Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.
BEN FOLDSBilly Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.
BEN FOLDSEverybody knows it hurts to grow up…and we’re still fighting it.
BEN FOLDSEverything 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 FOLDSPeople 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 FOLDSIf 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 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 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 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 FOLDSI start songs all the time. If I weren’t so lazy, I would finish them. It’s like when I have a deadline I have to.
BEN FOLDSI 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 FOLDSThe music business is a weird business. Sometimes licensing doesn’t happen because some business component that you never knew about stops it.
BEN FOLDSI 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 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 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 FOLDSThe way I see it, there’s only one melody for any song.
BEN FOLDSBeing capable of anything is a bullshit concept, unless it means you also admit that you’re capable of cheating, lying and killing.
BEN FOLDS