It is the band’s first new track in a decade.
Journey have shared a brand new song “The Way We Used To Be.” It is the band’s first new piece of material in a decade. The music video was directed & produced by Andrew Seth Cohen & Ryan Kieffer, with animation produced by Confidential Creative.
Stream the official clip below.
“The first song ‘The Way We Used To Be’ came out of one of the many loops I’d written while the long downtime continued with the pandemic we all had to deal with,” guitarist Neal Schon said. “So utilizing my time and trying to keep fans in touch I started posting many jams and loops I created very quickly most every day. On ‘The Way We Used To Be’ I laid down the keyboard loop with over-dubbed rhythm and a little blues lead guitar and sent to Jonathan. He sent it back very shortly after with demo vocals and lyrics and I said to myself with a smile – we’ve still got it!
I felt Jonathan nailed the lyrics and melody with haunting chorus “got to get back” – “to the way we used to be.” So this was the complete new beginning chapter for Journey – many more follow the same sequence with all of us collectively writing and working together. We now have over 26 songs that we’ve written and whittling it down to 10 or 12. We are very excited by all the new musical endeavors we’ve created together looking forward to getting back on the road to you.”
Journey are slated to play Lollapalooza in Chicago at the end of July
Journey’s seventh studio album Escape has been certified Diamond by the RIAA, which denotes the album has sold over 10 million equivalent units. Released in 1981, Escape will celebrate its 40th anniversary on July 17, and spawned the hits “Open Arms,” “Who’s Crying Now,” “Stone in Love” and “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which has over a billion streams on Spotify alone. Journey’s Greatest Hits has previously been certified Diamond.
Neal Schon says of the certification, “This is such a truly gratifying achievement for all the work we did together. Congratulations to all.” Jonathan Cain adds, “on behalf of all that helped to make our album, Escape a Diamond Award achievement, we say thank you. To our fans, to our band mates who took part in recording this album, to our label, to all in radio and finally to the distributors who believed in this music; we are deeply humbled and honored to accept this prestigious award.”
Journey have confirmed a number of new tour dates including shows in Atlantic City and Grantville, as well as their performance at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s Never Forget Concert, a night of live music to honor and commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater on Saturday, August 21. Additionally, the band will headline Lollapalooza at Chicago’s Grant Park on Saturday, July 31. The band have also confirmed “An Evening with Journey: Official Lollapalooza Aftershow” at the Aragon Ballroom on Thursday, July 29. On Friday, September 18, the band will be performing at the iHeartRadio Music Festival at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. More live shows will be announced in the coming weeks.
Journey was founded in 1972 by original member Neal Schon, and is one of the most famous and beloved American rock bands of all time, having written some of the best-known songs in the modern musical canon. Since the group’s formation the band has earned 19 top 40 singles, 25 Gold and Platinum albums, and has sold nearly 100 million albums globally. Their Greatest Hits album is certified 15 times-Platinum, and Escape was certified 10-times Platinum, making Journey one of the few bands to ever have been Diamond-certified and their song “Don’t Stop Believin’” has been streamed over one billion times alone. The band has undergone many changes since 1972, and with the recent release of the single “The Way We Used To Be” move into a new chapter with a lineup comprised of Neal Schon (lead guitar, backing vocals), Jonathan Cain (keyboards, backing vocals), Arnel Pineda (lead vocals), Randy Jackson (bass), Narada Michael Walden (drums) and Jason Derlatka (keyboards). The band will announce new music soon.
Journey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017, and 2018’s co-headlining tour with Def Leppard was the band’s most successful tour to date, landing them in the Top 10 year-end touring chart with more than 1 million tickets sold, and earning them the prestigious Billboard “Legends of Live” touring award. March 2019 saw the release of Escape & Frontiers Live in Japan, a live DVD/CD set from their concert at the Budokan in Tokyo featuring the band’s first-ever performances of the albums Escape and Frontiers in their entirety. Journey has also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and were inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Additionally, the band is the subject of the award-winning documentary, Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey about the band’s resurgence upon adding Arnel Pineda as lead singer after founding member, Neal Schon, discovered the Philippines native on Youtube.
Journey – 2021 Tour Dates
Jul 29, 2021 // Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom // Chicago, IL
Jul 31, 2021 // Lollapalooza // Chicago, IL
Aug 20, 2021 // Hard Rock Hotel & Casino // Atlantic City, NJ
Aug 21, 2021 // Tunnel To Towers Foundation’s Never Forget Concert // Wantagh, NY
Aug 22, 2021 // Hollywood Casino At Penn National Racecourse // Grantville, PA
Sep 18, 2021 // IHeartradio Music Festival // Las Vegas, NV