Platinum-selling pop group Train has flirted with Country sounds many times over the past few years, as well as collaborating on occasion with the stars of Country Music. Their 2009 mega-hit "Hey Soul Sister" was remixed for the Country market, though the twanged-up version of the song didn't seem to catch on at Country radio. The group also shared the CMT Crossroads stage with Martina McBride, and later collaborated with her on a country-flavored duet reworking of their pop hit "Marry Me." Most recently, the group teamed up with Ashley Monroe for their single "Bruises," which has received airplay on Country as well as Adult Contemporary radio.
Frontman Pat Monahan discusses the group's collaboration with Monroe in a recent Radio.com interview: "Ashley’s been a friend of mine for a long time. I met her when she was 19. The guy that used to run Columbia Records introduced her to me because she wanted to write with me. When I met her I realized that I was the lucky one to be in the room with her. She’s a great writer. She has written a lot of hit songs in Nashville for a lot of other artists. Now she has a new album out now called Like A Rose, which I think is going to be a favorite record if you get it. I wrote the song in New York. It was just real easy. I run into people I went to high school with and realize how much older we are, and how much more we’ve been through and a lot of it isn’t all that fun and it makes us more beautiful if you can see it that way. That song was really easy to write because it is a very true story and Ashley was the perfect girl to sing on it."
Does this mean that there will be more Country projects to come in the near future? Monahan says,"I think maybe a smarter thing for me to do would be to write in Nashville, which I plan on doing for myself and other people. If and when I create a solo album, somewhere down the line, or a solo project, maybe it would be more Country leaning. I think at this point we have to stick to who we are. I’ve seen a lot of people try to make that switch and it hasn’t gone well. The Nashville community, you can’t slip something by them. They know if you’re for real or not. I think I write that way naturally but I wouldn’t want them to think I’m trying to sneak into their community without a formal invitation."
Monahan believes that his Country influences can be heard even on his current Train projects. "There’s always something Country on every Train record," he says. “'Bruises' is Country leaning I think on some level. A song called 'Feels Good At First,' which I think may be the best song on the record for some people, that’s Country leaning. There’s always going to be something, but to make a full-blown Country record might be a little while."
On the origins of "Feels Good At First," which appears on Train's current album California 37, Monahan says, "I wrote that song with Allen Shamblin outside Nashville, Tennessee. Somehow Allen inspired that vibe in me.
"It’s a definite truth, that song. I sent it to my manager in New York and he was like, 'How did you think of this? Actually, the better question is, how is this the first time anyone has thought of this?' He said, 'It’s so simple. It’s so true. Love feels so good at first and then it starts to get funny and complex.' I don’t know why that song got written but it’s definitely a real place inside of me."
While he's currently uncertain whether "Feels Good At First" will see release as a single, he says, "That would be amazing. If you said to me, 'Hey, is there a dream song?' That would be it. My manager is so a believer in that song that he had us do a video for it to put it out on YouTube and get wheels rolling. When we do that song in Europe I don’t even have to sing it, they sing every word. That’s my dream-come-true song if we can get that on the radio somehow."
What are your thoughts on the possibility of Pat Monahan making a move to Country Music?
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