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
With a song, it only takes a couple of minutes to go back to the beginning and try it again to see if it works. The novel freaks me out because, what if you get into the eighth chapter and think, 'Let's go to the top and see if this works again? It's going to take me three weeks.' I'm in awe of that.
You never know when you put out an album that's unique whether it'll get beat up for it or not.
I've gotten to the point where I realize that I need to tell my truth in music and not walk around blabbing my mind.
Rock and roll is - and should be - a kid's place.
I'm not really a strange person or anything, so if there's music I like, usually there's other people who like it too.
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.