Former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry, who just released an acoustic version of his comeback album “Traces”, has told American Songwriter in a new interview that fans likely won’t have to wait nearly as long for new music from him as they had to the last time.
“I’m already in the studio,” Perry said. “My studio is in a bunker underneath my house. Drums can be loud, guitars and amps can be loud. I’m down in there sketching more songs. I’m agonizing over the lyrics of a particular one right now. One day, I love the way the lyric is feeling. The next day I change my mind and want to go back to the original lyrics. That’s where I woke up this morning: I wanted to revisit the original lyric that I thought yesterday wasn’t right.
“We’re talking one word,” Perry said about his songwriting process. “I’ll highlight that word for now in my writing sketch, and I’ll drop in and change that one word and drop out. And I’ll listen and see if I’m okay with that word change. It can be a pothole in the road or it can be a smooth highway.”
Two months ago, Perry told Rolling Stone that he has been busy creating new music since the April release of his cover version of the BEACH BOYS classic “In My Room”.
“I have a studio and I’m always writing and always recording stuff,” he said. “I have lots of music, so much stuff.”
Perry‘s first solo album in more than two decades, “Traces”, was released in October 2018 via Fantasy Records (a division of Concord Records/UMG). He credited his late girlfriend, psychologist Kellie Nash, who died more than seven years ago, with helping him want to sing again; she’d made him promise he wouldn’t go back into isolation when she passed.
Perry dated Nash for nearly two years before she died in December 2012 after being diagnosed with breast cancer. He mourned for two years, and then began recording again.
Upon its release, “Traces” was met with wide acclaim and tremendous excitement from fans and critics all over the world. The album entered the Billboard 200 Albums chart at No. 6, Perry‘s highest debut as a solo artist and earned the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer his best-ever chart entries in the U.K., Germany, Canada and Japan.
Perry reunited with JOURNEY for the first time in years as they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2017. The iconic singer appeared onstage with his former bandmates as they each gave speeches, but did not perform with the group later in the event.
