Tom Kimmel: Maintaining Individuality

When Tom Kimmel first came to Nashville, his aunt asked a man she knew, songwriter Allen Reynolds, to talk to her nephew about being in Nashville and wanting to work in the music business.

“He told me ‘If you want to be successful in the long run, develop your writing’,” Kimmel recalled.

Kimmel took that advice to heart, and in addition to the cuts he started having by other artists, he now has his first album of self-penned tunes out on the Polygram label, with several chart pop hits to his credit.

As with many who enter the music business, Kimmel was also interested in music and even songwriting, but he took a round about way of getting to Nashville from Alabama. From working in a rock ‘n roll band in high school, he attended the University of Alabama, where he majored in English. From there, he journeyed to Newport, RI, where he first found an entry into publishers in Nashville through an acquaintance in a band.

“I moved back to Alabama and worked in factories, saving my money to come to Nashville,” Kimmel said of his days prior to moving to Nashville. “I was very naïve about the music business, and once I did get here, (songwriter) Troy Seals published some of my songs. He took an interest in me and gave me some good advice at a time when I was looking for some kind words and criticism was hard for me to swallow.

“He simply told me to listen to the radio and pay attention to songs I liked. Analyze them, figure out what works, why I liked them and what about them moved me. He told me not to pay any attention to songs I didn’t like.”

“At the time, “Saturday Night Fever” had hit and “Stayin’ Alive” was a top 10 song. I listened to that song and everything he said made sense. First you hear the drum beat, then the music, and then the vocal. Everything builds, and by the time you get to the chorus, you’ve gone through a great melody and great structure. That was the first time it occurred to me how a song has to flow. I also realized that no matter how great the lyrics, if you don’t have a great melody, it won’t work.”

Kimmel had written quite a few songs by the time he arrived in Nashville, and like all other writer hopefuls, he thought his songs were great. It didn’t take him long to realize that he did have a lot to learn, but because he was willing to learn, he advanced quickly to the point of getting cuts. It wasn’t too long before he had cuts by Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn, Johnny Cash (“Heroes,” which has to date been cut four times), Levon Helm, Joe Cocker (“A to Z”) and Southern Pacific.

“I felt I was going to have to devote myself to write, and I began to write every day. It had never occurred to me before to sit down and write until I read a book called “The Courage To Create,” and it talked about how important it is to nurture your creative ideas. I learned that you can’t force inspiration, but you have to create an environment where creativity can be nurtured.”

Kimmel keeps his ideas written in a notebook, and finds that a line that meant nothing to him one day might suddenly come to life on another day.

“I used to think you had to experience everything, good and bad, and to some extent you do, but I find now that I want to be happy…and I find songwriting to be like being an actor. You put yourself in different situations and feel and imagine what it would be like in something similar to what you’re writing about.”

An example from his album is the title cut, “5 to 1,” which is a song about coming home to a bad neighborhood, seeing the old beside the new, and discovering that perhaps that much has not changed. It’s not something Kimmel has experienced, but he writes about it very convincingly.

“Sometimes I will write a song from a point of view that is not my own,” Kimmel said. “I have a song called “Cocaine Came Between Use,” and I’m not into drugs, but the song is a light hearted look at the problem of being on cocaine, and a couple who breaks up over cocaine. My record company really freaked out over the song, but people who have had similar experiences tell me I really nailed the story.”

With Kimmel’s album behind him, he can look again at writing, because during the year it took to put the album down he didn’t write at all.

“I put everything else aside during the recording,” he explained. “Then I began doing promotion for the album, and then the tour with Heart came along. I’ve begun to feel that if I don’t adapt to this new situation, I’m not going to be able to write, so I’ve been forcing myself, when I have extra time, to go and write. I recently finished the first song I’ve written in over a year, and others are being developed.”

Admitting that he missed writing once he had completed the album, Kimmel said it was a matter of clearing his head before he could start to get the creative juices flowing again.

“I feel most of what is important about writing is the inspiration,” Kimmel said. “You have to work at songwriting. You have to learn craftsmanship, and I have, but that’s not enough. Some writers are great craftsmen but they just aren’t inspirational enough.”

“You can also have great inspiration but not know the craft that goes into writing a song. The craft becomes second nature after awhile, and you start to know what works, and then when the inspiration comes along, it all falls together. At the time a song is being written, I take the creative view of what feels right.”

Kimmel moved to Nashville before the so-called rock movement in that city had started to make headlines, and he found he was kind of on his own, as far as the songs he wrote himself went.

“I have worked hard at songwriting and I worked pretty much on my own. I haven’t done it as part of the established writing community, I’ve pretty much done it my way. Writing has been the whole key to everything I’ve done. I’m glad I stuck with my own style of writing. There was a lot of pressure in Nashville to write to get the cuts. I feel that by writing what is for me, it helped me be more individual with my style.”

Kimmel feels that Nashville is opening up to more new music, and he says without a doubt that it is a great place to write.

“It’s not hard to get into publishers in Nashville,” he said. “You can get immediate feedback on your songs, and the different organizations like the Nashville Songwriters Association, BMI, ASCAP, are all willing to help you. If Nashville continues to open up to pop and rock, it will become a complete music town. The musicians and writers on the (west) coast have a lot of respect for Nashville, and I was real happy to see that.”

As for his advice to amateur songwriters, Kimmel drew from advice he had seen in a previous issue of American Songwriter.

“I liked what Tommy Rocco had to say – if you can do something else, then do it,” Kimmel advised. “One reason I stuck it out was because this is what I wanted to do.

“You also have to be willing to look for criticism and feedback from a lot of different people. Put yourself in a situation where there is strong writing, and number one, you’ll see you can’t do it, or number two, you’ll know you have the potential and you’ll go for it.”