Summer may not have even arrived quite yet, but the Christmas album announcements are already starting to roll in. Yesterday (May 14), Train announced that it will follow up its 2014 album Bulletproof Picasso with a holiday album, titled Christmas in Tahoe.
In an interview with Billboard, Train frontman Pat Monahan announced that his band will be releasing a Christmas album likely in November, but don't expect this to be your mama's holiday LP. Train is touring Christmas in Tahoe as an alternative to all that other music that permeates shopping malls and radios every winter. So, while there may be a "Here Comes Santa Claus," there will also be recreations of classic rock Christmas tracks.
"There's a couple of traditional covers on there, but we tried not to do the same stuff everybody else does," Monahan said. "Like, our favorite song on it is from The Band called 'Christmas Must Be Tonight,' so it's that kind of record where it's a vibe-y, make dinner around Christmas time and listen to an alternative kind of Christmas album."
Despite working on a Christmas album in the springtime, Monahan revealed that the band took no special measures to make its recording space wintery and bright. "I don't know...We're more of a blue-collar band. We just go do the job," he said about hanging up twinkling lights or decking the halls.
Christmas in Tahoe has no official release date, but the holiday LP isn't the only album Train has in the works. Monahan also stated that he's planning on bringing in other writers for the band's eighth studio album. "That's something I did on the Save Me, San Francisco record. I wrote with everybody. You could've just been a neighbor down the street and I'd be like, 'Cool, let's do it,' 'cause you never know where the magic lies, and it's all in a combination of people being in a room together."
