Okay, this is just awesome: Journey has been without iconic lead singer Steve Perry since 1998. After a string of lead singers, guitarist Neal Schion found Filipino vocalist Arnel Pineda, front man of cover band “The Zoos.” But how exactly did Journey find Arnel Pineda? YouTube!
From MP3 blog stereogum:
The Zoo is Arnel’s band, who’ve been rocking Journey covers and originals for years and, of course, posting ‘em to YouTube. Neal called Arnel, Arnel called bullshit followed by promptly losing his shit when Schion confirmed it all via email: Arnel had received a formal invitation to be the new lead singer of Journey. Pineda’s wise to the ways of überfans — gotta figure he’s one himself — and he’s “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.” That said, he does seem to stick to Perry’s stylings pretty, yep, faithfully.
I was going to make a joke about if you’re a musician to “don’t stop believing,” but the blog at stereogum beat me to the punch.
(Hat tip: Jesse)
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Jesse! wrote:
un-fucking-canny!
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 12:48 pm | Permalink
karen wrote:
wow. he’s a bona fide powerhouse!
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 1:28 pm | Permalink
akrypti wrote:
Can we say hubba hubba?? Woo!
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 2:10 pm | Permalink
Glenda wrote:
See Ernie, I told you that it’s in the blood.
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 2:50 pm | Permalink
Efren wrote:
Wow, great voice. It will be interesting to see how he pulls it off, and what people will think.
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 7:04 pm | Permalink
:: jozjozjoz :: wrote:
My favorite (meaning NOT favorite) comment from that page you linked on at blabbermouth.net:
COMMENT | this guy is really good
posted by : destination chaos
12/5/2007 6:55:50 PM
but i bet he doesnt know what any of the words that he is singing means haha. hes really good though
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 7:27 pm | Permalink
akrypti wrote:
No, seriously. I think I’m in love. *swoons*
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 8:34 pm | Permalink
Cisco wrote:
He has an amazing voice and this story is straight out of a fairy tale. This story has had me beaming with pride to be Pinoy.
But…
the chips may be stacked against him, regardless of how remarkable his voice is, and it is remarkable.
1) Judging from many of the comments on roadrunnerrecords.com, his accent will hurt him. When I listen to a song, hearing any kind of non-English accent in an English language song is distracting. I’d imagine it’s even more of an issue for white Americans. Can he take diction lessons to fix this?
2) He’s not (Caucasian) American, which will be magnified by (1)
3) Mainstream America doesn’t listen to Journey-type music anymore, and I doubt they would sell any new albums even if they had the original Steve Perry as the frontman.
Reality checks aside, the guy has talent, and I’ll be cheering for him.
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 8:43 pm | Permalink
Joe wrote:
Check this out, Filipinos are taking over!!
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 9:04 pm | Permalink
ed wrote:
If you think Arnel doesn’t know the words he is singing then it shows that you are an ignorant and uneducated person. He went to college and the medium of teaching in the Philippines is English from Kinder to College. (Sorry about the typos on my earlier message–fat fingers) This shows how racist comments are being thrown at Asians– maybe if he is white European with accent it’s okay for you. This shows that you don’t have diversity as I can see how you stereotype other people.
Posted on 06-Dec-07 at 11:18 pm | Permalink
Jesse! wrote:
Heh, listen to the Scorpion’s first album. They did it all phonetically, didn’t speak a lick of English, and you can hear it.
But I don’t hear it with this guy, sounds a lot like Steve Perry to me… as for the discrimination? Sure, but I think it’ll be more to the fact that he’s not Perry, esp. since Journey fans have been griping about that all along… and yeah, who listens to Journey anymore besides awesome people like me?
Posted on 10-Dec-07 at 11:53 am | Permalink
Cisco wrote:
holy crap i did not know that “still loving you” (scorpions) was not sung by native english speakers until just now looking it up. thanks!
but yeah i hope he does well, too!
Posted on 12-Dec-07 at 12:07 am | Permalink
ed wrote:
I have a lot of Scorpions vinyl records I bought in the early 80’s and I already knew then that they were from Germany, and so with Nektar, Osibisa Woyaya (African), and the Rammstein (lately). They are all have strong accent and nobody complained. Rammstein even sings in German (’seen XXX with Vin Diesel?–or listen to Lichtspielhaus album) yet nobody complained. Now that a Filipino is singing for Journey, they started to whine. Jimi Hendrix has to go to England because they said blacks cannot play guitar-heavy rock ‘n’ roll. You want very strong accent? Listen to Bob Marley. You want singers with strong accent? Americans. A true English dialect was started by the Brits. It was just by the diversity of the new immigrants that it has become Americanized. It was started in the U.S. by the “FIRST BOAT PEOPLE” from England on the boat called Mayflower in 1620 that settled in Massachussettes. We just butchered the original and called it English-the American style. If you want pure English without an accent, then speak like the British. So, Asians, be proud. If somebody calls you FOB or boat people, you are not (not unless you are). Thell them you came first class–the airplane!
Posted on 12-Dec-07 at 3:16 pm | Permalink