| Still rockin the suburbs: Ben Folds |
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| "It was too long a gap last time. There'll be no EPs and no William Shatner albums to get in the way this time". |
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CMU ALBUMS OF 2005: 'Songs For Silverman'
released 25 Apr on SonyBMG/Epic
If you'd ask us to predict what our favourite albums of 2005 would be twelve months ago, it is unlikely we would have listed any of the other nine that have finally made the grade. However, the one album that would have featured then, and which features now, is Ben Folds' 'Songs For Silverman'. You see, Ben Folds is the closest I get to having a religion. Seeing the man play live is akin to having an audience with the pope. And the arrival of a new album is a little like someone publishing a new chapter of the bible. Presumably that would get dedicated Christians very very excited, so you can imagine the excitement levels that started to build in the CMU camp when SonyBMG confirmed they would be releasing Ben Fold's long awaited second solo album in the Spring of this year. Such was the anticipation that when 'Songs For Silverman' finally arrived, in its rather neat hardback book, the overriding emotion was one of anxiety - what if Mr Folds wouldn't live up to our incredibly high expectations? Needless to say, he did, and then some. Despite the extensive and almost faultless Ben Folds Five catalogue, Folds has really excelled since going it alone on 2001's 'Rockin The Suburbs'. Like all great songwriters, Folds is, of course, essentially a story teller who tells his stories through lyrics, music and a genius command of his piano. Like 'Suburbs' and much of Ben Folds Five's work, 'Songs For Silverman' consists, in the main, of rather sad stories. But again Folds manages to combine a bitter, at times hopeless frustration with the world with enough good humour and upbeat musical moments to leave you, on the whole, in a more optimistic frame of mind. And this despite the inclusion of one of Folds' saddest tracks to date, his ode to the late Elliot Smith. Ben assured me he'd be bringing out his next long player in considerably less than the four years we had to wait for 'Silverman'. I hope that's true. It's tough going when you're signed up to a religion with so few moments of celebration, even if those moments are extra special when they arrive. |
Listing ten of your favourite albums of the year is one thing, but have you ever tried to list your ten favourite long players of all time? It's an impossible task, but one I nevertheless attempt every time there's one of those 'best albums ever' surveys on TV. It is even harder for me, though, because I am down to seven available slots before I even start. The first three automatically go to Ben Folds 'Rockin The Suburbs', Ben Folds Five's 'The Unauthorised Biography Of Reinhold Messner' and, as of this year, Ben Folds' 'Songs For Silverman'.
Us Ben Folds fans are a funny breed. We tend to be of a cynical persuasion, and are not prone to unleashing excessive amounts of devotion onto people just because we like their work. In fact, we pride ourselves on our ability to maintain a bit of perspective however much we may like a person, a film, a TV show, or a piece of music. Yet we find it hard to not get carried away in our love for all things Mr Folds. Which means that when he asks a packed out Brixton Academy to sing the brass section to 'Army', or to add the harmonies to 'Not The Same', they know every note inside out, and reproduce them with an air of perfection.
And this excessive Ben Folds love is often immediate. I myself have introduced people to his music - people who weren't previously even aware of his existence - and then discovered three weeks later they've been out and bought up his entire back catalogue, downloaded every track to their iPod, and have successfully bid on eBay for an incredibly rare limited edition vinyl release. Then again, I know a lot of arty types, and it is they who seem to get most excited about Folds.
"People who work in the arts - theatre people - they do tend to like my music," he admits, "But then those people are often a bit strange. A bit 'wrong'. I think you have to be a bit wrong to like my music".
Given the aforementioned love of all things Ben Folds, when you get fifteen minutes on the phone with him it's hard to not spend most of it telling him how great his music is - how you especially like that lyric, or that extra special bit of piano in that other song that's just genius. When I'm left on hold for two minutes waiting to speak to him, I can't help thinking his PR is saying "it's Chris from CMU, he's a huge fan", and Ben is saying "ah God, not another one, do you think we can accidentally cut him off?". Ben, I suspect, shares his excessive fans' cynicism towards excessive fans.
"The process is the same as it always has been really" Ben says. He's not cut me off, and I've asked him whether making albums on his own is greatly different to when he worked with the other two members of the Ben Folds Five. "The process for making this album was pretty much the same as it was for, say, 'The Unauthorised Biography'. There's a lot of writing stuff in the studio. You start off with a basic idea of where you're headed, but most of it comes together once you start recording a song."
The thing I've always noticed most about Folds' music is how many of his songs basically tell the story of a fictional character. Those familiar with his music probably feel like they're on first name terms with the likes of Fred and Stan and Sara and Judy. Are those characters the basic idea from which each song evolves? "No, not really. To be honest, I'm not sure why that happens, why I create characters through my songs. I don't intend to. There have been times when I specifically tried not do, but then I do it again anyway".
Of course on 'Songs For Silverman', one of the people Ben sang about wasn't fictional at all. 'Late' is written in memory of Eliot Smith, who Folds toured with. Smith, of course, died in somewhat suspicious circumstances back in October 2003. "We toured together, and I liked his music," Ben says, "so I wanted to write that song". Did writing about a real person differ from writing about one of those aforementioned fictional ones? "Not really. I suppose there was a bit more responsibility, I had to be a bit more literal. People read into things, and assume what you say is true. If I'd sung about him levitating, there'd be some people saying, 'what, Eliott Smith could levitate?' So in that way I did have to be a little more literal".
'Songs For Silverman' was a long time coming for Ben Folds fans, following 2001's 'Rockin The Suburbs', although he did treat us to three free EPs via his website - "that was good," he says of his digital venture, "though a bit generous! I think I need to be a bit more selfish for the time being". The wait was extended when Folds put back his own album to concentrate on a project with one William Shatner, 2004's wonderful long player 'Has Been'.
"I did that project because I wanted to make an album no one had made before," he explains. "You know how they always say that pretty much every record has already been made? And they're right in many ways, the scope of pop music has always been pretty slim. But I knew that making an album like this with someone like William Shatner would be totally unique".
And unique it was. And no more so than with the genius cover version of Pulp's Common People. "That was my idea," Folds admits. "I've always loved that song. I think it's one of the best pop songs, but practically no one knew it here in the US. And the lyrics are really strong. Which is why our version worked, you can really hear the words when someone like William Shatner is speaking them".
Is Folds looking to collaborate with anyone else anytime soon? "It wasn't so much the collaborating that was good about the project, it was just being able to work with other people around. It can get quite lonely recording on your own! But as I said, it was the uniqueness of that project that drew me to it. I'm not proactively looking for people to work with".
Which hopefully means more new Ben Folds sooner this time round? "Yeah, I'm going back into the studio in the Spring, and we hope to have an album out by the end of the year. I've got some music in my head already, and a few fragments of songs I've been trying out. I've got a lot of 30 second songs at the moment."
But we can expect finished tracks some time soon, yes, Ben? "Sure. It was too long a gap last time. There'll be no EPs and no William Shatner albums to get in the way this time".
This is great news, except: "That said, there is a soundtrack that I'm working on for a movie. I can't say any more than that. The Hollywood system is so weird - those studios are exactly the way you'd imagine them to be. You've no idea what they will do with your work. There's always a real chance they'll cut you out of the picture completely right at the last minute. I don't think I'll be telling anyone what film it is until I see it up there on the screen with my music in it!".
Show me the film director who would commission a Ben Folds soundtrack and then not use it, and me and a legion of other overly-devoted Folds fans will go round and beat him up. Meanwhile we'll wait in heightened anticipation for another album this time next year. I'm going to reduce myself to six other favourite albums of all time in preparation - so I've got a slot for the new Folds outing just as soon as it is released.
Ben Folds' favourite artists of 2005:
"I'm really liking Sufjan Stevens - that was one of the best records I've heard in a long time. And The Streets. It's amazing how many people over here still haven't heard those records, and I love to play them for them."
Ben Folds' New Year's resolutions:
"I haven't really got any. Maybe I'll start to work out. Though probably not."
Some Ben Folds plugging:
Ben Folds' 'Songs For Silverman' was released on 25 Apr 2005 on SonyBMG/Epic.
chris@unlimitedmedia.co.uk - published dec 2005
