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Music on the Road

Ben Folds: Not only the piano player

By Paul Vercammen
CNN Showbiz Today Reports

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Ben Folds caressed and assaulted the keys of his black Baldwin piano at a bowling alley in Eagle Rock, California -- a funky suburb of Los Angeles.

The free show, stuffed into the corner of the shadowy, wood-paneled bar at the All-Star Lanes, featured a pair of guest appearances: Weird Al Yankovic dropped by for Folds' "Song for the Dumped," and Glen Phillips, former lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket, joined in on "Still Fighting." It was a euphoric set that sent the die-hard Ben Folds fans in attendance into a sing- along frenzy.

Folds, of course, was the center of attention, as he is on his new CD, "Rockin' the Suburbs." Folds has crafted an album of lyrical pop songs on "Suburbs," his first solo album after three with the Ben Folds Five. The album has been hailed with superlatives in the music press and among Folds fans, though it's "still fighting" to find its place on the radio.

After rockin' Eagle Rock in the show exclusively shot by CNN, Folds sat down to talk about moving to Australia, his new lineup and more.

CNN: You love to take little bits of pop culture and stir them up and throw them into your music, don't you?

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Ben Folds performs 'Not the Same' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) Watch Ben Folds perform 'Still Fighting It' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Ben Folds: It's kind of like someone breaks into your house and you start picking up appliances -- anything you can grab, spoons -- and just start throwing it. You just use everything you got in the kitchen and make music with it.

CNN: How has moving down to Australia perhaps shaped your music, and what has that experience been like for you?

Folds: It gave me a lot of space so I could kind of have a second to think about what I was doing and do what I really felt like doing -- rather than just react to the moment because we were making records really fast. I like that -- that's good. But I kind of needed to chill out for a second. Adelaide, Australia, is a kind of a slow, chill-out place and it's got a nice vibe.

CNN: Do you think Adelaide lends itself to more acoustic and organic music?

Folds: I just like to go to my studio with a song in my head and just like do it in peace. I've always done things kind of tension-based like pressure and got to get it done right now. That's the main difference. I don't know if the actual setting of Adelaide has changed things that much for me.

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CNN: Well, you're no longer Ben Folds Five, which was always funny because you were a trio. How's the new lineup?

Folds: I like my band as long as they will stick with me. I'd like to have them around.

CNN: As for your songwriting, you often lead us in one direction and then turn it completely around. Can you tell us about the structure of your songs?

Folds: Some of the most happy or depressing or poignant moments can happen under really disgusting fluorescent lights in a fast food restaurant. That's kind of life, you know. It all doesn't happen like when it's raining outside and you're walking through a graveyard in the fall. Some things happen at Arby's. I've probably got four songs that I write over and over again: the character study or life's strange moments, making fun of cool people, the break-up song, (and) love songs, (though) only one and a half (of those).

Maybe one day I'll write a political song. But the rest of them I'm sure I'll keep doing that in different forms.

CNN: Who inspired you in an era where so many guys grabbed a guitar and grunted their lyrics? Here's Ben Folds, singing melodically and playing the piano.

Folds: I was just locked in my room of my own accord playing music. I used to get Elton John records at yard sales because by the time I was 12 years old he'd already made a lot of records. I'd go buy three of them and I'd read the lyrics (written by Bernie Taupin). I knew he (Elton John) wrote music to the lyrics. Then I would write songs to every set of lyrics. I couldn't believe he could do that (make up songs to match Taupin's words.) I wanted to try that.

CNN: What's it like for you to look out and see your rabid fans singing every word of your songs?

Folds: Our audience is an extremely smart audience. It's not really cool to suck up to your audience but it's just the truth. They're cool. I'm very proud of that.

CNN: How did you hook up with Weird Al Yankovic (producer of the "Rockin' the Suburbs" video?)

Folds: He tells me he's been a fan for a while and he introduced himself at a show one time. I was trying to decide who should direct the video. I was in the grocery store and Al was in the grocery store. We were just talking and I'm like, 'Man, this guy's great.' I thought, just have him do it. He's probably the most sane real person I have met in the business, outside my like immediate structure. He's a great guy