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
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.
People learn at the rate they are going to learn.
It's a tough thing to know that when you're making your album, you're going to end up collaborating with, say, Wal-Mart, on your artwork. That just sucks. And the pressure behind getting the numbers real fast is, to me, dizzying.
Everyone, when you're a teenager and you're growing up, you do feel like your life is dramatic enough to be on a TV screen, but we know that it's not.