Train Is Recording a Christmas Album

Train will be bestowing holiday wishes on its fans this year.

Frontman Pat Monahan tells Billboard that the group is in the midst of recording a seasonal set, tentatively titled Christmas in Tahoe — “because, being a Bay Area band, that’s where everybody goes to ski and have fun” — and out most likely in November. The album will feature three originals amidst covers that Monahan will be different from the usual Yuletide fare.

“There’s a couple of traditional covers on there, but we tried not to do the same stuff everybody else does,” Monahan explains. “Like, our favorite song on it is from The Band called ‘Christmas Must Be Tonight,’ so it’s that kind of record where it’s a vibey, make dinner around Christmas time and listen to an alternative kind of Christmas album.”

Train has been recording the set since last month at Bear Creek Studios near Seattle, and Monahan says the band “may finish it on the road.” There were no nods made to the season — no holiday lights or Christmas tree in the studio — either, he notes: “”That never works for me,” Monahan says. “I remember the first few demos that Train would do, I would turn lights on and smoke pot and get in the mood and the next day we’d listen back and say, ‘Yeah, we have to do that again. It sounds terrible.’ So to Christmas things up, I don’t know…We’re more of a blue-collar band. We just go do the job.”

source: billboard.com