Journey - who's lineup currently includes singer Arnel Pineda, guitarist Neal Schon, keyboardist Jonathan Cain, bassist Randy Jackson, keyboardist/singer Jason Derlatka, and drummer Narada Michael Walden - recently released their new single, "The Way We Used To Be".

Jonathan Cain talks about Journey's new music in a new interview with Michael Cavacini. An excerpt follows:

Michael Cavacini: You also have new music with Journey. You guys have a new album coming out, and you released the first single, “The Way We Used To Be.” What has that process been like?

Jonathan Cain: "Yeah, we’ve got new music coming out and we just dropped that new single. It was a lot of fun, and a good amount of that music was inspired by COVID. We had seen that a lot of relationships had been broken up because of COVID. The pandemic has really messed people up and gotten them discouraged. They’re home with each other and they want to walk away. The message of this new Journey music is to be grateful for what you’ve got. I just let the Lord lead me to wherever he takes me. I try to write what’s never been written.

"I just finished a song about Pentecost called 'The Upper Room', which I think is another great tune and worship music. You’ve got the rock band Journey, and then you’ve got the worship music. With those two things I get to fulfill the conversation I have in my heart with the Holy Spirit. It strengthens me to be the best I can be with Journey.

"Pretty much all of the new Journey music was created during the pandemic. Neal sent me some instrumental music and said, “I don’t think it sounds like Journey.” And I said, “I think I might have a lyric for that.” I had written this lyric about getting back to the way we used to be, and I knew that this was certainly a Journey song and that Neal’s music was the backing track. He was quite surprised when he heard what I had.

"We’ve got a whole album coming. It’ll be about 10 or 12 songs. It will come out some time in the fall. We don’t know what we’re going to call it yet. We do have a working title, but it’s too soon to say."

Michael Cavacini: What was the process like recording this new Journey music during COVID?

Jonathan Cain: "Narada Michael Walden did a lot of producing for Arnel. I wrote a lot of the lyrics. The only people that got to see each other during this recording process were Neal and Narada. They did a lot of that in the beginning. Then I did a lot of stuff in my studio. It was a long distance record that was made in multiple studios and then brought together and mixed. We’d jump on the phone a lot to go over things. I know Narada was on Zoom calls with Arnel in the Philippines that sometimes that would go until one or two o’clock in the morning because of the time zone differences. Narada put a lot of work into it and he’s a welcome addition to the band."

Read the full interview here.

Stream "The Way We Used To Be" via your preferred platform here, and watch the official music video for the song below:

Journey has announced a special symphony performance at the The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV on Saturday, December 18.

Tickets will be available on Friday, July 23 at 10 AM, PT at JourneyMusic.com.