JOURNEY has released its new single, “The Way We Used To Be”. You can now listen to the song below. An accompanying animated music video will be made available later today (Thursday, June 24).
“The Way We Used To Be” is the first song to be made available featuring JOURNEY‘s current lineup consisting of guitarist Neal Schon, singer Arnel Pineda and keyboardist Jonathan Cain alongside JOURNEY‘s latest additions, drummer/producer Narada Michael Walden, returning bassist Randy Jackson and keyboardist and singer Jason Derlatka.
This past January, Schon told Rolling Stone that he and his JOURNEY bandmates were “deep in” the writing and recording process for their next studio album. “It’s coming along, man,” the guitarist said. “It’s really shaping up. Narada and I have been working nonstop. Jonathan is also working from his houses in Florida and Nashville. Arnel is working from Manila. Randy Jackson is working mostly from L.A. And it’s one of those Zoom sessions and it sounds phenomenal. It sounds like we’re all playing in the room at the same time. I actually can’t wait until we do get together and start putting the show together.”
Asked how the new JOURNEY members have changed the band’s sound, Neal said: “You have to hear it for yourself. It still sounds very much like JOURNEY thanks to the songwriting, my guitar playing, and the vocals. But the rhythm section is definitely a powerhouse. Narada has been known for years, and Randy Jackson is a completely monstrous bass player. Some people may not be aware of his work, but they have credentials that go way, way back. Randy and I have always been pretty in tune, and Narada and I are in tune. And now it’s coming together. It’s got a new strut to it.
“There’s nothing we really can’t play,” he added. “I’ve got a track I laid down with Narada the other day. I sent it to Arnel and he was freaking out. He said, ‘This sounds like brand-new [Jimi] Hendrix or Prince. Please write more of that.’ And I was just messing around. It was just a jam we did and it turned out to be monstrous. We’re creating. We aren’t afraid to go to new places. It’s easy to stay safe and write where we have always been. We have a bit of that so we don’t lose everyone, but at the same token, this is a new chapter of JOURNEY. I want to go where we have not gone before.”
The new JOURNEY lineup performed a socially distanced version of “Don’t Stop Believin'” for UNICEF USA‘s virtual event “UNICEF We Won’t Stop”, which aired in May 2020 on MSNBC. That same month, JOURNEY was supposed to launch a North American tour with THE PRETENDERS, but canceled the trek amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last fall, Schon told “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about JOURNEY‘s split with Valory and Smith: “The way things went down was really not that kosher. I mean, what should have happened, rather than them trying to take over at that point, was to call us up and say, ‘Hey, let’s sit down and talk about this.’ Instead, it went a different way. And both myself and Jonathan didn’t appreciate it.”
Over the last four decades, JOURNEY has reigned as one of America’s most successful rock bands, producing ten platinum albums, eighteen Top 40 singles, and selling more than 75 million albums worldwide. JOURNEY formed in 1973, the same year it created Nightmare Productions Inc.
JOURNEY‘s most recent LP, “Eclipse”, was released in May 2011. The Walmart exclusive debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart at No. 13 — eight spots lower than the band’s previous album, 2008’s “Revelation” — which also went on to hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Independent Albums chart.
