“The ‘you’ changes in every song,” says Train vocalist/songwriter Pat Monahan regarding the sources of inspiration on the band’s new studio album For Me, It’s You, “In the title song, ‘For Me, It’s You,’ the ‘you’ is the woman I’m in love with. Throughout the record, the ‘you’ is my children or my dear friend who died this year, it’s my mother, it’s my family, it’s my band.”
Pat’s band is the Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum Train, whose anthemic hits–including “Drops of Jupiter” and “Calling All Angels”–have earned them the loyalty of fans around the globe while enduring as radio playlist staples across the country.
The band’s new album, For Me, It’s You showcases a revamped and revitalized lineup: founding core members Pat Monahan, Jimmy Stafford (guitars) and Scott Underwood (drums) are joined by bassist Johnny Colt (originally from the Black Crowes), and Atlanta keyboardist Brandon Bush (John Mayer, Shawn Mullins). Johnny and Brandon have both been on-board since Train’s 2003 My Private Nation tour.
With Train’s new line-up gelling as a unified musical ensemble working and playing as one on For Me, It’s You, the group’s new album emerges as the most fully realized and keenly focused collection of the band’s career.
Formed in San Francisco 1994, Train quickly developed an avid local following and, by 1997, was opening for national bands like Blues Traveler, Barenaked Ladies, and Counting Crows.
Its D.I.Y. debut album, Train, was produced by the band and Curtis Mathewson. In February 1998, it came out on Aware/Columbia, and the band hit the road in a rundown 1987 Dodge Ram minivan with a little red trailer. It stayed on the road for the next two years.
In autumn 1998, the Fox Television series, “Party Of Five,” began to feature Train’s first single, “Free,” already a radio favorite. By August, a second single, “Meet Virginia” led Train to a four week stay at #1 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart. In November, the album was certified RIAA gold and later achieved platinum.
When Drops Of Jupiter arrived on March 27, 2001, its title track single, “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me),” was already a runaway hit on several Billboard charts. The song’s lush orchestrations by Paul Buckmaster touched a very wide group of new fans and radio listeners. Drops of Jupiter has gone on to achieve RIAA double platinum status. The single spent a total of 53 weeks on the Hot 100, through April 2002. The track also won a Best Arrangement Grammy for the group and Buckmaster.
Each of Train’s studio albums–beginning with 1998’s self-titled debut and carrying on through Drops Of Jupiter and My Private Nation–has achieved RIAA platinum status or better while generating a string of hit singles that touched the lives of the group’s fans in profound and powerful ways: “Free,” “Meet Virginia,” “I Am,” “Drops Of Jupiter,” “Something More,” “She’s On Fire,” “Calling All Angels,” “Ordinary,” “When I Look To The Sky,” “Get To Me.”
Playing literally hundreds of shows for thousands upon thousands of fans since forming in San Francisco in 1994, Train earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the nation’s hottest live bands. With For Me, It’s You, Train continues its musical journey into new territory, offering the group’s fans 13 new reasons to celebrate a great American band.