walking upstream…
Train
Formed in San Francisco in the mid-1990s around frontman Pat Monahan's rangy voice and knack for radio-ready hooks, Train built a career out of warm, string-swept pop-rock that splits the difference between arena-size choruses and coffeehouse intimacy. "Drops of Jupiter," written in the wake of Monahan's mother's death, turned private grief into a Grammy-winning meditation on loss that soars rather than mourns, while "Hey, Soul Sister" proved a decade later that the band could still write an inescapable, ukulele-strummed hit. Underneath the polish sits an unabashedly classic-rock heart — Monahan has spent his career naming the bands he grew up on as directly as any songwriter in his genre.
the sound in question
2001
Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)Train
walk the tributaries ↓
Led Zeppelin1970s · Hard rock / Blues rock
Monahan has called Led Zeppelin his single biggest influence, telling Songwriter Universe he loved a lot of R&B growing up but "Led Zeppelin was my biggest influence." He's said hearing the band's Royal Albert Hall recordings as a teenager in Erie, Pennsylvania helped push him toward San Francisco; he fronted a Zeppelin tribute band before Train existed, and in 2016 recorded a full note-for-note covers album, Train Does Led Zeppelin II, calling them "the greatest rock and roll band of all time."
listen: upstream & heresource: Songwriter Universe ↗
1971
Going to CaliforniaLed Zeppelin
2009
Save Me, San FranciscoTrain
listen forZeppelin's "Going to California" is a bare, wandering acoustic travelogue about chasing a new life on the West Coast; Train's own "Save Me, San Francisco" answers it directly — a full-throated valentine to the city Monahan settled in as a young musician chasing that same Zeppelin-fueled dream.
James Taylor1970s · Folk rock / Soft rock / Singer-songwriter
Monahan has said that once he found his own taste in music, beyond what his older siblings played him, he gravitated toward James Taylor, the Guess Who, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. Taylor's plainspoken, unhurried confessional style — turning private pain into a gentle, almost conversational vocal — sits directly behind Train's own softer ballads.
listen: upstream & heresource: Songwriter Universe ↗
1970
Fire and RainJames Taylor
2003
Calling All AngelsTrain
listen forTaylor's "Fire and Rain" processes grief through a hushed vocal over spare guitar and strings without ever raising its voice; Train's "Calling All Angels" works the same trick, a string-cushioned meditation on loss and hope delivered at the same quiet register.
Supertramp1970s · Progressive rock / Soft rock
Monahan has said the record that meant the most to him as a kid was Supertramp's Breakfast in America, recalling on the Takin' a Walk podcast that he'd fall asleep to a cassette of it in third grade because "I couldn't believe that human beings were able to make something sound as beautiful as this album." That love of witty, piano-driven character sketches carried straight into Train's own early songwriting.
listen: upstream & heresource: Takin' a Walk podcast ↗
1979
The Logical SongSupertramp
1998
Meet VirginiaTrain
listen forSupertramp's "The Logical Song" turns a coming-of-age complaint into a jaunty, piano-hooked pop song; Train's breakthrough "Meet Virginia" does much the same with a wry character sketch riding a similarly bouncy piano-and-organ groove.