by Andrea SeastrandNo stranger to success and the
dedication and effort it demands, TomKeifer’s first solo album
showcases hisversatility as a songwriter, vocalist, andguitarist
from start to finish. As Cinderella’scrooner, Keifer has weathered
physical,emotional, and industry setbacks, andchronicles his
experiences on hisappropriately titled release, The Way LifeGoes
(Merovee Records). With both hardrock heavies and love songs of
loyaltyand devotion, Keifer’s album is at oncefamiliar and new,
sung with a worntenderness that only comes withexperiencing life’s
lows with the highs.Before he takes the album on the road,
Tom talked to me about his approach tosinging, remaining
objective, and one ofthe best albums of all time. Thetranscription
follows:Before we start, I want to say I’m a hugeCinderella fan,
always have been. It’sa pleasure to speak with you.Oh thank you,
thank you very much.
Nice to speak with you as well.I read the article in Vintage
Guitar’sJanuary issue and wanted to ask alittle about your
influences as a guitaristand, also, about the impact FleetwoodMac’s
Rumours had on you.When you hear it, Rumours just has
such an atmosphere to it and a vibe. Theguitar work on it and
vocal harmoniesmade it one of my favorite albums growingup. Lindsey
Buckingham, just an absolutelyamazing guitarist. Stevie Nicks. They
wereone of those bands where everybody inthe band was just very
unique, much inthe way that Led Zeppelin was. Everybodybrought such
a real flavor to the band andI really liked bands like that back
then.
The Eagles were like that for me, too.Fleetwood Mac, and
particularly thatrecord, just really blew me away. You’ve said
Lindsey Buckingham andJimmy Page were inspirations for youas a
guitarist, but as Cinderella’sfrontman,you also had to be a
vocalistand entertainer. Who were yourinfluences in those terms?I’m
a huge Rod Stewart fan. I love his
voice. Robert Plant is probably the firstsinger, growing up,
that I tried to imitate.That high, screaming voice, a lot of
thatwas probably influenced by him. BadCompany, Paul Rodgers. Mick
Jagger. Iloved Janis Joplin of course. That’s toname a few from
when I was first gettinginto rock, but also I got into blues in
mylater teens and was very much influencedas the years went on with
artists likeMuddy Waters and Robert Johnson andall that old blues
stuff. Of course, Cinderella are known forbeing bluesy and
different from otherhard rock bands. What advice wouldyou give to
encourage an artist to beunique when much of today’s musicsounds
the same?A lot of times younger, up-and-coming
musicians will ask me for the best adviceI can give them and I
always say the samething, which is to be true to who you
are.Because, if you’re true to who you are,you’re not going to be
shoved into a cookiecutter. I think what it takes is to find
thatside of you that feels like you, musically,and express that.
Don’t let someonechange that on you.Over the past 15 years, you’ve
hadsome problems with your voice. Didcoaching and therapy mainly
help youovercome that obstacle?
Yeah, it’s coaching. I was diagnosedwith a neurological
condition called paresisback in 1991 and it just wreaks havoc ona
singing voice. It’s like a partial paralysisof a vocal cord and
there’s no cure forit. So, even though I’m still able to sing,I was
told then that I’d never sing againand that’s usually the result
for singers.The doctor told me, if there was anychance, the only
thing to do would beto train it and that starts at the speechlevel
of developing your habits with aspeech pathologist and where to
placethings, and that eventually goes intopitches and working with
vocal coachesand singing. I’ve worked with everyone in the
country.
That’s how I did it. It’ll never be fixed orbe 100 percent, at
least it doesn’t feelthat way. It’s something I live with everyday
and is a weakness I have and I haveto stay on top of, but I’m just
glad that I’mstill able to sing and do what I love to do. I saw
Cinderella a couple years agoand thought it was a great
performance.Your voice is still similar to theCinderella sound, but
there is adifference to it that’s apparent on TheWay Life Goes.It’s
something that I try to walk the line
on because a lot of the songs are in aslightly lower register.
I’m not singing quiteas high as in Cinderella but I also didn’twant
my voice to be unrecognizable, soI try to walk the line between the
two. The Way Life Goes was quite a whilein the making. What made
now the timeto release it?It just felt finished one day. I don’t
know
how to describe that. But whenever youwrite a song or you start
a record as awhole, there’s a vision that you have, that
you want it to sound like, that you canhear in your head. All
the time in the studiothat you spend is just time spent chasingthat
vision and trying to make it soundthat way. This one took a little
longer thannormal (laughs).Then one day you just hit play and
you
say, “You know, I’m okay with this.” Everyrecord’s like that but
there’s somedifference with this record. We weren’ton a record
company’s clock because itwas produced independently, so that canbe
a blessing and a curse. Spending 10years on a record can go two
differentways. It could’ve ended up as a disastertoo, I think
(laughs). And I think there werea couple of curves that we made
therethat we had to back out of over the years,where we were like,
“Wow. What were wethinking?” But it was the first record I everdid
in Pro Tools and that format allowsyou to be able to step away from
it formonths at a time.During the 10-year period, I did a lot
of
tours with Cinderella that would take meaway from the record for
long periodsof time. Then I’d come back and pull asession up and
say, “I like that. I don’t likethat. Let’s get the chorus quicker
here.Let’s change the bass part here.” Thatprovides objectivity. I
don’t think I’d reallywish to make a record over 10 years
again(laughs), but it worked for this record.Every record’s
different. And like you said, you’ve still beentouring with
Cinderella, so it wasn’tan unproductive 10 years by anymeans. Yeah,
I don’t want anyone to get the
impression that I was just locked in astudio at a mixing board
for 10 yearsstraight. Believe me, the record would not
be very good if that was the case! (Laughs)That would have
provided no objectivity.No, there was a lot of time away from it.I
mean, obviously when we first startedcutting the tracks in 2003 we
took a prettylong break almost immediately becauseSavannah and I,
our son Jaidan was born.So we just got into the whole parent
thingfor a while after we’d cut maybe about ahandful of the tracks
at that point.Right away, life sort of put an objectivity
break in it for us (laughs). The greatestone of all though. Then
there were probablyfour or five tours with Cinderella that tookme
away from it and that’s a good thing.You don’t want to stay on
somethingcreative constantly. Being objective andbeing able to walk
away from it really isthe beauty of the Pro Tools format. Youcome
back and turn it on and it’s exactlythe way you left it. You know,
in the olddays, you’d have to do this recall wherethey’d write
things down and look at theknobs on everything. Take pictures.
Itwould take half the day to get things backto the way they were.
Those days aregone so that’s a nice benefit. Your wife is also a
singer-songwriterand was involved in The Way Life Goes. Yeah, it
was produced with Savannah
and a great friend of ours here namedChuck Turner. We had a ball
with therecording and producing process. Whenit got into mixing, it
got a little bit challenging.We went through probably 17 or
18different engineers, who were all verytalented, but they just
didn’t have thesame vision or I couldn’t find that personwho could
make it sound exactly like whatI was hearing in my head. That was
thehardest part, the part that made it seemlike a little more of a
task.
buzz
TOM KEIFER’S NEW SOLO ALBUM, THE WAY LIFE GOES, WILL BE RELEASED
APRIL 30. SEE HIM AT NYC’S HIGHLINE BALLROOM ON FEB. 11 AND THE
LEGENDARY DOBBS, IN PHILLY, ON FEB. 13. FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO
FACEBOOK.COM/TOMKEIFEROFFICIAL.
PHOTO BY THOMAS PETILLO
tom keiferNO
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www.theaquarian.com ARTS WEEKLY FEBRUARY 6, 2013 19
