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Silverdocs: How Journey Found A New Lead Singer And Made Friends In Manila
Linda Holmes
Arnel Pineda became the lead singer of Journey in late 2007. Silverdocs hide caption
Arnel Pineda became the lead singer of Journey in late 2007.
One of the oddest things about the story of Arnel Pineda is that it's not actually quite as odd as it might seem.
Pineda was a bar and club singer working in Manila in 2007, doing some original material but finding an audience mostly for his covers, when he got an e-mail from Neal Schon, the guitarist from Journey. Schon had seen videos of Pineda performing on YouTube and asked him to come to San Francisco and audition to become the band's new lead singer. From Journey fan to Journey member, because of YouTube.
That's the hook of Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey , which opened Silverdocs on Monday night. Director Ramona S. Diaz followed Pineda and the band from the time shortly after he started rehearsing with them through their very successful 2008 tour and their – the word is a cliché, but it applies – triumphant show in Manila in March 2009 when they brought him back home a hero, the successful lead singer of an iconic American band.
There is a certain fairytale quality to all of it – the guy who was singing Journey covers when he suddenly got The Call – but really, it's not that weird. Schon didn't stumble on him accidentally or get an e-mail from someone that said "You've got to see this guy!!!"; he found Pineda while specifically searching YouTube for lead singers, because it's a not-unusual way to find musicians. Maybe he was even looking for lead singers doing Journey songs. Maybe even for lead singers doing Journey songs who sounded a lot like former lead singer Steve Perry – which Pineda surely does. Other than the fact that he was in the Philippines, Schon found his guy the way he set out to find him.
Pineda isn't quite as young as he sometimes seems in the film; he can seem like a kid, but he turned 41 during the 2008 tour. He's a stretch younger than guys like Schon, who's pushing 60, but he's not Justin Bieber being plucked from YouTube because he's never done anything. The story threatens at times to become a wacky internet novelty, but at its best, it's something a bit more satisfying than that. At its best, it's about a working singer – not a YouTube fluke, but a working, day-in-day-out singer who's been playing for years and years – can suddenly find himself jumped to the head of the line, playing to 22,000 people with musicians he's admired all his life. It doesn't have a lot to do with YouTube; the better story is about a band taking a huge risk on a completely unknown quantity because they need a guy and they found one they think will be a fit.
(As a side note, as tempting as the "Don't Stop Believin'" title is, I would have gone with a variation on "Journeyman." Just a suggestion, pun-wise.)
The best parts of the film focus on Pineda; he has a playful attitude toward his own sometimes overwhelming anxiety about the situation into which he's been thrust. He turns out to be a terrific fit for the band, despite his own comment that partly because he's "so Asian," he looks like they Photoshopped him in when Journey has photos taken. In fact, one of the guys in the band comments that bringing something a little more "international" to the "all-American" group is probably an advantage – a prediction that proves true when Pineda helps the band develop an impassioned following of Filipino-American fans in addition to the people back home in Manila. (The security team notes at one point that for some of Arnel's fans, he's "like Elvis.")
But at almost two hours, the film feels long. It comes to what seems like a natural ending at one point, and then it goes on for probably another 20 minutes. There are some background segments on the general history of Journey that don't seem to have been made with the love that went into the Pineda-era stuff, and a persistent subplot about Pineda getting colds and drinking tean — while care of the voice makes a nice tour detail — keeps coming back and back and back but never really goes anywhere.
Then there is also the problem of "Don't Stop Believin'" itself. I don't think it's a spoiler – I really, truly cannot imagine how it could be – to tell you that the film builds to the performance of that particular song. This tour happened after The Sopranos put "Don't Stop Believin'" in the spotlight but before Glee put it there again, and the closing titles of the film point out that it's now the most downloaded song written in the 20 th century. But at some point, waiting for it becomes a bit of a tease, and the build to the performance (and the holding out on playing much of that song after playing most of Journey's others that are well-known, sometimes more than once) turns into a game. I would have dropped the bomb a little sooner, just to avoid the sense of inevitability.
But the film is fun, and it's worth seeing, not because it's the tale of an internet sensation, but because it's the tale of a bunch of guys who really, really want to hear crowds scream – either again or for the first time ever. As much as it's about how a band lifted an unknown singer into a dreamlike world of screaming crowds and far more money than he'd ever known, it's also about how a band found just the right guy at just the right time to help capitalize on the surprise comeback of one of the band's most famous songs. Pineda says at one point that it's like hitting the lotto, what happened to him, but in truth, Schon hit the lotto, too. You can see the guys standing around him at certain moments, looking at him or watching him perform, realizing that he's incredibly grateful to them, but in fact, without him, they are out of luck .
There's an argument to be made that when you set out to find your new lead singer looking specifically for someone who can sing your existing hits and make them sound just like they did when your old lead singer sang them – rather than being primarily focused on a guy who can contribute to whatever your next identity is – you run the risk of essentially covering your own music. Under this theory, Pineda was originally recruited to be the lead singer of the most famous Journey cover band in the world – the one called Journey. But they have since released two albums of new material, and it seems to be a little more than that. It may even be a little more than Schon expected to find on YouTube.
Arnel Pineda on viral post about leaving Journey after gig backlash: 'It was a childish act'
By Brooke Villanueva Published Oct 05, 2024 3:58 pm
Arnel Pineda assured fans that his journey with Journey will continue as he explained why he struggled to reach the high notes of Don't Stop Believin' during a gig at the Rock in Rio Festival in Brazil.
In an interview with entertainment reporter Gretchen Fullido, the Journey frontman looked back on how the backlash he got for his lackluster performance affected him. "The 1,000 good things that I've done, they've completely forgotten it just because I committed a couple of mistakes or I messed up the whole song or whatever," he said.
"Representing a band—one of the most iconic bands in America—stepping in the big shoes of Mr. Steve Perry, ang hirap. The pressure is always there, there's stress and anxiety," he opened up.
According to the singer, things got "out of [his] control" that's why he wasn't able to give his best during the band's viral performance.
"Fatigue na din. It's out of my control. It's my body talking eh. Parang nagrereklamo na siya so ganun nalang ang kinaya. Maybe I have no excuse but for me, it's a big factor na talagang 'yun na ang naramdaman ko," he recalled.
Arnel also talked about his previous post where he left the public to vote on whether he should step out of the band for good and called it a "childish act."
"I'm embarrassed that I did that. I mean, I'm 57, tapos suddenly parang naging—it was a childish act. But what do you do? It's just me being human," he said, adding that he will stay with the band and make up for his lackluster performance at their upcoming gig this month in Japan.
In a Facebook post on Sept. 22, the Pinoy talent shared a link to a Sept. 21 video uploaded by Behind the Songs , a page with over 430,000 followers, which said in the caption, "Arnel Pineda showed severe vocal flaws in Journey's presentation at Rock in Rio Brazil last Sunday, September 15." In the video, he can be heard struggling to reach the high notes of Don't Stop Believin' .
"I am very aware of this," he wrote. "[N]o one more than me in this world feels so devastated about this."
He then asked the public to comment "GO" or "STAY," and if "GO" reaches one million, he's stepping out of Journey for good.
Fans expressed support in the comments, and many of them asked him to stay. He also received some love from his fellow bandmates and singers.
Journey was formed in 1973 and had a series of lineup changes.
To date, band members consist of Arnel (who joined Journey in 2007), guitarist/vocalist Neal Schon, Cain, keyboard/vocalist Jason Derlatka, drummer/vocalist Deen Castronovo, and bassist Todd Jensen. Schon is the last remaining original member.
Journey had its biggest commercial success between 1978 and 1987 when Perry was its frontman.
Its other hits include Open Arms , Any Way You Want It , and Faithfully .
TAGS: Trending Journey bashing arnel pineda
Brooke Villanueva
Deputy Editor
Brooke Villanueva is the deputy editor of PhilSTAR L!fe, covering everything lifestyle—with a focus on food and travel. Apart from her responsibilities as a lifestyle journalist, she is also taking her MBA at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. She has completed a certificate program on the fundamentals of business developed by top faculty at Harvard Business School. Follow her on Instagram at @itsbrookevillanueva.
Jukebox Journey: Classic rock band faithfully trots out the hits Thursday night at the Saddledome
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In the opening seconds of Journey’s 50th anniversary Saddledome show on Thursday, there was a brief moment when guitarist Neal Schon stood alone in the spotlight.
Jukebox Journey: Classic rock band faithfully trots out the hits Thursday night at the Saddledome Back to video
It didn’t last long. Schon played a few notes of a slow-burn intro before the rest of the band joined in and singer Arnel Pineda bounced on stage to sing set opener Only the Young. But it was a fitting tribute since Schon is the only member of Journey to have been in the band for all 50 years and one of only two, the other being keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who were there for the band’s Steve Perry-fronted heyday in the 1980s.
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Not that it really mattered. On Thursday night, the band offered a jukebox set that found them faithfully banging out hit after hit, most sung by Pineda in an eerily accurate facsimile of Perry’s blaring yowl. Now 16 years into his tenure with the classic-rock outfit, the vocalist has actually been imitating Steve Perry for longer than Steve Perry sang in Journey. All of which lent a agreeable familiarity to the proceedings. Tight musicianship, minimal between-song chit-chat and relatively straight-forward stage and lighting design made for.a pleasant, old-school stadium show. The biggest, and perhaps only, surprise of the evening was that the band snuck Don’t Stop Believin’, arguably its most famous song, so early into their set.
Before long, the crowd was gently swaying to the familiar melodies of Lights, Send Her My Love and Who’s Crying Now.
Not unlike his predecessor, Pineda is at his best when offering soaring takes on weepy Perry-era ballads such as Open Arms and Faithfully. Given that Schon and Cain were the longest-serving members, both were also given time to show off their virtuosity. That included a beautifully played piano solo by Cain, although he seemed to be having much more fun when pounding out some hell-bent boogie-woogie on the outro of Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’. Schon, a busy but melodic hard-rock player, was also given two opportunities to show off his chops, including a crowd-pleasing run through our national anthem. But he really shone on two of the more obscure numbers: a scorching, riff-heavy run through 1981’s Dead or Alive and a fiery take on the surprisingly fast-and-heavy 2022 single Let It Rain.
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That was the only song the band played from its newest album, Freedom. It may be called the Freedom tour, but it’s really the “no surprises” tour.
On that note, Journey could not have found a more appropriate opener than Toto, a band of session players who found wild radio success in the early 1980s with radio hits such as Africa and Rosanna. The familiar crisp guitar lines and angelic choir-like harmonies on openers Girl Goodbye and Hold The Line set a nostalgic tone early on. As with the headliners, Toto is down to one original member as a touring unit, guitarist Steve Lukather. But the band’s harmonies were handily handled by the backup band and a tambourine-tapping Joseph Williams, who sang with the band in the mid-1980s and rejoined in the early 2000s.
The audience did have to sit through a few middling and earnest ballads and a cruise-ship cover-band version The Beatles’ I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends before being rewarded with drawn-out, sing-a-long takes on Rosanna and Africa.
It’s interesting to ponder why Journey is still filling stadiums these days rather the circling the oldies circuit with REO Speedwagon, Styx, Loverboy, Kansas and other acts that rock critics used to sniffingly dismiss as faceless corporate rockers. Journey certainly got a boost when their songs were used on the television series Glee and after Don’t Stop Believin’ was used to soundtrack Tony Soprano’s ambiguous fate in the 2007 finale of The Sopranos.
But it may simply be due to the sheer number of hits they had over the years. Even for those of us old enough to remember the band’s dominance of rock radio, it’s easy to forget how many radio-friendly hooks Journey created. Which is all that matters for bands trading in nostalgia, including those doing it in packed stadiums. Neither Journey nor their aforementioned “faceless” brethren had outsized personalities. While Steve Perry had a somewhat distinctive voice and his disappearing act in the 1990s made him a bit of an enigma, he was no Freddie Mercury. Hell, he wasn’t even Meat Loaf. In fact, both drummer Deen Castronovo and keyboardist Jason Derlatka were able to reasonably duplicate Perry’s elastic over-emoting Thursday night when they sang lead on Mother, Father and Girl Can’t Help it, respectively. It’s the song, not the singer. Judging by the enthusiastic response and near sell-out numbers at the Saddledome, the fans will be satisfied as long as Journey keeps trotting out the hits.
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IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Taken from Journey: Live In ManilaiTunes http://smarturl.it/JourneyManilaDigitalBluRay http://smarturl.it/JourneyLiveManilaBRDVD+CD http://smarturl.it/...
Journey with Arnel Pineda performing at The Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas 2008.
First show with Arnel Pineda.
Originally sung by Steve Perry (former vocalist for the Journey, but Arnel Pineda's version can be heard by anyone as even much better than that of Steve's! ...
" Faithfully " is a song by American rock band Journey, released in 1983 as the second single from their album Frontiers. The song was written by keyboardist Jonathan Cain. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving the band their second consecutive top-twenty hit from Frontiers.
When Journey went looking for a new lead singer, they turned to the most obvious place: YouTube. What they found, a new documentary explains, was a bar singer from Manila who became the frontman...
The STAR / Geremy Pintolo. MANILA, Philippines — Singer Arnel Pineda is leaving to fans of rock band Journey the decision on whether he should depart the group as its lead vocalist following a ...
Revelation is the thirteenth studio album by American rock band Journey, and their first with lead singer Arnel Pineda. [5] It features 11 new songs ("Faith in the Heartland" was previously recorded with Steve Augeri), 11 re-recorded greatest hits (all featuring Pineda) and a DVD (North American version only) featuring the current lineup's ...
In a Facebook post on Sept. 22, the Pinoy talent shared a link to a Sept. 21 video uploaded by Behind the Songs, a page with over 430,000 followers, which said in the caption, "Arnel Pineda showed severe vocal flaws in Journey's presentation at Rock in Rio Brazil last Sunday, September 15."
On Thursday night, the band offered a jukebox set that found them faithfully banging out hit after hit, most sung by Pineda in an eerily accurate facsimile of Perry’s blaring yowl.