Neal Schon is set to release his second solo project since Journey’s Eclipse, neither of which have had much in common with the melodic rock that made his band famous. That is, except for one song, included on the forthcoming So U.
“Love Finds a Way” is, in fact, a made of elements that never found a home on a Journey album, the results of which ended up as “sort of a sister song to ‘Troubled Child‘ off of Frontiers, Schon tells Guitar International. “That song I had in my head for a long time. I thought it would be a Journey song, but it never ended up on a CD.”
Over time, Schon says he realized that these salvaged parts had the makings of a song — although, admittedly, one of the few solo tracks that so strongly recalls Journey. “You can tell it’s got similar-type guitar chords,” Schon adds. “Parts of it I tried to weave into Journey songs, and then I wrote the verse. The verse chords came to me kind of out of nowhere, and then I put it together with the symphonic section that I had tried to use with Journey. It just came together now.”
So U — which is due May 19, 2014 via Frontiers Records — features Journey’s current drummer Dean Castronovo, who also handles some vocals. Former Journey drummer Steve Smith joined Schon for his previous solo entry, 2012’s The Calling. Both of them trace back to Schon’s earliest free-form jazz-rock influences. Marco Mendoza plays bass on the new album.
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