CORROSION OF CONFORMITY Frontman Produces Southern Rockers SOL FIYA

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY/DOWN guitarist Pepper Keenan has produced the debut CD from Southern rock band SOL FIYA.

Titled "Heaven She Rides", the album's sound was recently described by The Times-Picayune music writer Keith Spera as akin to "DR. JOHN fronting the ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND."

"One of my problems with New Orleans bands is that all the records sound the same," Keenan told The Times-Picayune. "(With SOL FIYA) we were going to make a crazy-ass rock record. I wanted it to sound like an old, nasty DR. JOHN record, when funk was a bad word. I didn't want it to sound like a Kodak commercial."

Keenan was recruited to produce the CD last summer after SOL FIYA had assembled enough material for a record following three years of gigging in local clubs. Pepper, a friend of SOL FIYA leader Christian Boone, is credited with having shaped SOL FIYA's sometimes unwieldy compositions.

"Boone had great songs, but they all sounded like a jam band," Keenan told The Times-Picayune. "I was like, 'Let's unveil these things.' They'd been playing the songs in clubs so long, they were just used to jamming. Which is great, but sometimes they'd just noodle and do solos until they got to the end. I was like, 'Why don't you just repeat (a part) and then all of a sudden it sounds like you mean what you're doing?'

"All the guys can play, so whatever I could think of, they executed. It's got lots of different textures. It sounds authoritative."

Keenan also encouraged Boone to make use of his natural New Orleans accent.

"One main thing was to get Boone to sing like he meant it, and to use his accent to his advantage," Keenan said. "Not try to cover it up and act like he's from Colorado, but sing like he sounds when he's drunk. That's what I want to hear — that's got character."

For more information on SOL FIYA, visit the band's official web site at this location.