As Train gets set to hit the road on their 2024 Summer Road Trip, lead singer Pat Monahan checked in with Audacy’s Mike Adam at the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk music, the magic of albums, Taylor Swift covering his songs, and more.

Before getting into the music, Mike had a question for Monahan. First, noting that while he was looking over “the bullets and the stuff they send me over before we do the interview,” one of the notes included a list of all of Train’s “timeless classics” listing all of their hits.

“I was thinking about that," Mike expressed, asking Pat — “Do you think that's a thing that's no longer obtainable for new artists now, a timeless classic, because of you know, our deteriorating attention span?”

Noting that “it's a good question,” Pat admitted, “I don't know the answer to it.” Adding, “I do know that we just came back from the UK and Europe,” and referring to the crowds they performed for, he said, “they are still a very album oriented group of people collectively. So we can play, you know, deep cuts from albums as long as the albums did well in those places, they will know every single song.”

“And today's world is so quick, you can't even get a song, an entire song out. You have 30 seconds to get people hooked on whatever it is. And then possibly you'll inspire people to listen to the entire song," Monahan added. “So, an album is gonna be, that'll be a difficult thing for younger artists to do. But hopefully they can do it because we need to keep inspiring kids to want to do this.”

Continuing to discuss the “magic” of listening to an entire album and discovering songs in that way, Pat mentioned that “if you really research, you know, old music or older music or classic music, sometimes it's the sixth song that was the biggest song, you know, not number one. So… it will be interesting to see where the whole world takes us. But it's gonna be up to young artists to demand that they make albums and have them heard.”

Moving on to discuss Train’s latest single, “Long Yellow Dress,” Mike shared that he was scrolling through the lyric video comments on YouTube, sharing one he found particularly interesting that pointed out the drums on the track were giving The Beatles vibes.

“Oh cool, I’ll listen differently,” Pat replied. Going on to praise his drummer, Matt Musty, calling him “a really gifted kid.”

Revealing how the song came together, Pat said, “You know, we are always writing, like we have a musical that we're three years into writing and, you know, we'll just get together three days a week over Zoom and knock things out… But I hummed a melody into a Dictaphone or an iPhone and sent them my humming and then it turned into ‘Long Yellow Dress.’”

Also discussing Train’s iconic album Save Me, San Francisco, featuring their global smash “Hey, Soul Sister,” which is commemorating its 15th anniversary in October, Pat shared his thoughts about things he loves, or would change about the album. Before chatting about joining forces with REO Speedwagon on their 45-city co-headlining Summer Road Trip Tour, which according to Pat, will definitely feature Save Me, San Francisco songs on the setlist.

When it comes to music, Pat shared that aside from obviously needing to perform past songs at shows, he doesn’t really like looking back, and rather focus on going forward. That being said, Pat did look to the past when making the Led Zeppelin cover album. Talking about that experience, he said, “we wanted to record Led Zeppelin II, and the reason that I wanted to do it is because I think my band is incredible. It's not the band I started with. And so I wanted people to see how gifted they are.”

As for which Train cover Pat considers his personal favorite, Monahan shared. “Well, you know, Taylor Swift back when she was much younger. She was on the Red Tour I think, and would play both, 'Hey, Soul Sister' and 'Drops of Jupiter.' That was a pretty cool thing for me, I think. You know, that was before she was who she is now, but she was still pretty massive.”

For all that and more, listen to the entire interview above.

Words by Maia Kedem Interview by Mike Adam