Jonathan Cain on Upcoming Journey Album: “We Step Out a Little Bit”

Jonathan Cain, Journey’s keyboardist, has recently given insight into the band’s upcoming release Freedom and why they’re keeping the album’s sound under wraps for now.

“You kind of want to let the album simmer a little bit and get into the ears and minds of people before you start [playing it],” Cain explained. “You want to let it come out and breathe in the marketplace and get reactions, too. I think it’s always cool to get that. I remember when we did Arrival [in 2000], Napster kind of dumped it out on the fans and the fans reacted and, boom, we had all these reactions to our music, and we learned a lot from it. I think we’re gonna learn a lot when [Freedom] is released and watch how people respond. I think it’s gonna be interesting.”

Cain likened Freedom to Journey’s 1981 release Escape, saying “it sounds like a Journey record.”

“There are some surprises,” the musician further hinted. “We step out a little bit, which is cool. We did that on [1983’s] Frontiers a little bit. We did that on [2011’s] Eclipse. Narada and Neal really let loose together. A lot of the jams were kind of free-form, so Neal was working hard and I was there for him, and we worked together through the whole thing. The songs came from all kinds of places, creatively. But I think it’s just a combination of everything Journey has been. To get back into Journey was really fun, even if it was file-sharing.”

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