The press is like any business. Its a group of really intelligent individuals that ends up being one slathering, one-eyed, drooling monster.
BEN FOLDSThe press is like any business. Its a group of really intelligent individuals that ends up being one slathering, one-eyed, drooling monster.
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 FOLDSThe music business is a weird business. Sometimes licensing doesn’t happen because some business component that you never knew about stops it.
BEN FOLDSThe 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.
BEN FOLDSI 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.
BEN FOLDSI don’t leave my neighborhood. I don’t go anywhere. There are four blocks I live in and there are two coffee shops, one at each end of the block… so I don’t do much driving…
BEN FOLDSBut I really do have a soft spot for the solo shows. Any musician who writes and sings will tell you that’s the center of it, that is it. It’s almost like there’s something church-like about it and you gotta go back there, if you’re a songwriter that sings your material.
BEN FOLDSWhy 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.
BEN FOLDSI think alcohol is a good drug for me when I’m writing. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with it. I can stop for a few weeks, so I think it’s okay. I don’t think it’s good for my liver, but I do love it. It’s a huge part of my life, and it makes me happy.
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 FOLDSEveryone, 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 FOLDSIt’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 FOLDSThe clock never stops, never stops, never waits. We’re growing old. It’s getting late.
BEN FOLDSThe nice thing about age is worrying less and less about what people think.
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 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 FOLDS