Quotes - Ben
"It's been cool to be cool for so long now, so now it's cool not to be cool."
-Ben
The band got it's name because "it sounds better than Ben Folds Three."
-Ben
"Alliteration just sounds better."
-Ben
"Trio... you mean that doesn't mean five?"
-Ben
"I think it's the perfect touring piano. I think I have like the greatest touring
piano there ever was because it's the perfect length ... I've actually had tons of guys at clubs say,
'Well, we'll see how long you take that piano around.' I wanna fucking kick their ass for that,
'cause it's like, we moved that piano for two years by ourselves ... two guys in the band like
hoisting it off a truck and playing it and to have someone flippantly walk by and go, 'Huh, we'll
see how long you do that.' It's like, 'Fuck you.'"
-Ben (about hauling around his piano)
"Nashville is a nice way to fail."
-Ben
"There were a lot of musicians around here I talked to who couldn't see it.
But as soon as I started explaining it to both of them they were like, 'Ah, I can see that. I can see
that. We didn't have anything else going on in our lives, none of us, so we just worked our asses
off."
-Ben (on meeting Rob and Darren)
>
"I think they just have the gene. We're all from the same planet or
something like that. I think so because, people who are big fans of our music, I just see myself at
their age; I see myself in them ten or fifteen years ago. When I was in high school for instance, I
know that the reason I identified with music or the musician had nothing to do with music, it had
to do with where it was coming from and the reason it was being made. And I think that our
crowd, for whatever reason, I feel like I have something in common
with most of them. I don't look out in the audience and see people I can't identify with for the
most part".
-Ben (on the fans)
"The piano is a wussy instrument. That doesn't mean you're a wuss to play it."
-Ben
Ben's idea of hell:
"I'd have to teach music school for all the shit I gave my teachers there."
"Although I was always ready and willing for the job, because I grew up
being like that too. The stuff that I listened to when I grew up, headphones on; "What do you
mean by that? Well what do you mean by that?" know what I mean? So it doesn't make me feel
weird that people do that, 'cause I'm just happy to... well, it doesn't really wig me out. The
perception is that "Oh man I can't deal with
it. All these people listening to my music" but "Fuck you, what are you doing it for?" In the first
place I wanted to give something back, 'cause I thought I was going to fucking go crazy as a
kid."
-Ben
"The nice thing is I really feel like we got a lot of respect from those bands.
We didn't know if we would or not and I think we really looked up to those bands. There wasn't
the attitude that you would think down here about like, 'Man, that fucking piano band, what's
their problem?’ he says. "I mean sometimes, maybe we didn't get noticed or something. But it
didn't feel so bad. I think anything that felt bad was just like totally fabricated by us as feeling a
little self conscious that we weren't as cool as the Archers of Loaf."
-Ben
"I see people on the front of stuff and they're all they're striking these poses.
Then you see other guys, they're trying so hard to look like they're bored and don't care about it.
Why not, I mean, if you get your picture taken for a school photo and that's you, why not put that
on the front of your album cover?"
-Ben
"The pope don't live here"
-Ben
"I wouldn't do it any differently for that album. Because we needed that for
that
album; we needed to be reminded that we're sending a postcard from home. No one else
could make that album. Because it was made at Easley St, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
and it was written there and that's where we live and so that's what it is. I like that
postcard thing."
-Ben (on Whatever...)
"I like to use peoples' entire names in songs. I think you always have to write
from an experience... Mostly I write about people I felt guilty about for one reason or
another...not all of them, but most of them."
-Ben
"Oh yeah, now's the time to act like really cool rock stars. I saw this thing
with Oasis where they said, 'If you don't like us then you can fuck off.' Well the same applies
with us. If you don't like Ben Folds Five you can fuck off!"
-Ben
"Writing songs for me is more like writing a short story or a screen play," he
explains. "The premise has to ring true, and the characters have to develop during the course of
the song. I also love the way the lyrics interact with melodies.I'm fascinated by funny sounding
words, and how something funny can be really sad within the context of the song. There's stuff
you can do with a pop song you couldn't possible talk about or write in an essay."
-Ben
"Well I try to take it as a complement. But you see I don't mind it until I
realize that someone means it, and they're like, 'No, no, no, you listen to like nothing but Joe
Jackson and just spat out something where you change a couple of words of a song.' That's a
little offensive," he says. "I mean what a dumbass to spend all of his time copying someone who
can't sell records anymore. I mean, I love Joe Jackson, I really do, and I did listen to a lot of Joe
Jackson. I listened to all that stuff, but I didn't listen to like one of them and make some kind of
blueprint out of it. It’s just part of my idea. It's almost like if you grew up in a little country town
and everyone is singing like (makes twanging noise) and you grow up and you go (more
twanging noise). It's just the way I express music after listening to all those records."
-Ben
"There are fringe people and there are fringe people, and the truly fringe
people are the ones where you open a phone book and you put your finger down, and there's
someone's name, and you call 'em up, and they're fucking weird."
-Ben
"You know, there's so much more that's true to the band about that song than a
lot of the other music we do. But I don't know, it's funny; we did it real quickly. I wrote that song
very quickly, me and the drummer wrote it. It was the last thing recorded for the record and it
was the only thing that was performed while we were all in the same room and it was all live and
we all agreed on it. And it just had some power, like we could tell we had something and it was
cool. And the fact that it doesn't represent the band, like it's a hassle, definitely, career wise,
because it's a big hit in the States, like it's a top forty hit."
-Ben (on Brick)
More on Brick:
"I could have taken Brick and put a string quartet in it and percussion and stuff and fucking like
an oboe solo or something. But you know it seemed to carry its own and that's the restraint that I
want to continue to try and use."
-Ben
"Nah, because I'm happy that they're noticing that and it's setting us apart.
We knew that was going to be the case when we started. We could only hope that we would have
some kind of distinction. Think of how many bands are out there. I mean we don't want to wear
make up to stand out. So the piano is a very dignified way of standing out in the crowd. I don't
mind talking about the piano because I play it all the time."
-Ben (on the piano)
"You can oppose yourself and edit yourself all you want, but there's still a little freak inside you that wants to talk."
-Ben
"I don't like 'Ben Folds Five' very much at all anymore. It was a good idea when we started, but I know the guys don't like it and it's really uncomfortable for me at this point. But I think 'five' is much better than if we were called something serious like the 'Ben Folds Project' or some shit like that."
-Ben
The secret to success:
"It sounds like a cliché, but do your own thing, just do your own thing. There's no room for
second-guessing in music. Just follow your intuition and do what you need to do. Forget about
what everybody else is doing and just do what you feel like doing with no apologies."
-Ben
"The only time that that has any bearing on what I do is when I write
something on the piano and I go, Awww shit, that sounds like a Billy Joel song. And I will
change every note to keep it from sounding like a fucking Billy Joel song. And that's when I start
to thank god that Robert's here to put the fuzz bass on, or we find some other way to fuck it up
somehow..."
-Ben (on sounding like Billy Joel)
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"When we start making truly really geeky records--people who came up with
this geek-rock thing have no idea how geeky it can get--that's when it'll happen. I don't know. For
me, it would be making a big, huge, blown-up, pumped-up, super-steroid version of what has
made us successful--big, huge piano sound--that would be, to me, the sell-out. 'We really are
mean, we're here to show you.'"
-Ben (on what'll tell him the band's a ssell-out)
When asked: If you could have one superpower for a day, what would it be and why?
Ben said: "I'd like to be the ‘Tooth Regenerator Man’ and be able to grow new teeth when the old ones go bad. Actually, the ability to grow hair on my head would be pretty cool too..."
"Anna Goodman wrote the words to that song. I wrote the music to the words. She and I were married when we were very young and had split when she wrote that. I put special energy into the music, assuming it was about what we had left behind."
-Ben (on "Smoke")
When asked: Now that you're married and have the twins, will you settle down more and be Daddy or will you be the same Ben that we all know and love?
Ben said: "You won’t recognize me now. I’m wearing sweat pants and driving a station wagon and listening to Kenny G. The live show will include a slide show of my children while we play ‘You Light Up My Life.’ The opening act will be a motivational speaker selling his self help books. All my new songs are about changing diapers and dried upchuck that you find on your shoulder over breakfast at 6:00 AM. Other than that, I’m still the same guy..."
"My father never talked baby talk to me, never treated me like anything other than an adult. We always got along like friends."
-Ben (on his father)
When asked: What's the most embarrasing thing that's happened since you guys started the band?
Ben said: "Darren passed out on his drumset after a bottle of tequila in San Diego."
BFF Quotes