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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.

Ben Folds

It’s like being in the position of – in half of the industry’s mind, you’re kind of a cult-following, independent rocker. And on the other hand, you’re a sellout. But neither one of them are right.
BEN FOLDS

Hands Independent Mind
Everyone grew up with a piano in their living room, so rocking out on the piano was accessible – it wasn’t an upper-class thing. Now pianos have become very much a piece of furniture.
BEN FOLDS

Every Furniture One Piano Room The Piece
If I’m in a relationship and my girlfriend is sleeping with other people, I don’t need to know who it is; I just want to know how she feels about it.
BEN FOLDS

Girlfriend People Sleep
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.
BEN FOLDS

Records Self Sound
I have manic energy. What can be done about it? I don’t know what to say sometimes. I’m professional in public, but I like to stay inside and be a hermit.
BEN FOLDS

Done Energy Sometimes
I think a lot of good directors listen to music while they’re working. The songs just don’t become a part of the film. They’re replaced.
BEN FOLDS

Director Song Thinking
Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.
BEN FOLDS

Both Piano Play
Everything I write is personal, really. Even when I’m sarcastic, it’s quite personal. And on this record, from the production to the singing to the performances, I got it really honest.
BEN FOLDS

Sarcastic Singing Writing
If you can’t draw a crowd, draw dicks on the wall
BEN FOLDS

Crowd Draws Wall
White people don’t sing together very often, and when they do, it’s about the celebrity of the song. The singing at my shows is all about harmony.
BEN FOLDS

People Song White
Because I write very simply, but inside the simplicity, there’s a lot of subtlety. That’s what I’m proud of.
BEN FOLDS

Proud Simplicity Writing
Notes don’t make music until you learn to insert silence between them.
BEN FOLDS

Notes Silence
What stupid f – king idiot gets married a second time if the first time didn’t work out?
BEN FOLDS

Kings Out Stupid Work
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.
BEN FOLDS

Mind Needs Realizing
I 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

Art Mindset Trying
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.
BEN FOLDS

Fighting Job Song
A lot of 18-year-olds are like old men. They think they’ve seen everything.
BEN FOLDS

Men Thinking Years
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.
BEN FOLDS

Numbers Pressure Real
I drink a lot, probably too much. My scene while writing lyrics is always a bottle of scotch and stacks of note cards, pencil and pencil sharpener. I throw around note cards and drink.
BEN FOLDS

Cards Scotch Writing
When 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 FOLDS

Experience Share Something Thinking
People learn at the rate they are going to learn.
BEN FOLDS

Learn People Rate
Some people would say they never see me because I don’t go anywhere. I stay in the blue state of Nashville, in my bubble.
BEN FOLDS

Anywhere Blue Buddle People State
The piano is just a different animal. It’s expensive, it’s big, it’s heavy, and it doesn’t fit in the mix easily.
BEN FOLDS

Animal Class Piano
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.
BEN FOLDS

Enough Grow Up Screen Teenager
I 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 FOLDS

Divorce Mirrors People
People aren’t going to sit there very often, not your average public, and your average music-business monster is not going to take the time to notice the overtones and the undertones inside the flavor. They’d rather just have the martini.
BEN FOLDS

Average Business Overtones Public
I want people to listen to my lyrics and be okay with themselves. The people who have it the roughest are homosexuals who come out of the closet.
BEN FOLDS

Closets People Want

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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