Interview with
Journey
One of the most successful American rockbands, formed by former members of Santana back in 1973. With their last album Revelation, also presented a new vocalist and followed by a big world tour. A unique performance at the Sweden Rock Festival, one of the big acts during the festival.
After some pretty rough weather the day before, the sun was shining again. We had gotten ourselves a front row seat at the press tent where AOR legends Journey were about to answer some media questions.
Press: How has the tour been going with the new singer so far? Are you satisfied?
Neal Schon (guitars, backing vocals): Absolutly. yeah. The audience really likes him.
Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals): Its really big, we set a record with the first shows. There was packed houses everywhere. Journey is back! (Applause).
Press : I saw you back in florida. They filmed the 3 hour show there. Are you gonna do a 3 hour show for the band anniversary?
Neal Schon: We don’t know yet. That was a pretty long show there in Florida, haha.
Press: You changed singers a lot in the last years, what happened?
Jonathan Cain: Steve Perry lost hist voice. Then Jeff came in temporary, helped us out through the Def Leppard tour.
Neal Schon: We decided to look for another singer and he's te golden boy (points at Arnel Pineda, the new singer.)
Press: How has the tour been going with the new singer so far? Are you satisfied?
Neal Schon (guitars, backing vocals): Absolutly. yeah. The audience really likes him.
Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals): Its really big, we set a record with the first shows. There was packed houses everywhere. Journey is back! (Applause).
Press : I saw you back in florida. They filmed the 3 hour show there. Are you gonna do a 3 hour show for the band anniversary?
Neal Schon: We don’t know yet. That was a pretty long show there in Florida, haha.
Press: You changed singers a lot in the last years, what happened?
Jonathan Cain: Steve Perry lost hist voice. Then Jeff came in temporary, helped us out through the Def Leppard tour.
Neal Schon: We decided to look for another singer and he's te golden boy (points at Arnel Pineda, the new singer.)
Press: Arnel, have u been a fan of Journey since the old days?
Arnel Pineda (singer): Yes, but I was only 10 years old back when I started listening to the old album (laughs) ... and with time I also came to appreciate more and more of their new material as well.
Press: A reporter from Sweden recently called you a 1-hit-wonder. So how many one hit wonders did you have? (Laughter)
Jonathan Cain: If we had just one hit ... haha. In the states we had at least 15 top hit records. Recently, on the Revelation record, we had another hit there. Every band has a song that they’re known for, so yeah there is that but there’s a lot of other songs.
Ross Valory (bass, backing vocals): I don’t know if a one hit wonder band would last 30 years - so do the math.
Press: Is there any chance you would come to Europe for an extended tour?
Neal Schon: This already is the most extended tour we've done in Europe so far but a lot of promoters think we're too soft ,so the idea of the whole festival gigs is to change that a little.
Ross Valory: Back in the hay days, in the 80s, we couldn’t come over. Only in the last 4 years we could set our market here. So we think of this as just the beginning.
Neal Schon: This already is the most extended tour we've done in Europe so far but a lot of promoters think we're too soft ,so the idea of the whole festival gigs is to change that a little.
Ross Valory: Back in the hay days, in the 80s, we couldn’t come over. Only in the last 4 years we could set our market here. So we think of this as just the beginning.
Press: Speaking of the success of the Revelation album. It seems the song writing seemed better. What happened?
Jonathan Cain: We just knew what we wanted to do, noone was in the way and we worked great together.
Neal Schon: We went into the studio and came up with one song per day and Arnel would go home and learn to sing the song and the next day we would record it.
Jonathan Cain: We just knew what we wanted to do, noone was in the way and we worked great together.
Neal Schon: We went into the studio and came up with one song per day and Arnel would go home and learn to sing the song and the next day we would record it.
Press: So can we expect a new studio album?
Neal Schon: Yes, we're gonna do that in the fall.
Press: What is a memorable embarrassing moment to you? What kind of person is Arnel backstage
Arnel Pineda: Am I embarrassing at all? (Laughs)
Jonathan Cain: On his first concert, he was kinda nervous.... so he turns around to me and asks “Can I go home now?”.
Press: Are you planning a new DVD anytime soon yet?
Arnel Pineda: Yes, the one we did in Manila should be out in December.
Jonathan Cain: It was filmed in HD, and it was a really beautiful concert.
Ross Valory: During March we went to Asia and focused on Japan and that area. Sort of preparing for the Manila show.
Press: Neil, you’ve done a lot of solo stuff. Now that Journey is very alive, will you have any more time for solo projects? More on: http://www.schonmusic.com/
Neal Schon: My focus is on the band right now. I was trying to squeeze in some solo stuff before but it didn’t work out. It will happen when I find the time.
Press: Deen, last time you where here, we were amazed about your voice - did you ever consider doing a solo album?
Deen Castronovo (drums, backing vocals): Never ... haha... can’t compete with this guy (points at Arnel).
Deen Castronovo (drums, backing vocals): Never ... haha... can’t compete with this guy (points at Arnel).
Press: Arnel, did you ever attend a Journey concert before you became a member of the band?
Arnel Pineda: No, I never did. I owned some DVDs but I had never seen them live. It’s like they put me in a time warp. Also, I got those DVDs from the pirate market back then (laughter), but now I own the originals.
Press: How was it when entered the band?
Arnel Pineda: It was very smooth and they told me what kind of attitude I should have.
Jonathan Cain: Also, the good thing about him is he doesn’t need a lot of space on the bus. We can just put him in a box. (Laughter)
Arnel Pineda: I moved on to carry bags, haha.
Arnel Pineda: It was very smooth and they told me what kind of attitude I should have.
Jonathan Cain: Also, the good thing about him is he doesn’t need a lot of space on the bus. We can just put him in a box. (Laughter)
Arnel Pineda: I moved on to carry bags, haha.
Press: Being with Arnel, you are in a sense reliving emotions from he past?
Neal Schon: He comes from a sort of real place and we felt there was chemistry between him and us. We didn’t have to talk about it, we just clicked. It’s back to the beginning now.
Jonathan Cain: It’s fun to watch him figure out different situations. It’s been a wonder to watch how he has grown and how he really owns the stage now. Every show got better and better as to how he was gonna be on stage.
Ross Valory: All of us and many people who have seen him perform say that he seems to been with us forever and that he really fits.
Neal Schon: He comes from a sort of real place and we felt there was chemistry between him and us. We didn’t have to talk about it, we just clicked. It’s back to the beginning now.
Jonathan Cain: It’s fun to watch him figure out different situations. It’s been a wonder to watch how he has grown and how he really owns the stage now. Every show got better and better as to how he was gonna be on stage.
Ross Valory: All of us and many people who have seen him perform say that he seems to been with us forever and that he really fits.
Press: Do any of you do any charity work? If so, what exactly do u do?
Neal Schon: We just did something for the Hope Foundation, which is a fantastic organization. http://www.wish.org/
We raised about 600 grand for the kids, so it was a good show we did for them. We also worked for the board of education, kids are a big part of what we do. I'm on the board of directors of Make A Wish in San Francisco. I'm really plugged into that.
Neal Schon: We just did something for the Hope Foundation, which is a fantastic organization. http://www.wish.org/
We raised about 600 grand for the kids, so it was a good show we did for them. We also worked for the board of education, kids are a big part of what we do. I'm on the board of directors of Make A Wish in San Francisco. I'm really plugged into that.
Press: Will you do the same set list as before, are you changing it all?
Jonathan Cain: We play a lot of things from the Revelation album, kicked out some of the old stuff. We will still play a lot of old songs. There's 15 songs on our set list, and we got a lot to choose from.
Tv broadcast from the press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0rmKghpI0
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Jonathan Cain: We play a lot of things from the Revelation album, kicked out some of the old stuff. We will still play a lot of old songs. There's 15 songs on our set list, and we got a lot to choose from.
Tv broadcast from the press conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0rmKghpI0
{jos_sb_discuss:21}
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