Train Life

The Story Behind TRAIN LIFE

I’m not sure I realized it until more recently, but I’ve always had a thing for Trains. Whether it was the little sets I had as a kid, books describing wild tales of adventure, or those songs of old blues musicians; well, there’s something rather downright mysterious and alluring about those big, huge, mechanical beasts and the horns that follow them around. Maybe in some way it’s a nostalgic harkening back to some other time long before I was ever around. Or maybe one shouldn’t try to analyze things and just realize that Trains are really cool! TRAIN LIFE is a bit of an ode to all that.

The first Trains I recorded were while traveling around Portland, Oregon. I was camping along the Columbia River Gorge right not too far from the tracks and throughout the night I would constantly hear the rumble vibrating through the ground and the long Horns echoing and reverberating across the Mountains. A few days later I was hanging out by the Willamette River under the St. Johns Bridge and was fortunate enough to come across a Freight Train going through an hour-long process of idling and connecting cars. Huge slack metallic bangs, slow long drawn out groans and hydraulic bursts reverberated across Industrial buildings. I was hooked.

Back home in Los Angeles, I set off on the quest to find more trains to record. After spending a number of times sitting idle and patiently waiting for hours only to come up empty, I did a bit more research. A big thanks goes out to a few Train museums and Railfans for providing much invaluable information and pointing me in the right direction. I learned the times of the local Passenger Trains and found out what areas were better for getting more isolated recordings. I discovered the major transportation routes where Freights run from downtown L.A. to the Ports near Long Beach. I drove out into the Mojave desert on multiple trips and took the back roads that lead out to Bakersfield where trains rumble through tunnels and rolling hills.

As I gathered various sounds, I made a list of what I was missing and tried to find areas where I could catch a Train doing that. It was quite the challenge! Over time I also realized that even when sitting for hours on end waiting around, there was a particular wonderful sound to the surrounding environment, and I figured it was probably worth documenting as well. Eventually it all came together into TRAIN LIFE.