Neal Schon – So U, is for the love of my art and playing guitar!

By: Robert Cavuoto

Guitar master Neal Schon has moved us with his magical guitar riffs for decades and in May he’ll be officially releasing yet another cool album called  So U.  

Schon worked with some of his friends on this new outing, including bassist Marco Mendoza  of Black Star Riders, Ted Nugent, Whitesnake and drummer Deen Castronovo of Journey.

Together this fusion of rockers created the new album with a fueled mixture of jazz, blues and rock with a touch of that familiar Journey sound.

The So U album features Neal, Marco and Deen sharing vocal and writing duties, with some of the tracks co-written by Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees.

The multi-talented guitarist, vocalist and songwriter was also a member of Santana and Bad English, HSAS, Abraxas Pool, Soul SirkUS, and others, and enjoys a successful solo career.   As a member of Journey, Schon co-wrote some of the group’s biggest hits including “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Any Way You Want It,” “Lights,” and “Wheel In The Sky.”

Recently, I had a chance to speak with Neal about his gear, his stylish and masterful approach to playing guitar, his new So U CD project and some of the music that inspired the music masses and fans of Journey.

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Robert Cavuoto: I’m enjoying your new solo CD, So U. What was the inspiration for putting out this jazz, blues-oriented CD with Mark and Deen?

Neal Schon: Thank you. So U, has been done for 2 ½ to 3 years. It’s just taken a while to get it out. It’s where my head is at. I’m a jazz/blues guy, at heart, with some R&B mixed in there too. But I don’t get a chance to play much of it in Journey.

I’m not getting any younger, but still have the energy and inspiration to play. When I get downtime, I’m not one to sit around. I like to get in the studio and create. These types of solo records are really a lot of fun for me, because I don’t walk in with a plan. I go in with an empty canvas and I start throwing colors at it to see what sounds good.

Robert: That leads me to my next question about stockpiling riffs, but it sounds like you come up with a song based on the needs of project?

Neal Schon: There were a few songs on So U that I walked in with, already written with Jack Blades. I had just talked to Deen and Marco and they were available to go in the studio right after I was finishing The Calling CD and could come up for three to four days.

I went over to Jack’s house and we knocked out a few. I like working on solo stuff because I can just kind of call the shots and go in the studio, and it’s not like I have this list of rules: “Okay, we’ve got to do this today and we’ve got to do this today.” I’m used to being in a democratic situation, but really enjoying having free rein and being able to go in and play what I feel like playing that day.

Robert: My favorite song on the CD was “Love Finds a Way” which sounds like a Journey type of song.

Neal Schon: That song I had in my head for a long time. I thought it would be a Journey song, but it never ended up on a CD. It was sort of a sister song to “Troubled Child”, off of Frontiers.

You can tell it’s got similar-type guitar chords. Parts of it I tried to weave into Journey songs, and then I wrote the verse. The verse chords came to me kind of out of nowhere, and then I put it together with the symphonic section that I had tried to use with Journey. It just came together now.

Robert: I know the CD is being touted as blues/jazz CD but there’s just as many rock inspired songs on it too.

Neal Schon: Oh, I definitely think it’s a rock record. There’s no old style, 12-bar blues on it. I think there’s always a bit of blues intertwined in my playing. Those are my roots. I think it’s how you stretch a note, how you make a guitar cry, whatever.

“Big Ocean” is like a blues song to me, even though it’s not traditional blues. It’s definitely on the downside. [Laughter] It’s very slow and majestic, in its own way.

I enjoy playing all styles of music, like “Exotica” is like really off the cuff too. It’s funny, those two instrumentals started with me playing keyboards to a click in the studio. I’d lay the chords down to a click and then with “Exotica,” and Marco wasn’t even there yet. Then Deen and I would play live after I laid down the chords. We opened fire and just jammed. That’s what came out. It was the first take, and I went, “That sounds great; let’s just leave that.” [Laughter]

Robert: What do you want your Journey fans to take away from your solo CDs?

Neal Schon: My message to my fan,s as well as myself, is that I’m evolving. I’m still improving and motivated, I’m driven and I love what I do. That’s it in a nutshell. I’m doing it for no other reason than the love of my art and playing guitar.

Robert: That’s a great answer. Your playing encompasses so many different styles yet it’s instantly recognizable as you. What do you think is that one aspect of your playing?

Neal Schon: I was thinking about that the other day. After you play for as many years as I’ve been playing – it’s going 50 years now. Wow, that’s a lot of years, man. [Laughing]

I go, “Goddamn, I should be a lot better than I am.” [Laughter]  After a while, you sort of attain your own style. You’re inspired by many musicians. I listen to all kinds of music. Anything that’s good, I love.

No matter what kind of music it is. I’ll be inspired by it, and it will rub off. You then begin to discover your own style – your voice – through your instrument. I think that’s what I’ve done without really trying. It’s just kind of happened that I attained this voice through the guitar.

I suppose it started happening more when I got into writing songs in Journey. The discipline of trying to write three and a half minute songs and then make them musical is not an easy task.

It’s always been easier for me to stretch out for nine minutes than trying to write a song like “Lights.” That’s a more difficult task. When I started writing like that and learning the art of writing with Steve Perry back in the Infinity era, I decided my guitar was going to be an extension of the vocals.

I was a huge fan of Aretha Franklin.  I would try to turn her voice into the guitar. I was listening to her vibrato; I was listening to her choice of notes, and where she turns – not really licks – because she’s singing. But I would try to turn them into guitar licks. It was mainly phrasing.

Robert: That’s pretty fascinating, I wasn’t aware. You’re an amazing guitar player and songwriter. What do you think you’re better known as or recognized for?

Neal Schon: You know what? I really don’t know. [Laughter] I think I confuse a lot of people because I am all over the map.

My old manager, Herbie Herbert, used to say something that always stuck with me back from the ‘80s when I started doing solo records with Jan Hammer and Sammy Hagar. My solo records were instrumental, I wanted them all to be different. He said to me, “Why are you doing that?” And I said, “Because I really don’t want to repeat myself.”

And he goes, “I don’t know why not. You listen to B.B. King; he plays a lot of the same stuff in every song or Carlos Santana, too. That’s why you know it’s them.” So after he said that to me, I wasn’t so hung up on repeating myself. I was kind of hung up in those days about not playing exactly the same thing on every song or playing the same riffs – I wanted it to come from a different place. I was pushing myself, and then I went, “Well, yeah, I am kind of defeating what is probably going to inevitably be my style.”

I just decided to dummy up and practice. [Laughter]  I still practice a lot.

I’m excited about where I’m heading, because I’ve got like a little, funky practice studio in my house, and I spend like an hour or two in there a day just playing with loops. My playing is getting more and more out there. It’s jazzy, but it’s not bebop. It’s very outside jazz – more Miles Davis. I’ve always loved that stuff. I see myself headed in that direction, for whatever reason.

Robert: Was there ever a song in your career that you were confident would be a hit and wasn’t or vice versa?

Neal Schon: When I heard “Don’t Stop Believing”, after we wrote and recorded, I remember listening back to it in the studio and I went, “Wow, I think that song is going to be big.” When Escape came out, it wasn’t the biggest song off that record for years and years. And now it’s become like this anthem. [Laughter] I don’t think I’ve ever had a song that flew out of nowhere and became a hit that I didn’t think it would be.

There have been songs that I didn’t like that much that became hits. It became a joke with everybody in the band, “Whatever Neal doesn’t like, that’s probably gonna be the biggest single.” [Laughter]. I was just not that into staying within the box for AM radio, and I wasn’t into like schmaltzy pop songs. I liked R&B and rock, like “Separate Ways” – where it’s kind of like R&B combined with heavier guitar put to melody and blues.

PRS Neal Schon model – NS-15 – photo courtesy: PRS Guitars

Robert: I couldn’t help noticing that you have a Paul Reed Smith guitar on the cover of your CD. Tell me why you chose that guitar?

Neal Schon: I’ve always played Paul’s guitars. I’ve supported him since he first started. I bought one of the original guitars; I think #3 or #4 of the double cutaway that Carlos Santana used to play.

We’ve been friends for years, and he’s an amazing guy to work with. Right now, I have three guitars with him. I’ve got another one coming out. They all sound different and these bigger guitars like the NS-15s, like that’s on the cover is very much of a rock guitar, blues guitar. It’s solid mahogany all the way down the middle. With a Floyd on it, people looked at me like I was crazy, but, actually, the Floyd adds a lot of tone to the guitar.

It makes it sound more like a rock guitar, rather than a jazz guitar. So, there’s a reason why it’s there.

It’s not just for doing dive bombs. I think it’s a bit ahead of its time like a lot of my ideas are. They take a while for people to catch on. But I’m starting to see now in guitar magazines, since I’ve been playing it, semi-hollow bodies with bars on them. Nobody with a Floyd yet. ‘Cause that’s my thing.

I’ve also found new love for my Strats again. So, I’m going to be playing Paul Reeds and Strats.