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 FOLDSThe music business is a weird business. Sometimes licensing doesn’t happen because some business component that you never knew about stops it.
More Ben Folds Quotes
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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.
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I’m definitely an anomaly, but I’m making things. They’re selling, say, martinis, and I’m kind of making vintage Riesling.
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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.
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There is still some art in pop music. But it can’t happen if you’re not inspired.
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I’m not really a strange person or anything, so if there’s music I like, usually there’s other people who like it too.
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My parents told me I must get married. I was seen as a failure if I didn’t do it.
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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.
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Now that I have found someone, I’m feeling more alone… than I ever have before.
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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.
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I’m aware that I’m very fringe, and it’s nice that way.
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I feel like a quote out of context, withholding the rest so I can be for you what you want to see.
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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.
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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.
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And all I really want to say is you’re the reason I want to stay.
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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.
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I 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.
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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.
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The 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.
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Next 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.
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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.
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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.
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What stupid f – king idiot gets married a second time if the first time didn’t work out?
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You can’t really control how people hear stuff. It’s hard to remember that. I have to let go of it.
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Being capable of anything is a bullshit concept, unless it means you also admit that you’re capable of cheating, lying and killing.
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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.
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The cruelest lies are often told without a word The kindest truths are often spoken, never heard
BEN FOLDS