INTERVIEW: Tom Keifer is ready to ‘Rise’
Photo: Tom Keifer, the former frontman of Cinderella, now heads a group called #keiferband. Photo courtesy of Tammy Vega / Provided by press rep with permission.
Tom Keifer, the well-respected rock singer and musician, has been enjoying industry success for decades, and now he’s ready to “rise” above the competition with his latest recording effort. Keifer and his eponymous group #keiferband recently released Rise, a new album of songs that further showcases the singer’s range and interest in diverse rock offerings.
“We had a great time making the record,” said Keifer, former frontman of Cinderella. “We made this with the band that I’ve been touring with for the last six years, so there was a real chemistry when we went in to make it. We really tried to capture that energy because we’ve toured relentlessly, so we definitely have developed a chemistry over the years we’ve been out there on the road. It was really, really fun to make with this band, and we’re happy with how it came out.”
That band consists of Keifer’s wife and songwriting partner Savannah Keifer on vocals, percussion and piano, plus Tony Higbee on guitar and vocals, Billy Mercer on bass and vocals, Kendra Chantelle on vocals and percussion, Jarred Pope on drums, and Kory Myers on keyboards and vocals, according to press notes.
The impetus for Keifer and the group to head into the recording studio was inspiration that hit the singer while he was out on the road, gigging around the United States and thinking what his next creative output would be.
“You kind of want to feel like you’ve got something to say, I guess, and the songwriting process really always starts with lyrics,” he said. “So that takes place throughout the day all day because you’re constantly analyzing your thoughts and deciding whether this is a song or that’s a song, and ultimately if you hit upon something that you feel is an emotion that’s worth expressing, what that emotion is kind of tends to dictate what the music is, even the instrumentation and how heavy the song is or whether it’s something more intimate like a ballad with piano or acoustic guitar. So the lyrics always dictate that. I think the most important aspect of being ready to make a record or saying it’s time to is when you feel you’ve got a collection of those thoughts or ideas that are songs that you feel are worth pursuing.”
The songs on Rise — including “The Death of Me,” “Hype,” “Touching the Divine” and “Waiting on the Demons” — were not tested out on the road. Instead, Keifer felt the inspiration and then eventually headed into the studio; it was in the recording sessions that he and Savannah started developing each tune.
“Savannah and I have collected quite a few song ideas and thoughts over the last six years being out with this band and kind of just stored them away and really didn’t pull them out and complete them as songs until we decided it was time to make a record,” Keifer said. “We had wrapped up our tour dates at the end of last year, and we said, hey, time to make a record with our new band here. We started pulling out all those little seeds and thoughts that we had over the last few years touring with the band and starting developing them and finishing them out as songs. As we were finishing the songs up, we were taking them into the studio with the band and cutting them. None of them were really written while we were out touring; they were just seeds, if you will, of the songs that ultimately you can hear on the record.”
Keifer is extremely happy with Rise, which follows on the heels of his 2013 release, The Way Life Goes. In particular, he loves the new song “Touching the Divine,” a four-minute plus song that features “tasty slide work,” as press notes put it.
“I think it’s a song that speaks to where we feel we are as a band,” Keifer said. “I think if you asked anyone in the band, they would say the band came along at just the right time because we were all in this place where we needed something new. We needed a shot in the arm. We needed some inspiration, and we came together. And we gave that to each other, and we really enjoyed this ride and this journey that we’ve been on. I think the verses in that song speak to some of the adversity that we’ve gone through either individually and had each other’s backs on or a little bit of the challenges as a band that we’ve gone through. We’re in a better place now, so in a way it’s maybe an anthem for our band.”
He added: “And Savannah and I actually wrote [‘Touching the Divine’] with Kendra Chantelle, who is one of our band members and a great songwriter, so we had a lot of fun writing with her on that one. Yeah, really, really love the song a lot. I love the message of it, and I think it speaks a lot to how we feel as a band, where this journey we’ve been on has taken us all.”
The lyrics in “Touching the Divine” focus on several key themes, including truth, doubt, faith, pain and grace. There’s an obvious spiritualism running through the lyrics, evidenced even in the song’s title.
For Keifer, the songs on Rise are a natural continuation of a musical conversation he started back on The Way Life Goes, and even further back with his work in Cinderella. That legendary band is responsible for so many hits, including “Nobody’s Fool,” “Shake Me,” “Coming Home” and “Shelter Me.”
“We play the classic Cinderella stuff because that’s a big part of my history, and I still love playing those songs,” Keifer admitted. “And everyone wants to hear them, but the new stuff sits alongside it very well and is received equally as well. … [The Cinderella songs] are a part of me. I wrote those songs. I sang those songs. I did a majority of the guitar work on them, so those songs and that sound, a huge part of that is me. It’s part of my history. I still love playing them. I think the success that we had as a band, starting with the release of Night Songs, was nothing but a blessing. It’s led me to where I am today, so I don’t ever look back on any regrets. I love playing that stuff, and I really love playing it alongside some new stuff because as an artist you always want to be creating new stuff, too. I think they work very well together.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Tom Keifer and #keiferband recently released their new album, Rise. Click here for more information.
