Ben Folds
Ben Folds
Benjamin Scott "Ben" Foldsis an American singer-songwriter and record producer. From 1995 to 2000, Folds was the frontman and pianist of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five. After the group temporarily disbanded, Folds performed as a solo artist and has toured all over the world. The group reunited in 2011. He has also collaborated with musicians such as William Shatner, Regina Spektor and "Weird Al" Yankovic and undertaken experimental songwriting projects with authors such as Nick Hornby and Neil...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth12 September 1966
CityWinston-Salem, NC
CountryUnited States of America
My job is to be some sort of music/lyric psychic, to figure out that that's the right song to not fight the lyric.
The nature of honesty is that if someone has information or knows something about you that you don't want heard, then they have power over you.
The reason I stop playing songs is usually because I get sick of them, and then they find themselves back into the set list at some point.
The way I see it, there's only one melody for any song.
There is still some art in pop music. But it can't happen if you're not inspired.
Why would I want to sound like Joni Mitchell? I've got Joni Mitchell records, and they're great, and I couldn't possibly be that good.
If the melody is telling me this is what the song is about, then I'm sort of forced into confession, autobiography or fantasy. If I don't do that, I've hamstrung the melody.
In many ways, I've chosen to be plain, almost too plain, too self-effacing. Like, if I record a vocal and I don't like the way it sounds, I would have them turn it up and take the reverb off it to make it as plain as possible.
I'm aware that I'm very fringe, and it's nice that way.
Even though I live in America more, I feel like when I go to Adelaide, that's when I get to go home.
My parents told me I must get married. I was seen as a failure if I didn't do it.
Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.
Because I write very simply, but inside the simplicity, there's a lot of subtlety. That's what I'm proud of.
I used to do this big rant at the end of some gigs with Ben Folds Five. The band broke into this big heavy metal thing and I started as a joke to scream in a heavy metal falsetto. I found myself saying things like: Feel my pain, I am white, feel my pain.