Posted by “’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.”
That’s Neal Schon – the rock guitarist – talking about how Journey found their new singer, Arnel Pineda (“pin-eh-da”) – a singer from Quezon City in the Philippines.
The band is currently prepping for a summer of touring and even recording a new disc with famed Producer, Kevin Shirley (Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Rush), according to the Blabbermouth.net news item, Journey Scheduled To Open Virtual World In Second Life:
"On February 1, multi-platinum rockers Journey will release their new Virtual Island in Second Life. A grand opening party is planned inside Second Life at the ‘Journey Rock Band’ sim and will feature a meet-and-greet with band members. Live DJs will be spinning many of Journey’s classic hits, recorded studio and live performances, as well as lots of other great music for fans to party to! The grand opening party is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m. ET/PT. The Journey Island region in Second Life is named ‘Journey Rock Band’."
Finding their new singer through YouTube, playing around in Virtual Worlds, making new music, and still touring. Love their music or hate their music, I find it refreshing to see bands like Journey embracing the Social Media channels and doing/trying whatever they can to stay engaged with their audiences and connecting more people to their music. I hope the major label record companies are watching. Even the classic rock bands are figuring this new world out.
I’m duly impressed. And yes, this guy can sing:
Never another podcast episode or article 
I had the same reaction – he can’t be THAT good.
Thanks. Stories like this re-inspire even the veterans.
Hey Mitch, thanks for the comment! I was thinking about what you said last night before I went to bed and you’re right by saying one person’s garbage is another person’s gold. This got me thinking about this “segregation” of the blogosphere where we have stuff like Xiaxue (which I hope you clicked on) and others like yours and Seth’s and Chris Anderson’s and JaffeJuice.
So my question (which I think you alluded to a little on your comment) is how do you think the pathways between someone who blogs about what they had for breakfast intersect with someone’s blog like yours? Where along the six pixels of separation would they converge? Love to hear your thoughts on this.
I think Journey finding a singer like this answers your question. There are enough people looking for all sorts of different stuff that it’s the niches that matter.
It’s a story like this that inspires someone like Christopher S. Penn and myself to be re-energized about this space.
It sounds like you’re trying to create a co-relation between this type of media and Mass Media – you can’t.
Some niches have bigger audiences – and some people play towards that bigger audience.
Mitch, thanks for posting this. When I first heard this story–I think on the radio (!)–my first thought was that it sounded like Journey was trying to catch a new fan base/restore old glory by utilizing the “it” thing of the moment (YouTube).
The more I thought about it, the less I cared what the motivation was behind going this route; instead I am happy that they’ve done it and am looking forward to hearing more from Journey and this new singer. Kudos to them for trying something new, and I wish them all the best.
Jen