"He's like the perfect sponge, someone who's so talented musically that when they listen to something one time, they just soak it in and are able to put it right back out," Journey guitarist Neal Schon says of his band's new vocalist from a hotel room in Salt Lake City. "He's a rare find, you know?"

His name is Arnel Pineda, a Filipino belter with a fire siren for a voice.

Born in Manila, Pineda spent a part of his teens living on the streets, collecting bottles and newspapers to help support his family after his mother died when he was 12.

Singing since he was 5 years old, Pineda would join his first band a decade after that. But when YouTube videos surfaced in early 2007 of Pineda performing classic rock tunes by the likes of Survivor, Zeppelin, Air Supply and others with his group The Zoo, everything would change.

The clips caught the eye of Schon and company, and a few months later, Pineda was in California auditioning for the vacant vocalist slot in Journey, a gig that he would quickly land.

It was like something straight out of the fan-to-frontman metal flick "Rock Star," except without all the poodle coifs and crotch-smothering spandex.

"I heard a lot of people who were emulators -- and some of them were very good," Schon says of the audition process to find a new singer. "But when I heard Arnel, I heard something special in his voice. I heard personality, I heard soul, I heard emotion.

"He does different stuff every night, which I totally love," he continues. "He takes chances. He chooses different notes here and there. He has the ability to improvise, and that's not easy to do with something that's imbedded in stone. He's doing a tremendous job."

Of course, Journey's catalog has become rock 'n' roll comfort food of sorts.

How many triumphant scenes in various films and TVs shows have been soundtracked by the band's signature "Don't Stop Believing"? You know, all those heart-in-the-throat moments where the protagonist overcomes some great obstacle, climbs out of his wheelchair, vanquishes the bad guy, gets the girl and administers CPR to a pack of baby seals.

And then there's the band's seminal power ballad "Open Arms," which long has been as much a staple of high school proms as awkward teens in ill-fitting tuxedos, while "Any Way You Want It" has been used in just about every commercial for every product ever made.

In other words, this band is the silver-backed alpha male gorilla of pop culture references.

For a dude that never has been further than Manilla or Hong Kong like Pineda, it's a daunting band to join.

"We talk a lot, and I try to let him know what to expect, what's coming and how things are just going to get much, much better, because he's never been there," Schon says. "To me, it's just really exciting to watch everything grow around him, watch himself grow in it. I think he's seeing it. For the longest time, I think he was still pinching himself, thinking he's not here. But I think he's realizing that it's all real and things are genuinely happening. People have accepted him."

And rightfully so.

Pineda is more than a Pinoy Steve Perry -- he can hit the high notes with impressive power and grace, but he's not just an emulator, he brings a fiery yet well-finessed presence to the mic.

This can be evidenced on Journey's latest disc, "Revelation," a mix of new songs and rerecordings of old chestnuts that comes packaged with a live DVD that was shot in Vegas at Planet Hollywood this past March. It was the band's first U.S. show with their new frontman.

"We all thought it was premature to be doing a DVD at that point, because we had just got going and we had literally three gigs under our belt," Schon admits. "All of us would have preferred to have been out on tour for at least three weeks to a month before we shot something like that. But they needed to get the package together, they needed to wrap it up and they needed to have that DVD like yesterday. Things have gotten a lot better since that."

Besides, this bunch has weathered its share of bumpy roads. They've been through a slew of lineup changes over the years and they've been the butt of enough jokes to fill a late night talk show host's monologues for a week.

And yet they're still here, fashionably unfashionable, a group of classic rock vampires seemingly impervious to the wooden stake of advancing age.

"I really felt that it would always continue," Schon says of his band's longevity. "I didn't have any idea if we'd have the success that we had experienced before, because that's kind of a hard thing to top. But I think everybody was happy enjoying the success that we were having. We still had a lot of fans that just wanted to come out. I feel fortunate that we're still able to do what we love to do."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.