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© Rock Fever, July 1984

STEVE PERRY

by Bunty Schnapper

By now everybody knows all about what Neal Schon, Ross Valory, Jonathan Cain and Steve Smith have been up to - solo projects, either their own or collaborations with other artists. But what about Journey's head heartthrob and vocalist/songwriter Steve Perry? No one has been banging on him for secret tidbits, so ROCK FEVER decided to hunt down some information and find out what's what.
    Tucked away in a recording studio in his favorite corner of the world, San Francisco, Perry is a private man. Concerned that any kind of publicity about what a member of Journey is doing will ultimately lead to the usual hostile rumors about the band breaking

HIS OWN PRIVATE JOURNEY

"I started my solo album last October," Steve says. "I want the project to feel like fun to me so I'm not driving myself crazy."

"Critics enjoy attacking an act that's doing as well as Journey is. We don't really care anymore."

"After singing rock for so many years I'd give anything to sing with a symphony orchestra."

For lead singer Steve Perry, Journey is only one part of his career. Like fellow group members he too has private ambitions.

up, he is hesitant to throw open the doors to his heart.
    "Let's just set the record straight right from the get-go," he insists shyly. "Journey is and will always remain the mothership! Separate projects aside, we are all members of Journey and that's the way we want it to stay. As far as we're concerned, it'll go on and on. In the meantime Jon has done an album with his wife Tane; Steve Smith's jazz album Vital Information has gotten very strong reviews; Neal has been able to show a whole other side of himself playing with Sammy Hagar; Ross is at work on his solo album, and yours truly is finishing up his first solo record. I always wanted to sing with an orchestra, do lush ballads and stuff. I love strings and melodic contemporary songs.

What's important for all of us, is to do things we can't do in Journey. We want to show different sides of ourselves on record."
    In addition to their own private solo recordings, Steve and his fellow Journeymen have been taking a long, lingering look at the world of motion pictures.
    "We contributed the song "Ask the Lonely" to the film Two of a Kind." Steve says. "I wrote it with Jonathan especially for the film. That was a new adventure for us. It's like a growth curve. You feel you must move with it. For a while we didn't know if the movie thing was actually going to happen. We thought we might wind up holding onto the tune for the next album. But "Ask the Lonely" wound up working very well I think. Then there's the film we've done for NFL films, Long Day's Journey Into Night. It's a very professional film, not jaded in any way. They made us feel real comfortable; they were never obtrusive or assuming with us. We know it's an honest approach to what we really are doing, a realistic insight into things people want to see and

should see but never get to see. So much rock video these days is completely conceptual, top to bottom, but it has nothing to do with the group or the music they're playing. We're going in the complete opposite direction."
    In addition to the film footage available to Journey fans from Long Day's Journey Into Night, Steve tells us Ross' meticulous videotaping of the group in action will be presented in his first professional video venture New Avocado Review.

Next-Album

    "But if you really want to know what's on my mind these days, and on Jon's and Neal's and Ross' and Steve's - it's the next Journey album!" Perry says enthusiastically. "We're already into the writing stage. So far we plan to start cutting it around July. And I'm telling you, forget the solo efforts! Wait till you hear what happens when we five bring everything we've learned this year back to Journey and the new album. I think this next LP will be the biggest we've ever had!"