Neal Schon Interview By Steve Rosen

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Neal Schon Interview By Steve Rosen

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(Written Transcript below is not word for word of phone interview)...

My Interview With Neal Schon

Posted by Steve Rosen on August 3, 2012


http://community.rock.com/profiles/blog ... neal-schon

Journey’s new CD contains something old, something new, and something live. Revelation contains a CD of reworked Journey classics like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Lights.” There is a second CD full of completely new songs sporting Steve Perry replacement Arnel Pineda. The songs rock in that unique Journey fashion with soaring vocal melodies and layered choruses. And a third disc is a live DVD featuring the new lineup running through some old chestnuts and a couple of brand new tracks.



Guitarist Neal Schon formed Journey back in 1973 and for over three decades the former Santana member has guided the group through ever-changing musical styles and the gauntlet or record companies and computer downloads. When vocalist Steve Perry originally left the band back in 1987, many were quick to write the bad off. But Schon wasn’t about to give up. He went through several different singers, pursued solo projects, did music for film, and ultimately regrouped with Pineda.



It is August 29, 2008 and Neal has a lot to talk about. He doesn’t turn his back on any subject and is quick to point fingers at those who caused the problems. Oftentimes, he ends up pointing right at himself. Here, he speaks at length about the new CD, going through changes, and coming out the other side a better and more focused player.



When you were writing new material for the album, how did you know when a song was Journey-worthy? In other words, what elements go into making a Journey song?

Yeah, you know I write a lot of stuff and honest to God, when I listen to what I write, I mean I don’t go in writing, thinking, “This is gonna be for Journey or this is gonna be for a solo project.” I just kind of chase my ideas when I’m in a writing mode and I don’t worry about where it’s gonna end up. I just kinda chase it; I don’t like to think about it too much. I kind of like just to let it flow whatever it is. And it’s gonna come out and you know, if it doesn’t fit somewhere, it’ll fit somewhere else later. So, that’s kinda how I go at it. And I write kinda all over the map. Somedays, you know, I’ll turn on a new Korg synthesizer and just get some slammin’ trance dance shit going. And slam some guitar on it and come back and listen to it a month later. I go, “Wow, that’s pretty cool.” And just kind of like go with the flow everyday, what I feel like.



And then a lot of times, write for what we need at the moment. Which was kind of the case with “Change For the Better” (which) came at the last moment. Because after I had listened to all the material we had compiled, I felt like we were missing a track that had a little more of an Escape-type vibe. I brought most of that music in (for the Escape album); actually all of the music. And so I wanted to have a piece that wasn’t so … it’s got your hooks in it but it’s not so straight ahead generic like a lot of stuff is today.



I listen to stuff today and it’s really wild what catches out there. It’s almost, the more simple that it is and the more generic it’s like … the verse is the chorus. And there is no bridge or solo. It’s like the chords are the same; the groove changes up a little bit, the sounds change up a little bit, and the melody changes. The biggest deal is it’s the same three, four, five chords over and over with the same chords and the melody changes from section to section. And that’s sorta been what I’ve been hearing a lot and I’m like, “Man, I understand why it’s catchy and it’s hooky but I don’t think it sounds like us.” We just stuck to our guns and I think it was the smart thing to do.



You weren’t trying to create a more modern-sounding record with just some basic changes in a song and then changing up melodies? Because that really isn’t what Journey does.

No, I mean I think it would be like the kiss of death of any band that has been around as long as we have and sold as many records as we have and continue to sell? I mean people are used to hearing the band for what it is and not trying to be hip and modern and keeping up with everybody that’s young that’s out there and doing something just to be hip. Obviously, there’s a lot of young people buying our records so I think it’s hip to be us. Even if other people don’t, I don’t really care. I’m just doing what comes naturally for us and what people like.



Getting back to that track, “Change For the Better,” you had a sense that the record was missing something?

It was simple; I was using like a little Roland loop machine (presumably the RC-50) at home to write. Because it’s very fast and easy for me; I don’t have to worry about putting on a rhythm machine or if I want, there’s one in there. I just kinda like freelanced one day and put down “Sunshower” and it was a stumble – like life. And I wasn’t really thinking about life, it just sort of fell out of nowhere. And I didn’t’ really have any of the pieces together and I just started jamming. And I put it in the looper and at the end I listened to it and I go, “Wow, it’s pretty cool and there’s actually an arrangement there that is not so generic.” It’s got form but it wasn’t exactly the same like every B section wasn’t exactly the same. Things come out that easy. It’s not like brain surgery.



“Revelation,” the last song on the album, feeds the guitar instrumentalist in you?

Yeah; I had the chords for that song I was working on at home and we really didn’t need any more ballads on the record at that point. I thought the chords were interesting and I was thinking more on the lines of a vocal. Kevin came to me and said, “I think it would be really cool if you put an instrumental on the record.” I laid down the chords at home on a little Tascam digital recorder and I put the melody on with a guitar instead of a voice. I brought it in and he goes, “Oh, that’s really cool; let’s cut that.”



What about a song like “Wildest Dream?” That’s actually included on the DVD in the new CD set. By default, does that say that you think this is one of the better songs on Revelation?

I wanted an uptempo rocker even though I feel like people have not latched onto that yet because I think vocally and where the song is coming from, it is not your obvious Journey song. Like “Dead Or Alive” wasn’t on Escape. You know what I mean? It’s one of those things that’s just kinda out there and we’re noodling around trying some different things. It’s got some cool adrenalin though; I love the Eastern vibe of it, the whole tone/half-tone thing in the B sections. And actually, I came up with that song and it came from playing the bass. I wrote it on the bass.



The solo on “Wildest Dream” is pretty great. Are you, how can we say it, a more experienced guitar player today than you were back in the day?

Honest to God, I’ve got to be honest with you, I think I’m not as selective as what goes on tape anymore. I think I’m playing better now than I have in the past. A lot of people will probably argue with me, though. But it’s not my actual playing; if they preferred something that I did earlier, it was actually the songs and what I played in the songs.

And I’ve been sober now for over a year which really brought a lot of other stuff up front for me. The consistency of my playing is much more there every night.



That’s really honest of you, Neal.

I’ve got to tell you, it’s very difficult to do a lot of stuff that you come up with, that’s easy to come up with, when you’re intoxicated. The playing, the writing, everything because you have to learn to turn your mind off. You want to leave the brain on but you got to turn the mind off. You start thinkin’, you’re stinkin’. Obviously when you’re not juiced or you’re not drinking, you’re thinking more. And so it’s a constant effort for me just to try to don’t think, just go. I’ve got to tell you, it’s not as easy going on stage every night when you’re not drinking or slamming down a beer or a shot. I did that for years; so did Ed (Van Halen), so did everybody I know. There was a comfort level there just to ease the nerves, forget about thinking for a second, and just go and do your thing. It was either die or live and I felt like I don’t want to be ten-toes up in the dirt yet.



Was that part of the problem between you and Steve Perry?

All that contributes to problems, yeah. We all had our problems like any band or any human being. People go through changes and definitely being in a band, even if you’re sober, is not easy. It’s like you’re married to five guys or however many people you have in a band and you’re with them all the time. You’ve got to learn how to bend, you’ve got to be democratic.



Steve was very strong-minded; I was very strong-minded. Everybody had their own thing that they wanted to do. And then you’ve got to throw everything into the melting pot and make some soup in the end. But drinking and drugs definitely it gets in the way; it makes things more difficult in the end. You might numb yourself which is something I did for years for a lot of things that I had that were bothering me in my life. I just put it out of my head, “Ah, just have a drink.” It would seem like it went away and I’d laugh my ass off and I’d have a good time and I’d party. But in the end, it all comes back and if you don’t deal with it straight on, it kind of never goes away.



Neal, in a perfect world, if you could have brought Steve Perry back for this album, is that what you would have done?

There’s always been an open door for him all these years. It wasn’t like we kicked him out. He didn’t choose to come with us; he didn’t want to work. Even when he was having issues with his hips and physical issues and he wasn’t ready to do operations and thought it wasn’t a band decision, we waited a really long time for him to make a decision. And while we were waiting during that duration, we said, “OK, if you can’t tour, we have offers to do songs for movies (Armageddon and others).” We had another offer to do another record for Sony. (But it was) “No, no, no, I don’t want to do this.” He just didn’t want to do anything. And he was not interested in working with us.



Is that back when Journey sort of took some time off?

Journey went on a hiatus for ten years when we called it a day after Raised on Radio. We were in Hawaii and that’s when Steve came to us and said, “I can’t finish this tour; I’m toast, I can’t sing, I really feel like I need a break and I need to just stop it all.” So we bailed on it mid-tour; we were done with half of our shows that we were supposed to do. I thought, “OK, we’ll just take a break and see what happens.” Well, the break ended up being one year, two years, three years. Three years go by and no word at all and so I just started getting busy, man. I was gonna put my own band together which I should have done way back then (laughs). I met Deen Castronovo; he was playing with Tony MacAlpine at the time. I heard this drummer blazing through the walls; I was rehearsing with somebody else, working on some little project. I went in and met him and got his number and said, “I’m gonna start a band with this drummer.” Because for me it’s always the fireworks of the drums and the guitar in the beginning. You need that.



You actually also went through some turmoil with drummer Steve Smith and bassist Ross Valory at one point as well.

Yeah, Perry wanted to let Smith and Ross go on Raised On Radio. We went through months of auditioning drummers and bass players. Everyone from Omar Hakim to Chad Wackerman to Vinnie Colaiuta and they were all amazing. I liked the three that I just told you were my faves and probably Chad fit with us better than anybody because he sounded a bit like Smith but he was a little looser like a Prairie Prince kind of thing. And we had Randy Jackson on bass and him and Omar, I thought, sounded like the bomb.

But Steve wanted Michael Baird and Baird is like a woodchopper. He’s a session cat but I was going, “After going from Aynsley (Dunbar) and Steve Smith, where is the fire for me to deal with?” I’m used to drummers kick my ass; not play a rhythm machine.



Deen Castronovo is an amazing player. His performance on the DVD on the Revelation CD is incredible. And he really sings like that?

Absolutely, yeah; Deen has been with me forever now. He’s a very energetic drummer and he’s multi-talented and he sings amazing. To do Smith’s drum parts on “Mother Father” let alone sing it and play it, that is mindfucking to me. He’s a good freak. Anyway, then I got a call from Jonathan. He was down in LA with John Waite and Ricky Phillips and they were forming a band and he asked me if I wanted to come audition. I said, “Well, I just found this drummer that I want to start a band with and if you don’t have a drummer, maybe I can talk him into coming down with me and we can check it out.”



Bad English?

We did Bad English for two years and then that disbanded and then I did the Hardline project and that didn’t pan out. And then I got together with Paul Rodgers which was a gas. I really loved getting back to my blues roots and playing with him for close to three years and writing with him. That was really a great time period for me; I was having a blast and he was sounding so amazing. I think a bit after that I did a couple more solo records for the little indie label, Higher Octave. Just trying to keep myself busy.



I did the Santana reunion thing called Abraxas Pool. Basically everybody that was still around and alive with the exception of Carlos, Carlos didn’t want to do it. We put out a record; the band was smokin’, we made a pretty good record (Abraxas Pool), very cheaply in my studio over in Oakland. At that point, everybody looked at us like we had four heads. Like, “Latin music? That was a long time ago. It sounds like Santana.” We’re going, “D’uh? Yeah, it is, with a different guitar player. And then we couldn’t get arrested with that and I decided to move on and reform Journey again.



At that point, Perry had apparently contacted Jonathan. He said he wanted to get together and do another record. I was thinking to myself, “After ten years, why?” Put the record out, Trial By Fire, and it was in the Billboard charts at number three. We had a number one single (“When You Love A Woman”) and then he had his injury and we were asked to play the Grammy’s and he didn’t want to do that and he said he couldn’t tour. So, we waited around like I said to see if he was going to get his hip fixed. So, he wasn’t ready to do it and we waited for close to two years. Something just kind of clicked with me at that point where I hadn’t been in Journey in ten years, then we did Trial By Fire and we had all that success. And we got teased with the fact of that we were back together and then it didn’t happen. I was really frustrated. The rest of the guys and I decided to move on. Which was a really bold move that was met with a lot of resistance everywhere that we turned.



And you knew that was going to happen.

Well, yeah, absolutely. But right now, we don’t have anything so there’s nothing to lose. Nine years later we’re playing to sold out audiences again. Everybody is completely loving Arnel and he’s definitely proved himself.



By: Steve Rosen

[The_Noble_Cause]

Lots of great insights on the making of Revelation. One problem: it's not the band's new album.