PAT MONAHAN

The album may be called Last of Seven (Columbia), yet PAT MONAHAN’s latest musical effort seems very much a record of firsts.

Ultimately, this is more than the first album that PAT MONAHAN has seen fit to record and release under his own name. Produced by Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Roger Waters, Elton John), Last of Seven marks the revealing and altogether compelling solo debut of the man who for the past decade has served as the lead singer and main songwriter behind multi-platinum, Grammy-winners Train. The result is a revelatory song cycle than finds Monahan offering the most intimate, powerful and eclectic set of songs of his career.

In Last of Seven, MONAHAN has crafted a soul rock and pop album that takes his characteristic soaring, emotive vocals and powerful storytelling lyrics--behind such distinctive hits as “Drops of Jupiter,” “Meet Virginia” and “Calling All Angels”--into a whole new dimension. All of the tracks on the album were written or co-written by MONAHAN; Brandi Carlile joins him on the duet “Pirate On The Run,” while Graham Nash lends background vocals to “Cowboys and Indians” and Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora adds acoustic guitar to “Someday.” Listen closely to Last of Seven and you can hear the sound of a gifted singer-songwriter at the peak of his powers expanding his reach and enjoying the creative freedom to follow his muse wherever it leads him.

For all that, MONAHAN sees Last of Seven as anything but a public declaration that Train has already reached its final destination. “In many aspects of Train, I would be considered the leader of the group,” Monahan explains. “In many other aspects, I am considered simply one member of Train with equal say, which works incredibly well for the band, but not always for the art. On this project, I became the leader on all levels and so there was no sacrifice or compromise. But I soon realized that the last thing that I want is for these songs I’ve written with other people to reflect poorly on Train. When people ask, ‘Is Train broken up?’ It’s very much the opposite. The guys have been extremely supportive of this record. They want this album to do well--as any friend would for any friend, and I want the same for them. For me, making this album makes Train live longer instead of the opposite being true.”

Yet MONAHAN confesses to thoroughly enjoying the opportunity the album gave him to explore his many musical interests. “It’s hard for anyone to tell people what your potential is,” MONAHAN explains. “You kind of have to earn it and show people what you can do, not tell them and I have a lot of showing to do. There is so much out there musically that inspires me, and this album gave me the chance to go in any number of interesting directions.”

It all began with an offer to write for a musical legend. “About a year ago I got asked to write with Guy Chambers for Tina Turner’s record. So I wrote a couple of songs with Guy for her record and the experience was great.”

The experience got MONAHAN thinking seriously about writing songs with outside writers. He returned to England for further writing sessions with Guy Chambers as well as James Bourne before meeting in Los Angeles with Patrick Leonard--with whom he had an instant musical rapport. “I met Patrick and we started writing songs and I loved the process so much that I asked him to produce the record. John Shanks--who has a studio down the hall from Patrick’s--came in the studio a few times and we wrote `Her Eyes’ together.  By then we were really on a roll.”

Of his productive collaboration with Leonard, MONAHAN notes, “You never know what to expect when you walk into someone else’s life. Our lives turned out to be very parallel in many ways that made it so easy to work together musically. But in the end, for both of us music is our saving grace--the one thing that makes us feel like we have purpose. When we played together it felt magical and the whole process would be extremely spontaneous”

Last of Seven vividly reflects MONAHAN’s fully embracing his life and his own musical abilities. “I’ve never had less and I’ve never been happier,” MONAHAN says with a good-hearted laugh. “I don’t have a lot of stuff cluttering my life. I have the simplest life I could have at this point and I’ve never been more at peace. I have love and a place to live, a reason to be here and a Starbucks close by.”

Still for that joy, MONAHAN confesses that he still has goals that Last of Seven may help him achieve. “With this album I want people to once and for all match this voice with who I am. I have a voice that’s been familiar enough over the past few years--now I want people to connect the whole story. I want that for myself because I feel I’ve earned it at this point. And I want the opportunity to keep making music--now even more than ever before.”

By David Wild

      


LAST OF SEVEN: I didn’t have a title for the album, so one day I decided to call it Oprah’s Favorite Record. So I put that idea up on My Space and I had a lot of fans say that sounded hysterical, but others were saying, “You finally have this opportunity to make your own statement, why overshadow the real purpose?” That hit me really deeply because it did make the record sound less important than it is to me. During the last week of recording with Patrick Leonard, I said to him, “You know my whole life people have said that I’m ‘the last of seven.’” And that’s how I’ve always described myself--as the last of seven kids. Patrick loved the phrase, so he wrote this beautiful, brief piece of music. He said, “I think it would be a great thing if you could write something that addresses the title.” I went in another room and tried to paint a picture of my family. There were “two moneymakers” because two of my brothers are accountants. One “fallen star” because I have one brother who struggles in his life. “Three more that swam ashore and climbed into the family car” because I have three sisters who came after that. “From the steel mills of Pennsylvania/To the piers of the Puget Sound”–that’s where I live now. “Here I am/The last of seven.” It’s who I am.

HER EYES: Just as “Drops of Jupiter” was about a trip that a girl was on, “Her Eyes” is about a trip that I’m on. Thankfully, I have a beautiful woman in my life now. I also have a beautiful daughter. What the two of them have in common is they both use a nightlight for no reason at all other than it looks cute. That image basically sparked other thoughts about my wife and the people in my life who I happen to think are beautiful and wonderful and funny. So far some have found the song funny--especially the line about Michael Jackson. In the past, I’ve tried to force the point with people that I actually do have a sense of humor.  Truthfully, this whole album was nothing but fun for me. I genuinely loved going to work every day.

TWO WAYS TO SAY GOODBYE: “Two Ways To Say Goodbye” was written backstage at a Train show somewhere in New Jersey. I was playing acoustic guitar and I called my tour manager into the dressing room and said, “Hey Tom, you’ve got to hear this.” Afterwards, he said, “Damn brother, that’s a big one.” With that kind of early rave review, I honed in on the song and put down a demo with my friend Jerry Becker who ended up playing on this track. I love the song, and would love it to be a single eventually.

SOMEDAY: This is the first song Patrick Leonard and I wrote together. I was supposed to write with some other guy that day and it fell through; one thing led to another and I ended up at Leonard’s place at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. It was all dark in the room and incense was burning. Patrick looked like a mad scientist hovering over his computer. He said, “I sort of have something if you want to listen.” I listened and I really liked what I heard. We sat at the piano for a while and kept hammering away at the song. Then Pat put a demo together and I went home with it. The next day I came in and sang “Someday.”  Right about then I realized I wasn’t riding down the road towards another Train record, I was on a different road. Richie Sambora had the difficult challenge of taking a piano part and trying to make it a guitar part. He’s fantastic–a sick guitar player. Like everyone else on the record, Richie had the right energy for the music we were making.

COWBOYS AND INDIANS: I don’t want to save the world and I definitely don’t want to preach about the state of our world. Anyone who really knows me knows all I truly want to do is make lunch for a lot of people--all kinds of people–in a beautiful place by a river somewhere and bring them some peace for a little while. That’s what the song–which Patrick and I wrote with Lyle Workman--is really about.  When I was asked if I wanted Graham Nash to come in and sing on this song, I was like, “Dude, are you kidding me? That’s like saying ‘Do you want to hang with Jesus for the day?’” So Graham came in and the first thing I started to do was kiss his ass. He looked at me and said, “You don’t have to kiss my ass. It will only make this session take longer.” My favorite CSNY songs really are the ones that Graham wrote, and clearly he was the perfect guy for this song.

OOH MY MY: Patrick is musically amazing and very inspiring. We put this song together, and he suggested that I dig deep and just sing whatever came to mind in any possible way. So that’s what I did. I suppose I was trying to get to the core of the abuse in a relationship where things are horribly wrong but you somehow just can’t leave it. When I was singing the song, Patrick’s assistant came in wondering what the hell was going on in there. Yet somehow girls really love this song--and I do too.

THINKIN BOUT YOU: There are some songs where you have to read between the lines. This is not one of those songs. Musically, this is proof that it’s a true privilege to have a really gifted keyboard player as your co-writer and producer.

RAISE YOUR HANDS: I wanted a song for live performance that I could open a show with–one that would say what I wanted to say right upfront. “Raise Your Hands” is about that moment when everyone can come together and feel the same way about something. How do we bring everybody together for that one particular moment?  In every conceivable way, I cannot wait to play these songs live. I’m excited to play them whether it’s at Wembley Arena or in a coffee house for eighteen people.

ALWAYS MIDNIGHT: Patrick and I were sitting at the piano and started to ad lib trying to come up with something.  He was getting closer than I was.  At one point, Patrick asked what I was trying to say. I told him that I had a vision of being constantly in a fight and not even being able to figure out why.  Living in Pennsylvania, there are constantly trains in the background, even as a kid I remember thinking what if I could just jump on one of those trains and go anywhere else but where I was. Somehow it seemed like those moments always came right around midnight.

GREAT ESCAPE: I wrote “Great Escape” with a young guy in London named James Bourne. I’m a huge fan of this kid. He’s been in several bands already–-bands that sound more like Blink 182 than Train.  When we got together, James said that he’d been listening to my stuff and he had something I might like. He played this stunning piano piece and I told him that I loved it and I wrote the lyrics and melody to it that night and came into the studio and sang it, and then Patrick produced it. This was more than a “Great Escape”–it was a great experience.

RIPPLE IN THE WATER: “Ripple In The Water” was one of the early tracks when I started to get really excited about working with Patrick and making this album everything it could be. By this time, it was clear that I was making my own record and I think you can hear my excitement. And at this point in my career, I really want more from myself than just making a ripple in the water. I would like to make a real difference to somebody--if only to myself.

GIRLFRIEND: I have a guitar player friend in Los Angeles named Luis Maldonado who came into the studio to play on a few tracks.  While he was there, Patrick and I decided we should ask him to write something with us. We wrote “Girlfriend,” which is basically about when I met my wife. She was in a relationship, I’d just come out of a long marriage, and I really wanted to be with her, that’s what this song is about.

PIRATE ON THE RUN:  This song has been around for a few years. It had a piano part and I asked Brandon Bush from Train to sit with me and help finish the song--it’s one that just slipped away from Train.  I met Brandi Carlile on tour when she opened for Train. I thought it would be so much more powerful to sing this song with a woman, because it’s about two people who can’t be together no matter how much they love each other. Basically, I feel like I am a pirate. Brandi is in the same boat, she’s traveling around too--a real gypsy.

SHINE: This is a song in which every lyric and every note on the piano was ad-libbed by Patrick Leonard and I. In that moment I had the vision of a woman we all know in some form who desperately wants to be something and was never able to achieve that dream. It’s about someone who bases their dream on beauty and a great need to be seen--and who then sees that dream just blow away.


--From an interview with David Wild, July 2007