Patcast

ON CHRISTMAS RECORDS, Christmas in Tahoe & "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas": "I've wanted to make a Christmas record for years, but you don't really know what kind of record to make, and then when Michael Bublé comes out and has such mad success, but it's SO...horns and Sinatra and big band, and Martina, it sounds so big and beautiful and pro... but that's not really what we were shooting for, that's not  who we are. We're more of a "sit around in a hotel room" kind of band anyway. And so that vibe - REALLY picking songs was a big part of it. So we tried to stay away from songs that typically - the songs that Martina and Michael Bublé really crushed and did such amazing jobs with. But this was one that was hard to keep away from. I think it's my best vocal on the record. And so we wanted to play an acoustic version of it. Are you ready for this Jerry? - Pat Monahan talking to Jerry Becker on the Patcast Podcast about to perform their acoustic version of "have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

ON MAKING "Christmas in Tahoe" : We recorded the whole thing very fast. It was three days. I think you guys recorded it in three days. Well, it was a little bit more like five. We did a few a day, didn't we? Right. And then you had to do overdubs. We did overdubs in like two days, but the whole thing...we were in Seattle.. 5-10 days? And then it probably took four days to sing it. But Goodmanson, this guy, I don't know if you guys - do some research on John. I mean, his records, the Nada Surf stuff, all the Sleater-Kinney, he's the most unlikely guy we could have called to make this record.   Well, Cody Votolato had just made a record with him, with his band - he was like "Hey man," because I was like "I'm trying to find someone to produce the Christmas record," he was like "let me think about that." And I would have not thought Cody was going to think so deep in the indie vibe of Seattle, but man, John was the perfect guy, the vibe was great...thanks everybody for making the record a success. Thank you for the incredible Fillmore sellout. Very touching. We're going to make sure we have some special moments we can all remember. I think the Fillmore show, even if you don't have tickets, it's going to stream on Amazon so people can be a part of it at home. And we'll make a big deal of it. Anyway, thanks for two and a half great years of the Patcast, and listening. - Pat Monahan talking to Jerry Becker on episode 116 of the Patcast Podcast

ON THE ORIGIN OF 311 Before it was cool to, like, mix different genres of music together, to go do a tour, like Wiz Khalifa and Fallout Boy, you did a tour with Snoop, right? Yeah. And you guys played amphitheaters all over the country. Did it work? Absolutely. It worked great. Our crowd loves all kinds of different music. And his people seemed to like us. But in 1995, we went straight from the H.O.R.D.E. tour, which was the hippie tour with Blues Traveler and everybody, to the Cypress Hill Temples of Boom Tour, to the Warped Tour. So it was from hippie jam, to rap, to punk. But it somehow fits...because you guys fit in all of that stuff. I think if you guys listen to radio hits of 311, but you'd be surprised - your music's pretty hard. A lot of it is. Is that your guitar playing? Yeah, I play guitar, and Tim's our lead guitarist. I do a lot of writing, and I guess I'm always wanting to keep it kind of balanced with more chill vibes, but the hard stuff is great live, and that's what our core loves. It's true- you have a lot of guy followers, right? It's like sports, man. It's the way to go. Girls are more into Train. And then they force their boyfriends and shit to come to the shows. But my friends in high school were huge 311 fans. And I think it's because you stuck to the rock. As much as there's reggae and jazz aspects of what you guys do. So 1988 is when you guys started? Technically 1989. A show on June 10th. We opened for Fugazi. Wow. You opened for who? A great launch, to play for a packed... Where was that? LA? Omaha. We're from Omaha. I moved to LA before then, and floundered a bit. I worked at the Guitar Center on Sunset, together with the type of people that were hanging out there, and it just wasn't really happening. I realized that the best people I could form a band with were my high school buddies. Were you the typical Guitar Center Employee? No...I mean, it was still the time of hair metal, but there was this new scene, of Jane's Addiction and Chili Peppers and Fishbone, so that's what I was into. And you were into that new thing that was coming? Yeah. So it didn't really work there for me. So I moved back to Omaha and started 311. - Nick Hexum of 311 talks to Pat Monahan of Train on the Patcast Podcast.

ON SONGWRITING It's such a bizarre thing, being a songwriter. Like, I always feel bad for most of them, because very few can go the distance. But then you don't feel bad for Max Martin, because he's got a whole garage filled with 18-year-old guys that have the greatest hooks in the world. - Pat Monahan of Train talking to Nick Hexum on the Patcast Podcast.

Supermarket sheet cake with frosting flowers versus Ketel One and soda: Sean Nelson and John Goodmanson on this week's episode. 

When John Goodmanson talks about crossing paths with Colin Meloy of The Decemberists on this week's episode. 

- Pat Monahan of Train talks to Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger and Seattle's The Stranger on this week's episode of the Patcast

- Rocky Votolato talks with Pat Monahan on this week's episode 114 of the Patcast Podcast

- Rocky Votolato talks with Pat Monahan on this week's episode 114 of the Patcast Podcast

- Rocky Votolato talks with Pat Monahan about his family background on this week's episode 114 of the Patcast Podcast

ON FAVORITES: What are you a fan of currently? Do you watch Netflix, or... is there music you're into, or videogames? What do you do on the tour bus? There's a few things currently. Before I could read, I think my uncle gave me a Super Nintendo, and then a NES before that, so games is something I care maybe too much about. Like indie games, and stuff like that. But also oddly enough, through Alex the bass player, I got into a few crazy mangas, no wait, animes, like Attack on Titan and stuff. There's just a very different way that Japanese stories work, then Western - I'm just dorking out...and what kind of birthday cake? I'm crazy for chocolate, white chocolate. There's this thing called Maltesers, like malted milk balls. I've got a terrible sweet tooth. - Andrew Hozier-Byrne talks to Pat Monahan of Train on the Patcast podcast

ON CELEBRITY: Are you surrounded by celebrities, musical and otherwise, that want to get close to you? I'm not so much. I've been kind of on the road. By the time we finish in March of next year, I'll have been on the road for about two years. So it's just transitory. I don't have time to fit into a scene. I meet people in passing, a few artists who are really supportive and just really nice, and because it's so transitory, it's quick and it's goodwill. So Ed Sheeran, or Soundsmith, or something like that. Have you and Ed become friends? Because I could see it - Ed's a sweet guy. I have to say, I'm just drawn to good people. I've been very lucky, I've got a good crew, but I just can't tolerate dickheads. I just can't tolerate assholes. I see 'em a mile away too, especially sometimes when you're at those kind of scenes, where a lot of people can gravitate toward the glamour, the glitter and the roar of things, and it just doesn't appeal to me. A lot of that doesn't appeal to me that much. If a person's a good dude... - Andrew Hozier-Byrne talks to Pat Monahan of Train on the Patcast podcast

ON SOCIAL MEDIA: Has Instagram or Twitter or anything come your way in a place that kind of hurts you? I'm trying to think. I've been very very lucky. I think it'll take time. There's like plenty, you see jokes, it's yielded many a joke. I'll tweet some mean shit at you as soon as we get done! I do worry about it. I fear the inevitable, especially in Ireland, where it's only a  certain matter of time, you fall slowly from the good graces of the public. And then you're just an object of ridicule. Do you read reviews? I admit I do... This may help you at some point in the future - my manager once said to me, you can't be loved unless you're hated. And so that made a lot of sense for me, and made me feel a lot better about it. But I remember when our "Drops of Jupiter" album came out, which was our second album, the front page of the USA Today, well, that's all you're going to hear from Train, they've derailed! Move on, two stars! And I'm like, man! Page two would've been better! So every time we've had a highlight moment... you've done Saturday Night Live, which we haven't done, you got to perform at the Grammys, we got to do that as well, but not with one of my favorite artists of all time, Annie Lennox. I have been very lucky. The last year, I'm very fortunate. - Andrew Hozier-Byrne talks to Pat Monahan of Train on the Patcast podcast

Did you have any idea that your music would make the kind of movement that it had? Because pop music is just not what you do. You carved a new lane for this being accepted in the pop music world. I didn't really expect it. I didn't. I really didn't expect it at all. In fact, I used to joke with the producer when we were working on "Take Me to Church," before the first EP was released, like "Hahaha that would ever end up on radio? No." I thought it would be a fairly, an audience similar to... Had you acquired a good audience up to that point? No, no one had a clue who I was. I used to do little open mic nights in Dublin and stuff. And by the time "Take Me to Church" was released, when it played on radio, people assumed I was an act from America, or from the UK. No one knew I was from Ireland. And I sometimes think if I thought that I had, it would have influenced the album differently. Maybe I would have followed it up with something - the album was just me... Because your EP came out first. And then you had the full-length. And that's such - Jerry and I came up when nobody did that, and almost everybody does it. But do you think eventually you'll be like "Meh, why make an album?" Is EPs the future? Like, will you shrink the work we do? Where are your friends? All your friends are young like you, I suppose - what do they think the future is? Will they have to continue making albums, whether they think it works or not? Yeah, a lot of my friends, I'd say, from school, would be consumers. A lot of people, it's so much easier to consume singles, and we are moving into a single, it seems, single-driven industry, which breaks my heart a little bit. Because I do love the idea of albums. Who did you get moved by, in your early finding music days? It was first my dad's record collection, and that would've been blues music, a lot of it, some soul music too, blues players like Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker...soul singers Sam & Dave...and then Nina Simone, that was a huge, huge one. And I think what really kicked it over the fence was that I discovered Tom Waits, and whatever place I was in, as a teen-ager, I just got obsessed with Tom Waits. - Andrew Hozier-Byrne talks to Pat Monahan of Train on the Patcast podcast

You asked the question earlier about why wasn't it this, or that, in the name? But Nathaniel is really the heart and soul, the songwriter for the project. - Joseph Pope III on Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats' band name

- Joseph Pope III and Nathaniel Rateliff talk the origin of their music with Pat Monahan of Train

"People being PEOPLE is what makes podcasts cool." Patcast talks to Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nightsweats on this week's episode.