It’s official: Arnel Pineda, formerly with the band Zoo, is the new lead singer of the ’80s group Journey, replacing Jeff Scott Soto who parted ways with the band early last year after stepping in for Steve Augeri who had to quit the band in 2007 for health reasons. Arnel has been warmly welcomed by Journey members Neal Schon (guitar), Jonathan Cain (keyboards), Ross Valory (bass) and Deen Castronovo (drums) during his extended stay in L.A. late last year.
“I still can’t believe it,” Arnel, 40, told Funfare in an exclusive interview at the office of Sundance Entertainment (with which he’s under contract) office last Tuesday, several days after he and his manager (and Sundance head) Bert de Leon, came home from the US — yes, with the bacon! “It feels like a beautiful dream. I don’t want to wake up! I know I’m it but the reality hasn’t sunk yet.”
Arnel’s incredible “journey” is not new to Funfare readers who have been following his story chronicled in details in this corner in exclusive feeds by correspondents abroad and Journey fans. Arnel’s official appointment as Journey’s new lead singer will be announced tonight at Hard Rock Café where Arnel will do the same Journey songs that helped him bag the plum.
“He’s got the legacy sound and then some,” Jonathan Cain was quoted as saying. “He’s blessed with tons of emotion and soul, stuff you can’t teach. He’s a find.”
“I was frustrated about not having a singer,” said Neal Schon in an interview for Marin Independent Journal by Paul Liberatore, a clipping of which was furnished Funfare by Bert de Leon. “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. And then I stumbled on a video of Pineda singing the Journey hit Faithfully with a Filipino cover band called Zoo. After watching the videos over and over again, I had to walk away from the computer and let what I’d heard sink in because it sounded too good to be true. I thought, ‘He can’t be that good’.”
Yes, like Charice Pempengco who was discovered by a staffer of Ellen DeGeneres’ self-titled US TV show, Arnel confirmed Funfare’s earlier reports that he got to Journey’s attention via the YouTube in which Arnel’s friend Noel Gomez uploaded clips of Arnel taken during the Zoo’s Hard Rock Café gigs.
“Sixty-four songs all in all,” counted Arnel, “three of them by Journey — Don’t Stop Believing, Open Arms and Faithfully.”
Quote-unquote from the Liberatore interview:
Those authentic Journey power ballads, sung by Perry in his operatic tenor, have been known to shred vocal cords, and it takes an extraordinary talent to be able to sing them. Finding a lead singer for this band is not something you look for on craigslist.
All of this would hardly matter if Journey were a mere ’80s nostalgia act. But the once-mighty stadium rockers have suddenly become au courant, thanks to some mobsters from New Jersey.
When The Sopranos’ final episode made pop culture history in June, ending with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, the band found itself back in the national consciousness, positioned for a comeback.
Needless to say, this was not a good time to be without a lead singer.
And then came Arnel Pineda, a.k.a. The Steve Perry of the Philippines, who is also being dubbed “The New Thrilla From Manila” (in reference to the bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila in 1975), but friends jokingly call him “The Gorilla From Manila.”
“Neal Schon first contacted me in July last year and I couldn’t believe it; I thought it was a hoax,” said Arnel, the small (standing only a few centimeters over five feet) man with a powerful voice. “Why would Neal Schon contact me? It turned out that he saw me on the YouTube and then he got in touch with Noel Gomez via e-mail. Then I got an invitation letter from Neal Schon, asking me to fly to the US for some kind of an audition. I promptly applied for a US tourist visa. I left on Aug. 12 and stayed in L.A. for one week.”
During that week-long stay, Arnel said that he jammed with the Journey guys for three days and tested his recording voice — “That was the defining moment,” said Arnel. “The recording-voice test.”
Even then, Arnel was told that he was “it” but he and Bert de Leon decided to keep it a secret, until December last year when he and Arnel completed the “recording-voice” test that capped their more than two months second trip to L.A.
“Noon din,” smiled Bert, “alam na namin that Arnel was 99 percent in na. They were just trying to find out how fast Arnel could learn to sing the songs. You know, Arnel learns how to sing songs fast. Mabilis siyang matuto.”
“The Journey guys were so warm and friendly,” recalled Arnel. “I’m learning a lot from them.”
“Arnel was asked to sing new songs by Journey, to be included in the new album to be released this year,” said Bert.
Journey’s decision to get Arnel as member is not unusual.
Wrote Liberatore:
Journey has a history of rags-to-riches frontmen. Perry was plucked from a construction job in a Central Valley farm town, for example, and Augeri was working in a Gap store when he got the call. Now we have Pineda’s Internet-age Cinderella story.
“I’ve always been a Journey fan,” said Arnel, married with three children, “since I was 12. I was in first year high school then at the Quiapo Parochial School. I was very much in love with the group’s Escape album. The first Journey song that I started singing was Open Arms. I was blown away by Steve Perry’s voice — you know, his amazing ability to change from a lambing voice to rock.”
But he started singing at age five.
“My father would make me stand on the table and make me sing. He would give me a P1 reward after every song. I would sing songs by Michael Jackson (Ben, Happy, etc.). I also liked songs by Led Zeppelin.”
Ahead of Arnel is a long, long “journey” that includes (besides the album recording) a global tour (South America, Europe and possibly Asia).
Still and all, Arnel can’t believe that all this is really happening
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, really,” insisted Arnel. “You have to fall asleep to dream, di ba? Now, I’m awake and I’m dreaming!”
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph or at entphilstar@yahoo.com)