Karma

Singer, songwriter, musician and star of film and television, Rick Springfield is poised to release his latest album, Karma, on April 13 on Platinum. The album, his first since Rock of Life in 1988, will feature “Itsalwaysomething” as the initial single, a song that came to him in a dream. Springfield, who has sold more than 15 million records across his 12-album career, has already been on tour for the better part of a year, premiering songs from Karma along with performing nearly two dozen Top 20 hits and other favorites to wildly receptive crowds.

As for Karma, it’s all good. Springfield, who promises, “It sounds like me,” co-produced the guitar-based, rhythmically-driven, spiritually motivated masterpiece with Bill Drescher, who has always been there as keeper of the wound all the way back to Working Class Dog, which spawned his definitive “Jessie’s Girl.”

“With Bill, we both think pretty much alike and once the songs are written, the making of the album is a process of choosing the directions and choosing the sounds. We don’t play it for anybody, we don’t ask anyone’s opinions. It’s up to us and we love that process.”

Springfield, a prolific writer of things meaningful and cool, penned half the songs solo and the balance as collaborative efforts, among them with Jim Vallance, who shares credits with Aerosmith, as well. Springfield plays 80% of the instruments on the album, including guitars, dobro, bass, keyboards, drum programs and loops.

The project took eight months to complete, the longest Springfield has ever spent making an album, in part because he did most of the playing which, he admits, makes him “super critical.”

However, he’s quick to give the credit where it’s due, citing Mr. Mister singer Richard Page as a background vocalist, who, along with many other Karma musicians, has appeared on several earlier works like Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet, Living in Oz, and Tao.

“A lot of them are studio players but they’re mainly friends,” Springfield points out. “I work with people who I think complement what I do. I wanted people who were going to get into it and that’s why I used the people I used.”

As for his return to the studio after an extended hiatus in which he recorded pressure-free demos and took on pressure-filled acting roles, he says laughingly of the experience. “It was really great and really horrible. It was wonderful and painful. I’m my own worst critic and I can be really hard on myself. It made me work harder but it’s sometimes counterproductive. Everything becomes like a zit on prom night.”

Springfield, though proud of his age and all that he’s accomplished, has managed to outdistance time and all that it implies. Seemingly youth eternal but with (thankfully) much more dignity, he remains a bankable film and television talent when few rock stars can lay claim to similar consistency. Who else can walk out of the recording studio and onto the set of the NBC smash sitcom “Suddenly Susan” for a recurring role? Who else was Dr. Noah Drake on “General Hospital” and smoothly shifted gears to saunter on the concert stage and melt hearts with “Don’t Talk to Strangers?”

Springfield has maintained the ability to cross the borders of these seemingly impenetrable and rarified universes at will, and nobody even beats him up the way they used to when he was the Australian equivalent to a U.S. Army brat, moving from pillar to post as his father’s military assignments dictated. Not even the tragic loss of his adored father or a devastating motorcycle accident could keep this Working Class Dog at bay.

“You’ve got to be committed,” Springfield says of overcoming life’s obstacles, whether it’s winning back your life or winning back your life or winning over skeptics. “You’ve got to love to do it just on your own, sitting in your own room or in your own studio or playing to 30 people instead of 30,000. You’ve got to get the joy out of doing that, and I do.

“My sole [and soul] point in writing is, first of all, the process,” he continues, “and also to connect with people through what I write. The greatest thrill is when someone comes back to me about a song I’ve written that mirrored an event in their life.”

So for Springfield, Karma is its own reward.