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Believe In Me: Anatomy of a Song
by Todd Seely
In the Spring of 2004, following a rousing January performance at NAMM in Los Angeles, Jeff Scott Soto and Neal Schon were knee-deep in the writing and recording of what would become the Soul SirkUS debut album ‘World Play’. Inspiration was coming on hard and fast, and the pair found itself sitting on an album’s worth of material in no time. Soul SirkUS was itself born out of the ashes of the aborted Planet US project that Schon had spearheaded with Sammy Hagar. As such, some song ideas which had previously been shelved were dusted off for another look. The caustic “Peephole”, which appears on ‘World Play’, was one of those songs. The riff which would become “Believe in Me” was another. For all that the ‘World Play’ album had going for it, it became apparent that a certain faction of Journey fans and interested bystanders were hoping for a collaborative effort that echoed Journey. Soul SirkUS offered precious few of those elements; rather, it was by and large an epic slice of modern rock sounding almost wholly unlike anything Journey had ever released. “Believe in Me” found a home elsewhere and slipped by under the radar, unnoticed by a good portion of the very same fans who would have wanted to hear it. With the addition of Jeff Scott Soto to the permanent ranks of Journey, it behooves us to have a look back just a couple of years to 2004, and the creation of a song that seems to have foreshadowed Soto’s ascension from melodic rock underdog to assuming one of the most coveted roles in the genre.
If “Peephole” was any indication of the direction Planet US was pursuing, it becomes abundantly clear why the riff for “Believe in Me” had been set aside unfinished. The two songs could not be more divergent. For as intense and bitter as “Peephole” was, “Believe in Me” would become its spirited, pop-rocking cousin. It was a page right out of the Journey songbook, something Neal Schon had wanted to avoid in order to give the late Planet US – and now Soul SirkUS – an identity of its own outside the shadow of Journey.
Neal’s riff, solo and all, was a one-take demo, recorded straight to the mixing board - or more appropriately, Soto’s laptop – without the luxury of overdubbing or editing. Jeff would flesh out the song later in his home studio, completing the bass & vocals himself and bringing in drummer Glen Sobel to finish the song. But he quickly realized that “Believe in Me” – seemingly a fusion of Journey’s “Only the Young” and “Be Good to Yourself” - would be an albatross around Soul SirkUS’ neck. On the other hand, it seemed ready-made for the new solo album Jeff was recording concurrently with Soul SirkUS. In addition, Frontiers Records was thrilled at the prospect of issuing a recording featuring Journey’s Schon and one of the brightest stars on their roster. When Jeff asked Neal to lay down a permanent guitar track, Schon simply replied that he had done exactly that with the initial demo. And so he had. The original recording, conceived in Schon’s living room, found its way onto Jeff Scott Soto’s ‘Lost in the Translation’ solo album as the lead single, and was the focus of a limited edition EP that quickly became a collector’s item upon its release. It remains to be seen whether “Believe in Me” will be revisited when Journey convenes in the recording studio with Soto. Anything is possible, I suppose, if you believe…
In the Spring of 2004, following a rousing January performance at NAMM in Los Angeles, Jeff Scott Soto and Neal Schon were knee-deep in the writing and recording of what would become the Soul SirkUS debut album ‘World Play’. Inspiration was coming on hard and fast, and the pair found itself sitting on an album’s worth of material in no time. Soul SirkUS was itself born out of the ashes of the aborted Planet US project that Schon had spearheaded with Sammy Hagar. As such, some song ideas which had previously been shelved were dusted off for another look. The caustic “Peephole”, which appears on ‘World Play’, was one of those songs. The riff which would become “Believe in Me” was another. For all that the ‘World Play’ album had going for it, it became apparent that a certain faction of Journey fans and interested bystanders were hoping for a collaborative effort that echoed Journey. Soul SirkUS offered precious few of those elements; rather, it was by and large an epic slice of modern rock sounding almost wholly unlike anything Journey had ever released. “Believe in Me” found a home elsewhere and slipped by under the radar, unnoticed by a good portion of the very same fans who would have wanted to hear it. With the addition of Jeff Scott Soto to the permanent ranks of Journey, it behooves us to have a look back just a couple of years to 2004, and the creation of a song that seems to have foreshadowed Soto’s ascension from melodic rock underdog to assuming one of the most coveted roles in the genre.
If “Peephole” was any indication of the direction Planet US was pursuing, it becomes abundantly clear why the riff for “Believe in Me” had been set aside unfinished. The two songs could not be more divergent. For as intense and bitter as “Peephole” was, “Believe in Me” would become its spirited, pop-rocking cousin. It was a page right out of the Journey songbook, something Neal Schon had wanted to avoid in order to give the late Planet US – and now Soul SirkUS – an identity of its own outside the shadow of Journey.
Neal’s riff, solo and all, was a one-take demo, recorded straight to the mixing board - or more appropriately, Soto’s laptop – without the luxury of overdubbing or editing. Jeff would flesh out the song later in his home studio, completing the bass & vocals himself and bringing in drummer Glen Sobel to finish the song. But he quickly realized that “Believe in Me” – seemingly a fusion of Journey’s “Only the Young” and “Be Good to Yourself” - would be an albatross around Soul SirkUS’ neck. On the other hand, it seemed ready-made for the new solo album Jeff was recording concurrently with Soul SirkUS. In addition, Frontiers Records was thrilled at the prospect of issuing a recording featuring Journey’s Schon and one of the brightest stars on their roster. When Jeff asked Neal to lay down a permanent guitar track, Schon simply replied that he had done exactly that with the initial demo. And so he had. The original recording, conceived in Schon’s living room, found its way onto Jeff Scott Soto’s ‘Lost in the Translation’ solo album as the lead single, and was the focus of a limited edition EP that quickly became a collector’s item upon its release. It remains to be seen whether “Believe in Me” will be revisited when Journey convenes in the recording studio with Soto. Anything is possible, I suppose, if you believe…
A word from the Editing Room by
Gary Schutt
I was very honored to do a video for "Believe In Me". I don't know who shot the (original raw footage) video, but what I had to work with was one take of Neal, 2 takes on Jeff singing, one take on Jeff playing bass and about 1 minute of "B.S.ing" around the studio during the Soul Sirkus sessions, which included Deen doing drum tracking. My challenge was to make this "ok" footage look cool. The first treatment I did, they didn't like. I don't even remember much of it but it was kinda black & white with color overlays of dancing lights & LED meters to the beat of the song. So they told me to do something different. So I experimented with a "cartoonier" look. And thus, what you see is what they were happy with.
Gary Schutt
Believe In Me: The Artwork by designer Richard Mace
My design for the EP artwork was the forerunner for my 'Lost In The Translation' design. I wanted a distressed look and a rougher edge to this album as it was a much better representation of the way Jeff's music was heading. I had this initial concept in my mind to create a handmade journal feel, in a similar way to the opening credits to the movie Se7en, which I always admired. The inside pages of the booklet achieved this quite well and I was comfortable with the way this design would relate to my eventual design for the album from which this track was taken. The main problem was to convince Jeff to have his image on the front as he tended to shy away from most of my ideas with him on the front. However, the distressed look I gave to this particular image appealed to him as a compromise and had enough of a gritty edge and distortion for him to allow me to use his image on the front cover. The typefaces were two of my favorites and I was always looking for an excuse to use both 'Love letter Typewriter' and 'Dynamoe' (the one that looks like one of those old tape embossing strips). With a scanned rough piece of cloth, I was ready to go. Jeff's image is rendered in Photoshop with combined layers of stone backgrounds, some with transparency, others rendered by hand. The edge is part of a wall from a different image I had lying around.
There is another interesting story behind this EP, which relates to the other tracks on it. Myself and Terry Harwood were promoting Jeff in the UK with the aim of getting him radio airplay. This EP was sent out to many radio stations across the UK, along with a press pack to introduce Jeff to the public. Just like Frontiers, we initially thought that 'Believe In Me' was a strong enough track to put onto the radio play lists. However, to our surprise, all the DJ's and producers responded with saying that they thought that 'Believe In Me' was too 'strong' and 'heavy' for British audiences, however they loved the other 4 ballads on the EP!!! With this in mind we responded by pushing the more radio friendly ballads and successfully got Jeff's music played on BBC radio to the point of him being listed in the 'most requested track' slot as a result of them playing 'Lonely Shade Of Blue'. So ironically, if it wasn't for the 'Believe In Me' EP, we would never have realised the potential of the ballads and as a result the 'Essential Ballads' compilation was hastily put together to tap into this demand for the softer side of Jeff's music. I initially discussed the idea of a ballads compilation with Jeff, which was entitled 'Forevermore' (which was later to be used as a Talisman title for Jeff's tribute to Freddie Mercury) and put together the tracks and a proposal, which was eventually accepted by Jeff's record label Frontiers. As Executive Producer, the difficulty was for me to have to leave certain tracks off which didn't fit the disk allocation, especially as we were to include the 'Believe In Me' video. I did have three other ballads on there, but at the last minute Jeff came up trumps with providing 3 new tracks that were previously unreleased. However the best decision we made was to include Jeff's beautiful version of the Journey track 'Send Her My Love'. This brought a whole new audience of Journey fans to stand up and shout and was the beginning of a new path for Jeff. This softer, more melodic side to Jeff's work made more of a commercial impact than any of his previous releases and brought about a whole new way of thinking as Jeff again ventured into the studio to start work on his 'new forth solo album'. The rest as they say is history and we are all looking forward to the exciting journey ahead.
Richard Mace
JSS Promotions
I was very honored to do a video for "Believe In Me". I don't know who shot the (original raw footage) video, but what I had to work with was one take of Neal, 2 takes on Jeff singing, one take on Jeff playing bass and about 1 minute of "B.S.ing" around the studio during the Soul Sirkus sessions, which included Deen doing drum tracking. My challenge was to make this "ok" footage look cool. The first treatment I did, they didn't like. I don't even remember much of it but it was kinda black & white with color overlays of dancing lights & LED meters to the beat of the song. So they told me to do something different. So I experimented with a "cartoonier" look. And thus, what you see is what they were happy with.
Gary Schutt
Believe In Me: The Artwork by designer Richard Mace
My design for the EP artwork was the forerunner for my 'Lost In The Translation' design. I wanted a distressed look and a rougher edge to this album as it was a much better representation of the way Jeff's music was heading. I had this initial concept in my mind to create a handmade journal feel, in a similar way to the opening credits to the movie Se7en, which I always admired. The inside pages of the booklet achieved this quite well and I was comfortable with the way this design would relate to my eventual design for the album from which this track was taken. The main problem was to convince Jeff to have his image on the front as he tended to shy away from most of my ideas with him on the front. However, the distressed look I gave to this particular image appealed to him as a compromise and had enough of a gritty edge and distortion for him to allow me to use his image on the front cover. The typefaces were two of my favorites and I was always looking for an excuse to use both 'Love letter Typewriter' and 'Dynamoe' (the one that looks like one of those old tape embossing strips). With a scanned rough piece of cloth, I was ready to go. Jeff's image is rendered in Photoshop with combined layers of stone backgrounds, some with transparency, others rendered by hand. The edge is part of a wall from a different image I had lying around.
There is another interesting story behind this EP, which relates to the other tracks on it. Myself and Terry Harwood were promoting Jeff in the UK with the aim of getting him radio airplay. This EP was sent out to many radio stations across the UK, along with a press pack to introduce Jeff to the public. Just like Frontiers, we initially thought that 'Believe In Me' was a strong enough track to put onto the radio play lists. However, to our surprise, all the DJ's and producers responded with saying that they thought that 'Believe In Me' was too 'strong' and 'heavy' for British audiences, however they loved the other 4 ballads on the EP!!! With this in mind we responded by pushing the more radio friendly ballads and successfully got Jeff's music played on BBC radio to the point of him being listed in the 'most requested track' slot as a result of them playing 'Lonely Shade Of Blue'. So ironically, if it wasn't for the 'Believe In Me' EP, we would never have realised the potential of the ballads and as a result the 'Essential Ballads' compilation was hastily put together to tap into this demand for the softer side of Jeff's music. I initially discussed the idea of a ballads compilation with Jeff, which was entitled 'Forevermore' (which was later to be used as a Talisman title for Jeff's tribute to Freddie Mercury) and put together the tracks and a proposal, which was eventually accepted by Jeff's record label Frontiers. As Executive Producer, the difficulty was for me to have to leave certain tracks off which didn't fit the disk allocation, especially as we were to include the 'Believe In Me' video. I did have three other ballads on there, but at the last minute Jeff came up trumps with providing 3 new tracks that were previously unreleased. However the best decision we made was to include Jeff's beautiful version of the Journey track 'Send Her My Love'. This brought a whole new audience of Journey fans to stand up and shout and was the beginning of a new path for Jeff. This softer, more melodic side to Jeff's work made more of a commercial impact than any of his previous releases and brought about a whole new way of thinking as Jeff again ventured into the studio to start work on his 'new forth solo album'. The rest as they say is history and we are all looking forward to the exciting journey ahead.
Richard Mace
JSS Promotions
