Arnel Pineda: Journey’s New Vocalist

Who the hell is Arnel Pineda???

This would be the most common question most of us would hear today as news broke out that legendary American rock band Journey found its new vocalist in the Philippines.

This news totally blew me off my feet!

Filipinos should really be grateful of Youtube, with all the recent discoveries of Filipino talents through that site… Arnel Pineda (who was vocalist of the defunct Amo aka Ang Tunay Na Amo back in the late 80’s, and lately by a coverband called Zoo) would somewhat be a “has been” or even a “neverheard” in today’s society, who ever thought that he would be known through YouTube and be discovered by no other than Journey axeman Neil Schon himself.

This is truly like watching the movie ‘Rockstar’ (Mark Whalberg) wherein he started out singing covers of a rock band and later eventually ending up as the bands vocalist! Arnel Pineda is a real rocker’s fairy tale come true.

With this news, together with Charice Pimpengco blowing everyone away in Ellen and in Korea… I am so proud to be Pinoy!

Can’t wait for Journey’s new album with Arnel Pineda on the helm which is set to be released on 2008.

Here is Journey’s official announcement:

From their band website – http://www.journeymusic.com/index2.html

Dec 05, 2007

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.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Journey’s Filipino Frontman Welcomed with Open Arms
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~ by pointnshoot on December 31, 2007.