NOW entering their fifth year of extensive touring throughout the UK and performing to capacity crowds at some of the best venues across the country, it’s fair to say A Foreigner’s Journey (AFJ) have achieved national notoriety alongside some of the biggest rock tributes around today. Ellie Hudson chatted to lead singer Matt Black to delve a little deeper into what makes the band so special.

Foreigner and Journey are two of the biggest classic rock bands the world has ever seen, what was the thinking behind choosing those two specifically to start a joint tribute act venture?

‘The original idea came about from our bassist Paul who had just come back from working as tour manager for Foreigner and he combined the idea with our original guitarist who had been playing for John Parr on tour with Journey. It just felt like the perfect mix and nobody was playing much of these two bands on the scene. At the time, there wasn’t any dual tribute shows out there too.’

Who is in the band and who plays what role?

‘Matt Black — vocals, Paul Flanaghan — bass, Ian Ferris — drums, Ricky Middleton – guitar and Jon Pease — keyboards.’

How do you work with the two distinctly different vocals, Steve Perry being the most well-known Journey singer, and Lou Gramm of Foreigner?

‘When I was first invited to sing for AFJ, I was only interested if I could be myself and not dress up. And I approach the songs with the original vocalist in mind, and take on ideas from the other singers they’ve had but it’s mostly my own spin with my own technique, which has always been the case with any cover or original projects I’ve been part of.’

There’s a huge back catalogue to choose from with both bands; do you split the show into two sections?

‘We mix the songs throughout the entire show. Sometimes we may play songs from the same band back to back if we feel it follows a certain vibe or theme but it’s a constant surprise for the audience drifting back and forth between the two bands.’

There will be old favourites the crowd will want to hear; do you include album tracks too or stick rigidly to the hits?

‘We make sure there is a huge bulk of singles in the show with a mixture of album tracks and fan favourites. We tend to rotate the songs every six months or so and bring in new songs and shelve some for a while. It’s impossible to please everybody when you only have two hours to cram so much great music into one show, but we keep it fresh and try to accommodate every type of fan.’

Have you ever seen or met any of the original groups on tour?

‘We’ve seen both bands live and met Foreigner a few times due to Paul working with them. We’ve actually had conversations with Foreigner about A Foreigner’s Journey and they are very supportive of what we do.’

Are you all fans of the bands too and if so what’s your favourite era for both?

‘We all love both Foreigner, Journey and many other melodic rock bands. Plus we all have our own personal tastes which vary from blues, funk, country, heavy metal, thrash, prog and many more. With that in mind, we all appreciate various sections of the band’s careers and it’s lucky that we all seem to pull towards the same songs.’

How close to the originals do you get? As a tribute band are you a lookalike and soundalike?

‘We perform the music of the bands with the approach to make the songs sound as close to the original track or some of their live versions as possible. I’d say we are not a sound-alike band and we are certainly not a look-alike band but that’s not what we aspire to be.’

‘It’s five experienced musicians from such varied backgrounds who share a love for performing live and have a close bond as friends.’

‘We make sure every note and beat is precise, there are full five-part harmonies in the songs and we take on as much as possible to give our audience an energetic, passionate show.’

You are regulars at The Wharf; on a scale of one to ten, where would you rate it as a music venue?

‘We absolutely love The Wharf, it’s certainly not on our doorstep as we are Yorkshire based.

‘It’s a great setup, quality sound and lighting, helpful and accommodating crew and we always have a very appreciative audience there to support us. There should be a Wharf Theatre in every area of the country.’ 

A Foreigner’s Journey will perform at The Wharf on Saturday, September 2.