MuchMore.ca

You know what they say in the music biz, right? All it takes is one song. Sometimes however, it takes more than that, like falling apart followed by the seductive sounds of a ukulele. Train scored one of the biggest hits of the 2000’s with the song Drops of Jupiter. It beat U2, Aerosmith, and Coldplay for best Rock Song at the Grammy’s and even though it was before the iTunes era, it has still been downloaded over 1 million times. Ten years later the song still has legs.

Despite that success and despite being armed with other successful songs like “Calling all Angles” and “Meet Virginia”, after a three year break Train could barley find anybody interested in interviewing them when they returned in 2009 with a new album and a single that would eventually become their most successful (Hey, Soul Sister).

Train worked very, very hard to get the success that surrounded them in the early 2000’s by spending years on the road and paying their dues, but as we have seen with many bands before them success can become a bit of a crutch. Huge success brings high expectations and when it becomes impossible to meet those expectations bands usually start to fall apart. That’s what happened with Train. They started to lose sight of why they began making music in the first place by focusing on trying to write hits instead. It’s interesting to chat with a band that has been to the top of the mountain, down to the bottom and then back to the top again.

Train offer some cool insight into that “what have you done for me lately” mentality in music, but also into how success can tear a band apart. When things seemed to be perfect for this band and all of their rock and roll dreams were coming true, personal conflict led to the break that we find out needed to happen in order for them to come back together again. However, taking that break to handle all the personal and business affairs that were not in order meant that despite their past success, a lot of people forgot about Train.

It might take only one song to get noticed, but it takes a hell of a lot more than that to find any sort of longevity. After a Grammy and three hit songs, Train essentially had to start over, proving that it takes more than just one song, shit it takes more than three or four. Or maybe they just proved that all it takes is a ukulele. I’m not really sure yet, so let’s wait and see how the new album does. In the meantime enjoy Train: In Sixty.

=matt

Tags: In Sixty, train

Posted: April 4th, 2012 | Category: In Sixty
Tags: In Sixty, train