrote our record and you’re going to play on it.’ That wouldn’t have been the right process for the band. It also wouldn’t have been great for them to say ‘I’m not recording these songs.’ Because it was really important to me. So it was just perfect timing.”

After years of song writing with Train’s music in mind, Monahan also admits ‘Last of Seven’ allowed him to expand his musical styles and perform songs he couldn’t with his band.

“I’ve always resisted writing outside of the band because I didn’t want to be a generic, sounds like everybody else kind of artist. So I said I’m going to finally say yes to working outside of the group and once I started that process I found that I was writing in a different style. I’ve never not been true to my own style but I was dipping into other areas that became more natural, more soulful and more like going to church with some of the gospel vocals. I love to write that kind of style, so once that started to happen it became clear that this wasn’t a Train record.”

Making guest appearances on Pat’s new album are Graham Nash who sings on the song ‘Cowboys and Indians’ and Richie Sambora who plays guitar on ‘Someday.’ We also talked with Pat about all the guest appearances contributing to ‘Last of Seven’ being a life changing experience.

“Graham Nash came and sang on a really what life would be like if we would all just go to some river and sit down and have a grilled cheese sandwich together. It would be really cool and he was hip to that song and that was his kind of song. He came in and sang with me and that was a life changing experience. Richie Sambora came in and played guitar on ‘Someday.’ Richie is a super sweet wonderful guy and I was surrounded by so many great people. There were other people. I walked into the studio one day and Steve Perry from Journey was sitting there behind the console and he was like ‘Hey man!’ Jon Bon Jovi was hanging around and Randy Jackson was around all these really cool, it was just a different experience, really life changing.”

Pat Monahan’s first single off his solo debut is ‘Her Eyes’ and the video can already be seen on VH1. Pat has already begun his U.S. tour in support of ‘Last of Seven’ with dates extending until November 18th in Dallas, Texas.