I do think that when you make repeated mistakes, it’s usually because you’re just not coming to grips with something.
BEN FOLDSI do think that when you make repeated mistakes, it’s usually because you’re just not coming to grips with something.
BEN FOLDSIf you can’t draw a crowd, draw dicks on the wall
BEN FOLDSWhen someone really goes to tell you something about what they’re thinking, they’re going to wear that experience with them. That’s what you have to share.
BEN FOLDSNow that I have found someone, I’m feeling more alone… than I ever have before.
BEN FOLDSThe 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.
BEN FOLDSI divorce myself from listeners who aren’t tolerant of humor. I did notice universally that, especially when it comes to weight, people look in the mirror and get the angle just right, tell themselves it’s all right, and then they go out.
BEN FOLDSPeople learn at the rate they are going to learn.
BEN FOLDSThere is still some art in pop music. But it can’t happen if you’re not inspired.
BEN FOLDSIn 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.
BEN FOLDSMy job is to be some sort of music/lyric psychic, to figure out that that’s the right song to not fight the lyric.
BEN FOLDSIf 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.
BEN FOLDSBilly Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.
BEN FOLDSNext door, there’s an old man who lived to his nineties and one day passed away in his sleep. And his wife, she stayed for a couple of days and passed away. I’m sorry, I know that’s a strange way to tell you that I know we belong.
BEN FOLDSNotes don’t make music until you learn to insert silence between them.
BEN FOLDSTo the modern ear, it seems soft. When you hear it against other things, it seems vulnerable. Lyrically and musically, though, this is more subtle. And, yes, it’s asking a lot of someone who’s used to being hit over the head with bright neon to listen to this.
BEN FOLDSI do have that mindset – that most good art comes from some turmoil, from someone trying to come to some equilibrium, or come up and get a breath.
BEN FOLDS