Interview continued from print edition, by Kim Thore
Y!W: You are now in Nashville… tell our readers what the music scene is like there as it seems to be the Mecca for many rock acts lately?
TK: Well, we moved here one member at a time. Fred was actually the first one to move here. He started a studio in the ’90s and he was recording and producing other acts and stuff. I had actually started to work when I still lived in the Northeast and I started working on my solo record back then. I was coming down here to write with people because there is just an amazing amount of songwriters here. The band had kind of gone its separate ways and the whole industry was changing and it was the first time I was without a band in years and south Jersey is not like a music Mecca you know. So I was coming here more and more, started checking out the scene, working with a lot of people, writing with people, seeing the quality of the session musicians and the studios as well, and I was like, “Man this is where I want to be to make a record.” I built a studio in my new house here and started working on my solo record but we got a record deal from Sony to put Cinderella back together. And a very long story short, that all ended up in a bunch of legal hassles, and the record never got made. But the great thing that came out of it was it really motivated me to write. I wrote a ton of material for that record that never ended up being recorded. I ended up using a lot of that stuff for my solo record which is finished actually. It has only taken me about five years! (laughing)
Y!W: So, is the solo cd going to be out soon?
TK: Not just yet, I actually just finished it last week with all of the final mixes, printed and it’s gotta be mastered and then probably sometime this summer we’ll take It around and find a home for it.
Y!W: Without giving it all away, can you give us a little insight into the new record? Is it an exodus from your work with the band? How do you craft a song?
Tom Keifer: You know, it’s always difficult for me to describe music — a lot of it sounds like Cinderella because I wrote most of those songs and I did a lot of the guitar work. My style is going to come through on this record pretty heavily. I like records that take you through dynamically whether it’s acoustic songs, the hard-driving songs, to ballads to mid-tempo so it has a lot of dynamics in that sense, kind of like the way Hard Cold Winter and Heartbreak Station did, different styles that all work together and keep you interested as you go through — it’s not just the same songs for 13 songs. You know that goes back to me from in the ’70s listening to how the Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Eagles and how they made records. They did every style in the book. I’ve always appreciated that and liked those kinds of records and we as Cinderella grew with each record. Night Songs I think was a little more linear — all the same with the exception of the ballad. Whereas, with Long Cold Winter, we started stretching more and with Heartbreak Station we did as well. So, in that tradition it’s like that. There is some really hard-driving stuff, heavier than even what Cinderella did and stuff that is more acoustic.
Y!W: With the landscape changing in the music industry, bands are releasing more singles, the public wants instant gratification, etc. do you have any concerns of how that may impact you going forward?
TK: It’s true that it’s changed and that the industry is just off and upside down — you can’t really worry about it too much, I mean I do have concerns because it is different than what I am used to, but we’re just going to figure it out. Because when I first got into the business that was also a different time than before — before we got our first record deal you were always told your whole life a record deal was impossible so is this any more impossible? Probably not! You just have to figure it out. Obviously, I have spent a lot of time on the record — we produced the record independently because we didn’t want a record company saying when something needed to be done, and how much money I had to spend, etc. because with the industry being so off by billions of dollars they don’t spend as much money on developing artists — they just don’t. I didn’t want someone telling me when something was done because that’s ridiculous at this stage in my career. A good friend of mine invested in it with me and the goal was work on a record until it was right and then we’ll go figure out where it belongs.
Y!W: As a lead singer, what is the hardest part of your role?
TK: Well for my part, it’s called a debilitating vocal condition! That hasn’t made it real easy! Even before that hit me, in 1991, I had toured since 1986 so I wasn’t dealing with that in the early part of my career, my voice was very healthy then… but I’d say the hardest part is, you have to take care of yourself. I really like to sing and sing well and I feel that if people are paying money to see Cinderella, I should sing to the best of my ability. So being out partying night after night takes its toll. It takes a little discipline if you really want to be at the top of your game every night so you really have to take care of yourself especially if you have that kind of responsibility.
Y!W: You’ve amassed quite a collection of vintage guitars, especially back when they were often overlooked and pointy headstocks were all the rage, have you kept the whole collection? What are your favorites?
TK: Yeah, I still have quite a few guitars. When I moved to Nashville, I turned a bunch of them into a studio. Because I had a vision of the kind of studio I wanted to build so some of mine that were just sitting in the case… well I bought a bunch of gear and built this room here. But I still have a bunch of them. I kept my old Telecaster — it’s actually a Nocaster — it’s like a 1950 that I still love and a ’59 Sunburst, my double neck, like the Jimmy Page one, and a cool old National Steel dobro. I got a really cool lap steel — it’s the best-sounding instrument that I own. It’s the one I play on Heartbreak Station, it’s like from the 1920s. This thing just sounds insane. So, yeah I still have all of my favorites and the ones I played on the records, and I still take those out live because I like to have the same sounds that were on the records.
Y!W: In addition to owning a fine collection of guitars you, yourself are a fine guitar player as well. Who has influenced you and how do you feel you have grown as a player?
TK: That’s really hard because I have been influenced by others as simple as Elmore James to Michael Schenker who is more technical but technical with a lot of feel. I really loved his style and everything in between from Keith Richards to Jimmy Page I really think there are a lot of different influences that affect how I play. I would have to say my favorite is Keith Richards! He’s the coolest and the Stones are my favorite band—they are just so bad ass.
Y!W: Speaking of legends didn’t Cinderella work a bit with John Paul Jones as an arranger on Heartbreak Station? What was that like, what did you learn from Jones?
TK: It was great. He came in and arranged, as I had demos for Heartbreak Station and Winds of Change, and I heard and wanted strings and not like with a keyboard but with an orchestra and Andy Johnson told us when we were doing Long Cold Winter, “If you ever do strings you must get John Paul Jones.”Aand that was kind of always in the back of my mind. We hired him and Andy was right. He was just great. He took some simple melodies I had on the demos and just slammed them out of the park, did the instrumentation and arranged them and added to them. What was cool was he kept the original melodic themes I had and just turned it into an orchestra to go behind the songs. I’ll never forget it. It was something we always wanted to do in the studio and we rolled into the Power Station in New York — that is where we were cutting the album and there was an entire orchestra sitting there and John Paul Jones conducted them. It was indeed very cool.
Y!W: Finally, what are you most proud of, and what is left on your career to-do list?
TK: You know I guess I am most proud of the music we have made — that is what it is all about. I think we really, on Heartbreak Station, we really pulled all of the elements together. We were so green when we did Night Songs, and we learned so much between then and Heartbreak Station, I think probably Heartbreak Station was what we would have liked to make for our first record but we didn’t know how. Capturing music in the studio is just so much different than just going out and playing it live. It truly is an art trying to figure out how to make those records feel the way you want them too. A microphone sings very differently than when you are standing in a room.
Cinderella plays the Millennium Center in downtown Winston-Salem Wednesday, Aug. 11.
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