CINDERELLA Frontman: Solo Album 'Is More Personal Than Previous Things I've Done'

Jesse Capps of RockConfidential.com recently conducted an interview with Tom Keifer, best known as the singer/songwriter/guitarist of the Philadelphia-based blues-rock band CINDERELLA. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RockConfidential.com: You've had so many landmark events happen over the past decade-plus — you became a father, CINDERELLA's battles with the record label, the emotions and struggles involved with your vocal-cord paralysis. Did you look to any of these for inspiration when writing songs for [your debut solo album] "The Way Life Goes"?

Keifer: I've always written from that place as a songwriter. I was influenced by people like THE ROLLING STONES, ROD STEWART and LED ZEPPELIN. I could go on and on naming bands that influenced me as a kid, but what they all had in common was they were inspired by American roots music — blues, country, gospel, R&B. All that music lyrically is about real things. That's how I learned to write songs and I continue to write songs from that place. This album is more personal than previous things I've done, hence the title "The Way Life Goes". It pretty much sums up the whole record to me.

RockConfidential.com: Do you remember writing the first song that ended up on the album? How recent are the tunes?

Keifer: They were all written prior to 2003. That's when we entered the studio and started cutting masters, real tracks with session players. That's when we committed to making a record. Once I put on the recording/producing hat, I usually don't write songs after that. I make sure I have the songs written before I get into that mode. If memory serves me, one of the earliest songs on this record is "Solid Ground". It was written around 1999 or 2000. It's hard to remember. I've been writing songs since the mid-'90s for this. I had a really creative time between 1995 and right up through 2002 and 2003 when I was just writing constantly.

RockConfidential.com: How do you know — as a songwriter, musician, and producer — when a song is finished?

Keifer: That's not an exact science. That may be why this record took so long. The record was produced independently from a label. The nice thing about that is there was no deadline. There were no budget restrictions. I got to really live with the material. When you work with it over that period of time… We did take long breaks from it. When you work with something for ten years… there were times when I thought it was done. There was no rush to put it out. I did probably five tours with CINDERELLA during that time. We'd go out on tour and I wouldn't listen to those songs for four months while we were on the road. I'd get home and listen to the songs and think, "Nope. This really isn't done!" When we made the CINDERELLA records, there was no time for objectivity. We had a budget, a time-frame — usually about six months, and we worked six days a week. The only objectivity we had was taking Sunday off. That's not really a lot of time to reflect on what we've done. You can make great music that way, obviously. I love the records we've made. This was just a different approach. I got the opportunity to really leave no stone unturned. We would pick apart everything — from the arrangements, vocals, drum parts. In ProTools, you can really change a lot of things, even after you cut the tracks. It's a great tool for making records and we had a lot of fun with that. We went down some bad roads with editing and backed out of them. There was a lot of experimentation and we had a lot of fun. There was no big hurry to get it done. To answer your question: Who knows when it's done? I woke up one day after ten years and pushed play. When I heard coming out of the speakers what I heard in my head, that's when I knew. Every record has its own path. Some take 10 days, some take 10 years.

RockConfidential.com: I have always had an emotional attachment to music. With today's technology it seems all the emotion has been removed — songs are just another number in an MP3 player. What do you think?

Keifer: The more things change, the more they stay the same. I think the new generation is emotionally connected to things. There's always a new delivery system for music. It started with 78s, 33 1/3s, 45s, cassettes, 8-tracks, CDs. It's very different now, because there isn't a physical product. A lot of it doesn't even come with credits. The experience is different for everybody. Music is an emotional thing. Music expresses angst, love, loss, happiness. I do think there is a disconnect with less and less physical product. You don't have the art that's had time and thought put into. You don't have the lyrics and credits in your hand. I guess if you listen to a song and it affects you emotionally, it will still affect you if you have the lyrics in your hand or not. Who knows, right? It's always been a very emotional thing for me.

Read the entire interview at RockConfidential.com.

"Solid Ground" video: