Way Abnormal: My chat with Ben Folds

Why seven times? I have absolutely no idea. Perhaps because it’s a biblical number? Ten seemed a bit overboard and five diminutive? Regardless of our reasoning, that post-concert agreement of yesteryear, made in a state of pure musical euphoria following  one of Ben’s raucous, three-hour gigs, has remained near and dear to my young heart. Sadly, my young budget has kept me stalled at concert number three for a while. Now, I’m not sure if Best Friend Sarah will agree or not, but I think I might’ve secured a sufficient replacement for concert number four: a one-on-one phone call with Mr. Folds himself.

That’s right, I shamelessly exploited my MSN UK internship to have a chat with one of my all-time favourite musicians. Ben Folds, former lead singer and pianist of the funnily-named trio Ben Folds Five, struck out on a successful solo career a few years ago, since producing two full-length albums and three EPs that former Ben Folds Five fans and new converts alike have revelled in. The witty piano-pop artist’s latest solo release, Way to Normal, hit the shelves on September 29 in the UK, spearheaded by its first single, You Don’t Know Me, a collaboration with alternative songstress Regina Spektor. In anticipation of his upcoming UK tour Ben took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss education, graveyards, The Communist Manifesto, democracy, normalcy, song writing and – oh yeah – his new album with me. All while I tried to ward off impending fan girl gushing.

Our interview had to be pushed back from its initial date because, of all things, Ben was stuck in a Nashville, Tennessee voting line on November 4th. Respecting his civic duties I postponed our chat, knowing that we’d have quite the starting point for our dialogue the next day.

Indeed, pushing through my up-all-night-to-watch-election-results grogginess, I asked Ben about his voting experience, his thoughts about the race’s outcome, and his opinion of musicians’ political activism.

Though he’s a very politically-minded individual (which I found out first-hand as we ploughed through a ten-minute discussion of communism, voting, and what role the American education system can play in ending bitter partisanship) the musician said that, aside from providing fans with voter registration info, he’s tried to stay out of that arena.

“I try to keep an endorsement out of things,” he said, “because I figure if I’m really trying to do good my impartment isn’t to add to the divide.”

In response to a query about future political song writing (he penned a rather provocative track called “All U Cat Eat” for 2003’s Sunny 16 EP) he said, “Thankfully, I’m not a politician. What I was thinking [when I wrote All U Can Eat] was that I’ll try one of anything, when it comes to song writing, even things that I consider sort of against the rules.”
Against the rules: not such a surprise, coming from a guy whose new CD features a rollicking tune called Bitch Went Nuts. But it seems, for Ben, that testy females are tame territory, lyrically.

“I had an idea for a song that probably would’ve gotten me beaten up. It would’ve been called Long Live the Insurgency and you would’ve had to make it to the end to realize that the insurgents were those who fought the Revolutionary War against the British.” He paused. “I don’t like getting injured.”

We moved on to a general discussion of song writing and Ben shared a tactic that’s helped him come up with several tunes, including Way To Normal’s meditation on normalcy itself, Effington. The method’s fairly simple, in theory: improv. But Ben’s is a little more unique. It’s live.

“Yeah, I made [Effington] up on stage,” he answered. “I’d been playing the same songs on stage long enough that I was truly boring myself. The way that I kept the shows interesting was to write a song on stage every night. Not at sound check, but right then - someone would yell something or something would happen in the moment and I would make something up and that would be my oasis.”

The tune’s inspiration was a small town called Effingham his bus passed on the way to a concert in Normal, Illinois (my home town, as a matter of fact). “Making his way to Normal,” as he sings in the track, became a theme – and title of – the album.

“I thought, ‘What the f**k is ‘normal,’ anyway?'” he said.

I asked Ben how this album represents a journey toward, or return to, a form of ‘Normalcy’ for him.

 “Every album has that element,” he said. “When you make an album – you’re gonna find a place to go back home to and from that base you’re going to do something different that you haven’t tried before. So every album that I’ve made I think that I’m coming back to my roots in some way.”

I also managed to get a question in regarding Ben’s latest post-Way to Normal project, a compilation of a cappella covers inspired by, of all things, clips he saw on You Tube. Ben, quite the sweetheart of university a cappella groups, happened across a few covers recorded on the video website that really blew him away. The covers, he told me, represent a sort of rebirth of his songs.