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Still
Survivin’!
Still Thrivin’! by David Lee Wilson
Take Journey’s most recent studio offering, “Red 13,” for instance.
Conceived as a simple EP to fill the space between full album
projects, “Red
13” is a Pandora’s box of riffs and rhythms meshed and
mashed with deeply thoughtful lyrical passages delivered so emotionally
impactful that it easily rates as some of the best work to be branded
with the Journey trademark. Within “Red
13”’s twenty-five minutes exist all the sonic
credentialization required of a group continuing to ascend along an
already incomparable artistic arc.
If you have witnessed the band performing live in recent years
then you already know that the live show maintains that same high
standard. Journey is every
bit as vital today as it has ever been and shows no signs of ever
reversing course. Journey will perform
locally the Tweeter Center on July 18 for the first night of “LOOP
Fest.” They
will be part of a rock solid classic rock package that teams them up
with Sammy Hagar and .38 Special.
Journey-man Jonathan
Cain found time to phone Midwest BEAT scribe, David
Lee Wilson and share his thoughts on the latest record and on the
group’s place in both the history and future of rock ‘n’
roll. MIDWEST BEAT:
The last Journey recording was an EP that the band recorded and
released itself... JONATHAN CAIN: Yeah,
that’s been out for a while. We
just thought that rather than making a big ol’ formal record we would
put this together. We had
these songs and we thought that they all kind of fit together in a cool
way. That actually came out
as a sort of pre-qual to the tour that we did with Peter Frampton and we
thought the fans would like to hear something new.
We had done “Arrival”
and basically had done everything that the record company had really
wanted us to do. We did it
without worrying whether it was going to be commercial or not. MB: Beside
having done it all by yourselves it sounds like you, personally, were
having a really good time with it, I mean, that intro piece is all you
and I haven’t heard you do anything quite like it for a long while? JC: I
think that as a unit it was just good for us to come to some common
ground and we all had a great time.
We got to jammin’ and I think that Neil was especially hot.
I played more of an engineer/listener role and there is a lot of
Neil on there obviously. I did feel strongly
about one song and that was “Walking
away from the Edge.” That
was kind of a cool song for me to write and I think that it said a lot
about substance abuse and things like that.
Not that we wanted to be writing these big, political songs but
that one... it was like... I had friends that have had some hard battles
with it (drugs) and it was kind of neat to hear that finally get
finished. It was just a
demo that I had hoped would end up on the “Arrival”
album but didn’t. I
thought that it was a cool song and I just loved the vibe of it so it
was kind of nice to see it finally come out. MB: So though it was a heavy topic it was still a fun piece to do? JC: The
band had fun, I had fun, there was no pressure at all.
It was easy and fun. MB:
You used the word, “fun” a lot and I think that it is really
obvious that you guys are having fun in the band now. I am going to
guess that wasn’t always the case in the past?
“The Raised on Radio” tour for instance, you all seemed very
stiff on that tour. JC: It
was exactly that, I mean, I really missed the other two guys and it was
just one of those things where you make some mistakes along the way and
that was a huge mistake, to go out there without those two guys.
It’s great to be able to look back and say, ‘Yeah, we were
wrong about that.’ It was
kind of out of my control then, but I think that we’re in total
control of our destiny now, in a big way.
We are real fortunate to be able to still make music and it is
our core fans who support us. It
is like we get another life or something
so it is very good now. MB:
You are married and have kids and have success, is it a
completely different place that you need to draw inspiration from for a
song now, opposed to when you first started out? JC: It
is just the art of communication really. Take the song, “Walking
away from the Edge,” I felt very strongly about those ideas and
the idea of choice and being able to stand up to demons and temptation
and just the frailty of human nature.
It is stuff like that where you really feel that you have
something to say and whenever I feel that I have something to say, that
is when I start writing. You recharge your battery and you wait but then when it is
ready to come out. It’s
almost like grapes on a vine, when it is ready to come, it comes and
that is where I am at. MB:
Journey is doing a lot of dates with REO Speedwagon and Styx this
summer. Styx is signed to
Sanctuary. Might Journey
find a home there one day soon? JC:
We are certainly interested to see what happens [with Styx].
You want to sit back and see the results. That’s what we’re doing.
It is nice to have a
record company that believes in you. That is more important than
anything really. I think
that all successful bands realize that.
Creed was a good example of that, I mean, look at the tremendous
job that [Wind Up Records] did for that band.
That is quite an accomplishment for an independent label. MB:
The music business and record industry has changed a lot and
artists must change as well to keep up... JC: Every
time you turn around there is a new way to get it [music] like this new
Apple thing. You just
wonder where it is all going. It
certainly has changed a lot, the strategy and stuff.
You have to look at it all and say, ‘What
can we do to be a little different?’
You have to reinvent
yourself constantly but then to what degree?
At the end of the day this is what you are. That is the hardest
part, where to draw the line. The
band Journey has always sounded like Journey because of the people
involved and yet we have managed to continue evolving.
We are less of a pop band now than we were and I think that we
have finally realized that we are a good rock ‘n’ roll band and we
enjoy that. MB: So what’s next?
What ideas are you brewing up? JC: My
latest idea is that I think that I am going to do a disco version of “Open
Arms.” MB: (Laughing)
Seriously? JC: In
Spanish! It is going to be
like a Salsa thing, I think that it is going to be great.
I woke up one morning and thought to myself, ‘This could be a hit!’
Mariah Carey recorded a version of it in Spanish and it was this
beautiful translation and so I have this new keyboard and it sounds like
a Disco box and I am going to stick it up and see if I can’t get
someone to demo it for me. Don’t
be surprised if you hear it on dance radio. MB:
I will dust off my disco ball immediately! (laughs) JC: We
heard “Separate Ways” and “Who’s
Crying Now” already! That
is the other thing, you are constantly trying to keep your catalog
rolling and hustle the songs that you have, but you have to make sure
that they are being represented in all of the right places. MB: Music is a
different kind of art form where people other than the original artist
can come along and change the artwork.
I mean, you wouldn’t think of anyone making a living by
painting over another artists canvas in some way, how do you feel about
the versions of your songs that have been done by other artists? JC:
It is great.
It is flattering. ‘Open Arms’ has been recorded now by both Colin Ray and Mariah
Carey. ‘Faithfully’ has been recorded by a couple different country
artists and Faith Hill sang it when she first came out and then it ends
up on ‘American
Idol’ as well and sold 100,000 the first week! Cha-Ching! (laughs) Here I am beating my head against the wall and then suddenly
I’m getting royalty checks... so thank you very much! Yeah, you know, half the battle is just showing up.
Would ‘Open Arms’ be a hit today?
I don’t know. Some of these songs that were hits back in the
day you have to wonder if they would have even seen the light of day
today. I certainly think
that there were some great songs on Arrival that never even got looked
at, why? What’s up with that? MB: No turntable guy in
Journey! (laughs) JC: Yeah!
Still, I am grateful and feel fortunate that I have had the
career that I have had and I look forward to seeing the next phase.
You have to make the next phase happen and be open enough when
the time is right. But for
now we are happy to be out here representing our catalog with two other
fine bands. I miss my family, sure, but hey this is what we do.
The fans are cool and loyal and we thank them for that. MB:
It has always seemed that you guys genuinely do care about the
people who are listening to and buying your music, the placards that you
put up in front of shows announcing who is playing in the band for
instance, a lot of bands don’t do that kind of thing. JC: When you
are coming out here and doing business you are selling a product and you
are representing a product and it would be like selling a cereal and not
putting what is supposed to be in it in the box.
You have to be
forthcoming in letting people know that Steve Augeri is the singer for
Journey and I don’t feel any sort of thing like, it is a bummer that
we have to do that. I
don’t know what the word would be but I certainly don’t want people
to feel fooled. Here is the flip side
to what you just said, do you want people walking out and demanding
their money back? No, but
they will if you are not forthcoming with what the trip is.
I have been to see some really old bands like The Platters and
The Coasters and yeah, the originals are not there but do I like it any
less? I mean, the original
guys are all dead! (laughs) Do
I still like the music? Absolutely!
Are the Temptations
still the bomb when they perform? Sure
they are! And do you know why? Because
they have a standard of excellence that was maintained on their records
and if you went to see the Temptations in Las Vegas, I will guarantee
that they will still kick your butt.
That is their legacy. Will there be a
Journey when we are all dead? I
don’t know, but I can only hope that our songs are still around.
They have lasted this long, so we will see, but it is a testimony
to the energy of the whole thing and it is up to us, I guess, to steer
the band in the right direction. Back when I joined the
band there was a high musical standard set by these guys and I had
always thought that Journey had a lot of soul for a rock band.
People will ask me, ‘Why do you think that Journey is still around?’ and my answer
is that we are a soul band. We
are more than a rock band, we are more than a pop band.
Soul, to me, is making music that seems effortless, a sort of
pure soul that you can hear in our records.
When Neil plays the
guitar it is effortless and when Steve delivers a lyric it is just
there, he sings from his heart and to me that is ‘soul.’
I think that Journey always had that.
We had it on the records and I continue to preach it out here
with these new guys. We are
a soul band. When we all walk out onto the stage I want Deen Castronovo and Steve Augeri to walk the talk and to represent an R&B spirit and I think that is how we walk.
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Journey
has been to the mountaintop, leapt over it, and come out standing more
times than most of their contemporaries combined.