Jul 1, 2004 12:00 PM

TRAIN

Train

During their last tour, Train listened to each evening's soundcheck on CD, which brought ideas for their current album, My Private Nation. While FOH engineer Jack Knoebber (who has been with the band for three years) did this last year, Train has upped the CD-burning ante: offering clubgoers that show's first set on CD. The former Tonic/Sister Hazel/Remy Zero/Verve Pipe/Infectious Grooves' FOH engineer takes Mix into his private nation.

How much production gear do you carry?

We carry everything but stacks and racks. We have full FOH and processing, snakes and a full monitor rig.

Because Train plays in so many different venues, how do you compensate?

I have everyone on in-ears and have all of the amps offstage to cut down on stage volume. I don't even use any mics for the guitars; I just run the amp head into the Palmer DIs. We don't use any speakers for the amps because the DIs simulate a load so the transformers don't lock up.

Do you have any must-have pieces of gear?

An Audio-Technica 3300 wireless on Pat [Monahan, lead vocalist]. He really likes it a lot and it has really tight pattern so I don't get a lot of cymbals in it.

Are you doing anything new on this tour?

Train is doing multiple nights in a small club. I record the sets and burn them to a CD. We have seven CD towers that burn seven CDs a piece, so we can burn about 50 every seven or eight minutes. We give everyone a free copy of the first set when they walk out the door. If they want the second set, they can go to the Website and download it.

What do you do when you're not on tour?

I have a scuba dive master certification and I am working on my instructors certification. I live in Seattle and the Puget Sound is one of the most beautiful places to dive — if you like cold water.