Train making tracks for Cedar Rapids

Pat Monahan of Train doesn’t need to write new songs and make new albums. He’s had more than enough hits over a career that now spans nearly 30 years to be able to tour for as long he wants.

But here he is back on tour fronting Train and promoting “AM Gold,” the album the band released last year. Among the summer stops, the band is pulling in to the McGrath Amphitheatre in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday night, Sept. 12, 2023.

Far from coasting on a catalog that includes more than 20 adult pop hits, Monahan’s still as driven as ever to stay in the current pop music conversation.

“You know, there was a famous conversation between Billy Joel and Elton John where Elton John was like, ‘How come you aren’t making new albums?’ And he (Joel) says, ‘How come you haven’t stopped?’ ” Monahan recalled in a phone interview. “But Elton has this desire to continue to be relevant. And I have that same desire.

“I don’t have the artillery that both Elton John and Billy Joel have. I’m still trying to get that (kind of) set list. And Elton John has a huge hit on the radio with Dua Lipa (“Cold Heart”). It’s an old song. It’s an old idea, but it’s in a new way and I feel more like Elton John than Billy Joel.”

“It’s not about record sales,” he said. “It’s simply the desire to stay relevant.”

Over the years, Monahan and Train have certainly had times when they were highly relevant, but also some periods of drought when radio didn’t respond to the singles and albums didn’t connect on a major level.

Things started off strong for Monahan and his original bandmates in Train. Their 1998 self-titled debut gave the band a Top 20 single in “Meet Virginia” and the album went platinum.

But the big breakthrough came with “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me),” the title track from Train’s 2001 second album. It reached the Top 5 at Top 40 and topped Billboard magazine’s Adult Pop singles chart. Along with a pair of more modest hits, “Something More” and “She’s On Fire,” they sent the album to triple platinum and made Train a major pop act.

The momentum continued with the third album, “My Private Nation,” which generated another Top 20 hit with “Calling All Angels.”

Derailing

But as Train established itself as a hit-making act, tensions within the band had been growing. Before making the fourth album, “For Me, It’s You,” the group split with bassist Charlie Colin and guitarist Rob Hotchkiss, leaving Monahan, drummer Scott Underwood and guitarist Jimmy Stafford as the core band members.

“For Me, It’s You” failed to register at radio and Train then went on hiatus while Monahan made his 2007 solo album, “Last Of Seven.”

That’s when Monahan knew some major things had to change. It had been eight years since “Drops of Jupiter” and the singer was worried his time had come and gone.

“Well, my career was coming to a close,” he said. “I had gone through a divorce. I was bankrupt musically, I was bankrupt financially, it was a really difficult time.”

Back on track

That’s when Jonathan Daniel from Crush Management entered the picture. Monahan liked what Daniel had to say and how he viewed the path forward for the singer and Train. Monahan sent Daniel some 70 new songs he had written, and one song that stood out was “Hey, Soul Sister.”

The song became the lead single from the 2009 album, “Save Me, San Francisco,” and it blew up at multiple formats, easily becoming the biggest hit yet for Train. Two more hit singles — “If It’s Love” and “Marry Me” — followed from the “Save Me, San Francisco” album. Then the next Train album, “California 37,” spawned another major hit single in “Drive By.”

Over the next several years, more changes were made, the most significant of which was forming an entirely new lineup of Train. By 2016, Stafford and Underwood were gone and over the next three years, a more musically flexible and personally harmonious lineup came together, with drummer Matt Musty joining in 2019 and guitarist Taylor Locke stepping in 2021 to join keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Becker, bassist Hector Maldonado and backing singers Sakai Smith and Nikita Houston.

“It’s a really good, we’re already really close friends, which is different from the way Train started,” Monahan said. “Train, the five of us when we started were really not close friends. We were business partners and now I’m surrounded by people I love and it’s really, really fulfilling.”

Train worked more like a band than ever on “AM Gold.” On the band’s previous two albums, “Bulletproof Picasso” and “A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat,” Monahan had collaborated with outside writers to generate songs he hoped would have commercial potential.

He started down a similar path with “AM Gold.”

“(On) ‘A Girl, a Bottle, a Boat.’ I worked mostly with a guy called Will Larson. I loved what Will did and I love that record and I love those songs. But it’s much more pop,” Monahan said. “And when I started to write this record, it was before any pandemic shutdown and I was writing with a lot of professional songwriters. Those songs were poppy as well, and I loved them.”

Shifting gears

But when the pandemic hit, those collaborations stopped, and Monahan shifted gears, eventually ditching the early batch of songs.

“I started to work with my bandmates, Jerry Becker and Matt Musty, and then it was very quick into it that I realized when I work with professional songwriters, I tend to lean toward the way they write,” Monahan said.

“And I think that’s the opposite of what Train fans are looking for, and my band is the opposite. They know my strengths more than anybody, so they write songs to help me be a better me. When we were writing these songs, it was very apparent that they’re so conscious of what I’m good at (namely vocal melodies and lyrics) that we ended up writing these songs that sound a little bit more like older Train in a fresher way.”

The songs on “AM Gold” have retro elements. The strings and bouncy rhythms of the title track recall ’70s soul (think the Spinners or the O’Jays), while “Bettin’ On Me” and “Running Back (Trying To Talk To You)” at their core are classic sounding soul ballads with pop overtones. The piano-rooted and lyrically stinging ballad “Fake Flowers” and the perky “Amber Light” could have fit on Train’s first couple of albums.

That said, the songs come dressed with various programmed rhythms and synthetic sonics that bring them into today’s pop world. And the Latin-meets-classic-pop of the first single, “Cleopatra” (with guest vocals from Sofia Reyes), seems designed to capitalize on the growing popularity of that genre.

Playing live

Monahan said 12 to 16 songs generally make up the core of the Train live set, and he doesn’t want to overstock the show with additional songs.

“I think after 90 minutes, you will have just heard of other music, and your ears get to the point where you’re like, ‘OK, I’m good,’ ” he said. “So we have to make it exciting and different and that’s what our plan is.”