Could there be a new Journey album on the horizon? The group’s guitarist certainly seems to think it’s a strong possibility.

In a conference call promoting their upcoming tour with the Steve Miller Band, Neal Schon was asked about new Journey material. “I don’t know exactly what it will be at this time,” Schon said. “I know we’ve been talking of re-doing some songs, not stuff we did with Steve Perry but other stuff we’ve done before in the past that just never saw the light. Re-doing it, rearranging it, maybe adding some new sections to it and writing some new stuff too. We’ve got a lot of stuff sitting there.”

That’s not to say they don’t plan on working out new material as well. “We started playing some stuff in rehearsal that really sounded great and we’re like, 'That’s a really great song, we should just re-do that,'” Schon said. “And when you start doing that and you get the juices flowing there’s always gonna be new songs that come out of nowhere. Usually those are the best ones, the ones where you don’t try to sit down and go ‘I’m gonna write a really great song.’ That usually never happens. It just kind of falls out of the sky when it’s supposed to happen.”

Schon has been keeping quite busy these days. In just a little over a week, on May 20, his new solo record ‘So U’ is due to hit the shelves. He’s also continuing to work with Carlos Santana on the still-in-the-works record ‘Santana IV’ with the band’s original lineup. And to top it all off, Schon already has plans for another solo record tentatively titled ‘Vortex’.

In a recent interview the guitar player revealed to us the interesting genesis of the name. “Carlos Santana gave me a new name after we were in rehearsal and he’s calling me 'Vortex.' I looked it up afterwards and I was like, “Wow, what a cool name!” So I decided that one of the new tunes off this new record that will be next coming after the ‘So U’ record with Smith, Jan Hammer and Igor Len, I’m calling it ‘Vortex’ and I’ll probably call the record ‘Vortex.’ Because this record leaves chips on the ceiling.”

The Journey and Steve Miller tour is set to kick off on May 15 in Chula Vista, Calif. and will wind its way across the country across through August.

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