Steve Perry promised he’d release new music this year in a message to mark the first anniversary of his comeback album Traces.

The former Journey singer said he was preparing to unveil Christmas music in time for the holiday season, and hinted that other projects were also on the way.

“TY for receiving it w/ such kindness,” Perry tweeted to make a year since Traces arrived. “More to come incl Xmas music this yr. TY for ur support & acceptance of this new music. TY to my label Fantasy Records for their constant support. It wouldn’t be possible w/o all of you!”

Perry had been out of the spotlight for more than two decades since leaving Journey, and at one point he wasn’t sure he’d ever return to music. “I went back to my hometown and hung out with friends,” he explained. I rode my motorcycle on these country roads on the outskirts of Fresno, where I was born and raised. … There was something cathartic about just stopping."

Traces was partly inspired by his experience of spending 18 months in a relationship with girlfriend Kellie Nash before she died of cancer in 2012. He later said the process of “serious grieving” and “psychological assistance from some professionals” had “opened my heart up again.”

He recalled: “One night we were talking and she said, ‘Honey, I need to ask you a question. … If something was to ever happen to me, make me a promise that you won’t go into isolation again. … I think it would make this all for naught.’ And I thought, ‘All for naught? That is such a huge statement,’" he recalled. "I mean, she’s looking at the arc of her life, and then meeting together, and then maybe us not being together, and her going. This like a huge, huge moment, and I just said, ‘I promise.’”

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