JOURNEY WELCOMES ARNEL PINEDA WITH “OPEN ARMS” TO THEIR FAMILY AS THE BAND’S NEW LEAD SINGER
December 5, 2007
After much speculation, the wait is finally over.
JOURNEY–Neal Schon (guitar), Jonathan Cain
(keyboards), Ross Valory (bass), Deen Castronovo (drums)–is proud to
introduce fans all over the world to their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda
(”pin-eh-da”). He replaces Jeff Scott Soto, who parted ways with the
band earlier this year after stepping in for Steve Augeri, who had to
leave the band in 2006 for medical reasons.
Arnel hails from Quezon City in the Philippines and has been singing
Journey songs–in addition to original material–with his band, The Zoo,
for the past couple of years in clubs all over his homeland. Joining
the legendary band is a dream come true for him.
“It’s so exciting to sing with one of the best bands in the world.
It’ll be a lot of hard work on my part and I’m actually looking forward
to the scrutiny I’ll get from the hardcore JOURNEY fans. I know they’ll
expect me to sound exactly like ‘the voice’ (Steve Perry), but that
will never happen. I know there’s only one Steve Perry in this world.”
When it was time for JOURNEY to look for a new lead singer, the
internet came to their rescue. Guitarist Neal Schon wanted someone new
to the music business, so he turned to YouTube. After finding Arnel
singing “Faithfully,” he knew he had found the perfect frontman.
“I was frustrated about not having a singer,” explains guitarist
Neal Schon, “so I went on YouTube for a couple of days and just sat on
it for hours. I was starting to think I was never going to find
anybody. But then I found The Zoo and I watched a bunch of different
video clips that they had posted. After watching the videos over and
over again, I had to walk away from the computer and let what I heard
sink in because it sounded too good to be true. I thought, ‘he can’t be
that good.’ But he is that good, he’s the real deal and so tremendously
talented. Arnel doesn’t sound synthetic and he’s not emulating anyone.
I tried to get a hold of him through YouTube and I finally heard from
him that night, but it took some convincing to get him to believe that
it really was me and not an imposter.”
Arnel Pineda picks up the story: “My friend Noel picked up the
message on YouTube and told me it was from Neal. I thought it was a
hoax so I ignored it. Noel said, ‘what if it really was Neal and he
wanted to offer you the chance of a lifetime?’ So I e-mailed Neal back
and the rest is history.”
“Arnel brings a soulful and passionate voice to JOURNEY,” continues
keyboardist Jonathan Cain. “His personality is very well-suited to our
music. He’s a sincere, authentic person with a great smile and a big
heart. I think fans are really going to love him. With Arnel’s soaring
tenor, Journey returns to our heritage sound.”
Schon agrees, “We feel reborn. I think there’s a lot of chemistry
between the five of us. At first we were going to go into the studio
and just write 4 songs, but now it’s escalated to a lot of great new
and diverse material. The stuff sounds tremendous. Everyone’s so stoked
about it. We feel very fortunate to have found Arnel.”
JOURNEY is currently working on a new album with legendary producer
Kevin Shirley, which they hope to release by spring/summer 2008.
Details will be announced early next year.
www.journeymusic.com
—————————————————————–
Now it’s official…..seems Andrew at Melodicrock.com was right again,
as usual. If it were up to me, I would have kept Jeff Scott Soto…..only
time will tell if this works out with Pineda.
— Steve
