After a decade away, The Cab is beginning their second act and they’re not wasting any time. The band’s new EP is already resonating with fans, they’ve been on the road all summer and their When We Were Young appearance brought them home to Las Vegas for the first time in far too long. Atlas sat down with Alex Marshall and Joey Thunder before their Arizona show last week to talk about balancing nostalgia and progress, the new music on the horizon and how their collective life changes have inspired this musical reboot.
Atlas Artist Group: The band is back in action. You’ve got new music, you just performed at When We Were Young and you’re on the road. How has everything been feeling since the return and what’s been the best or most memorable part for all of you since the reunion?
Alex Marshall: I think if we could summarize it in one word coming back, it’s just this overwhelming sense of gratitude. When you’re gone for so long- we’re all doing our own thing, still involved in music and doing our own things- when you come back, you’re like, do people even care? Has the music lived on? Do they care? These are thoughts that we have all discussed and this tour has just been that gratification of [knowing] it’s still there.
When we play together, the energy together is higher than ever. We definitely have some back pains that are there but everything else is just so fun. The highlight so far- at least for me- was when we played Red Rocks. Two highlights- we played Red Rocks in Denver and that was just like a spiritual concert. It felt so good. Then coming back home to Vegas- we’re born and raised in Vegas so to come back, since we haven’t played there since 2011 or 2012- and just play for a hometown crowd was sick.
Joey Thunder: Just to add to that- music aside- just the experience of being away and then reintroducing yourself to people that you’ve grown up with is such a unique opportunity and maybe even a rare one. So just to be in the moment- we get off stage and my cheeks are hurting from just smiling like an idiot, you know what I mean?
Marshall: Branching off that- not that we took it for granted when we were younger but with maturity comes more wisdom- we hope- and we treat every show now like it’s our last show. You have a different viewpoint if you’re looking at it like that. You’re playing and you see people smiling or singing your words [and] we just soak that in. I don’t remember doing a lot of that when we were younger because it was like, this is gonna go forever. It’s just coming back to gratitude.
Atlas: Did you ever have a moment as a group after the reunion where you all knew that this was the right decision?
Marshall: There was a moment right when we started rehearsing. We started rehearsing in Nashville a month before tour and we finally had the sound perfect and we started playing together and all of us just looked at each other and it was like, hey bro, haven’t played with you in 10 years on stage, and you still got it! It’s better now! We all just smiled and it was that moment for everyone that we were like, wow, this is the shit. This is exactly what we need to be doing.
Atlas: In recent years, there’s been a resurgence of nostalgia- with bands getting back together, older music being revisited and festivals like When We Were Young celebrating an almost bygone era. You have to do that a little bit as well with your older music and now the new EP and upcoming album. How do you balance the nostalgia of it all with the need to push forward creatively?
Marshall: As far as creation goes, Alex and I took a trip in 2019 right before COVID. That’s when we started writing for our new album and the EP Road to Reign. We went to Indonesia because Alex is a travelholic and we were literally just writing songs out there. There were some songs where we were chasing an old sound but you can’t chase after you’ve already grown up and lived life for 10 years.
But once we started cracking the code and just trusting ourselves with our old sounds- I’m on piano so it’s piano based. We have a lot of strings because we love strings and obviously we love harmonies and pop melodies. When we tapped into our old beings, that’s when it started clicking. We were making music for the past 10 years. We weren’t just not making music, we were just doing other projects. Creatively we’ve grown a lot but I think melodically and lyrically and instrumentally, using some of the old instrumentation that we used to use is what keeps it fresh but also familiar,
Atlas: It’s definitely nice to have that balance so fans are able to hear the older songs but still be brought into the new material that you’re making now.
Marshall: We’ve been asked a bunch of times on this tour- because we haven’t really said it publicly- but people are like, is this just a reunion or what is this? We just keep saying it’s not a reunion, it’s a reboot. This is the new era.
Thunder: We don’t want to settle for anything. I think it’s just the artist’s journey. Why would you want to settle on just the old stuff? We’re here to create and to get better and there’s more stories to tell in our 30s.
Marshall: We don’t take that for granted. The old stuff is what got us here. But we don’t write music because we have to, we do it because we want to and so we just hope people connect with it the same way.
Atlas: Now that you’re all in the room together, how has the creative process changed for you? How do you approach it as a group compared to when you were writing before?
Marshall: I think when you’re younger, you haven’t really developed the muscle of communication and the muscle of creative trust. As you get older, you start to identify strengths and weaknesses creatively but you also identify how to trust. With us, I grew up on Coldplay, The Script, Something Corporate, Acceptance. Alex is like Rage Against the Machine [and] hard rock, Joey, a lot of funk, Joey is like a music encyclopedia. I think trusting each other and seeing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s like we fill in the gaps together. Knowing our tastes, when you hear the new album, you’ll be like, Marshall’s all over this or you’ll hear one and be like, Alex was the brainchild behind this. We always say no ego- whatever is amazing, we’re gonna do.
Atlas: You’ve said that this is a reboot so after this tour, there will hopefully be other tours. What’s the dream scenario for you right now when it comes to live shows?
Marshall: Our one goal that we set for us- like a milestone- after we played Red Rocks was we would love to be able to play a show like that- our own show. That was a big milestone that we all set as a band. We have to get there. As far as tour, I’ve been being asked a lot like, are you guys going to do a headliner? We would love to do a headliner next year at some point. We have bands that we would love to tour with- we’ll see.
Atlas: Do you have any spoilers about what’s coming next for The Cab? There’s an album coming next, correct?
Marshall: It’s a big record. We had 50+ songs over that 10 year period and we narrowed those down to 22. We’re not going to do 22, we’re going to cut it down a little bit below that. We’re just finishing the last tweaks. It’s done- first quarter next year.
Atlas: Another thing that’s happened with all of you, of course, is that your lives have changed outside of music. You’ve all got families, you’ve got different lives now. How are you looking at music and life with that balance? How did you shift your priorities and make it all fit together in a way that works for you?
Thunder: We have awesome partners! Straight up- we have a great foundation at home. Our partners are understanding and they’re encouraging us to do this. It ties back to our camp on the bus- how supportive are we with one another? Wives are flying in and out. Honestly, it’s just really keeping an honest communication with the families in private and then as a band and as the company and organization. We’re here to support each other.
Marshall: All of our wives are friends. So now we have a bigger band- four or five other partners. We’re a 10 piece band now. In my position, my wife is a rockstar. She just did 10 days with us from Red Rocks all the way through Vegas, all the festival days and she had both of the kids. I knew she was tired, but she was just trooping it the whole time and so supportive and showing up. I told her today, I was like, you’re the real rock star. You have the hard job. This is easy. And she’s like, this is what you guys were born to do. You got to do it.
Atlas: Are there any last thoughts or sentiments you want to communicate to your fans?
Marshall: Two things- so many people have come up to us with old merch and they’re like, I’ve been saving this, praying that you would come back. They show up in the oldest Cab merch that we ever sold. I realized that it wasn’t a band and fans, it was this whole family community that we didn’t realize fully was there until now. We can actually see these people are bonded to us and we’re bonded to them and that’s huge. And then the second thing is a lot of these old fans have kids now and they’re bringing their kids with our merch on. It’s like this whole new generation of Cab fans. I think that just adds a level of responsibility for us to push a good message out and be there for the next generation, too.
Thunder: Dude, that was beautiful. That was poetry. It’s so real. I have no words. I think you nailed it. I’m just grateful and I’m excited that they’re growing up with us. It’s so bizarre. We’ve always been on the cusp of the scene.
Marshall: We’re not pop enough to be pop but we’re not hard enough to be rock.
Thunder: Yeah, we’re in the middle. I feel that that’s our fusion of taste. We’re like, groovy punk.
Marshall: We’ve talked about this a bunch as a band and what we get to do, what we’re doing a second time- we know that we’re lucky that we’re getting to do this. We don’t take it for granted and we’re grateful. I think on stage, when you see us interacting with each other, these aren’t rehearsed things that we’re doing. It’s just in the moment with each other and that’s authentic, genuine interaction. We’re happy to be here.
Catch The Cab on tour and stream Road to Reign, out now!
