Phillyist Interviews ... Ben Folds

How did the record with Nick Hornby come about?
I don't have a good easy answer that fits in anything for that because I've known Nick's work for a long time and he's known mine and we've crossed paths more and a little more and then ended up doing this. It would be a really long and boring essay.

What was it like to relinquish writing the lyrics, since you're a songwriter above and beyond everything else?
Well, I mean I'm still a songwriter, almost in the same way, when Nick's writing the lyrics. I'm just responding musically to his lyrics, whereas most of the time I respond to whatever impulse there is in the back of my head—how I'm feeling, maybe what happened or what I processed from ten years ago, or from what I foresee. I mean, at some point there is an inspiration that is life-based from which to make a melody. And what Nick does is give me a format and a life inside the lyrics, and then I create music to that.

Did you two talk about the lyrics either while he was writing them or while in the course of your recording the music?
Not really, we'd have a couple of pow-wows every once in a while, you know, we'd catch up on the phone to talk about which sets of lyrics were left, which ones I was likely to jump into and which ones I wasn't. I didn't write music to everything he sent lyrics for—he sent like thirty sets of lyrics and I wrote twelve.

So he sent you lyrics and pretty much left the musical exeution up to you. Is that safe to say?
Oh yeah, yeah. And I didn't mess with his lyrics—for the most part I didn't—aside from the odd syllable in or out here or there, it was all pretty much what he wrote.

Do you see this happening with anybody else, or what this just an organic thing that's hard to predict?
I think most successful, not neessarily financially successful, but most creatively successful ventures, are pretty much organic. I don't really imagine myself out there trying to find lyrcists, but I think that it's very possible that Nick and will do some more work.

Will Nick Hornby be at any of the dates throughout your tour?
No, I don't think so. We did a week in New York where we were doing some book stores. It doesn't sound like much, but it was very cool, playing Housing Works, a PEN/Faulkner event in Washingotn, DC (video from that event can be seen at SPIN.com), and Barnes and Noble. Just places where what it was about was his reading the lyrics as if it's a book reading or a poetry reading and then, you know, I could talk a bit of shop about how it worked and then play the song. It's an interesting way to get inside the record. What was really cool about it was that I don't think anyone could have misunderstood the record after that. It became abundantly clear what the context was and how much was actually in the song. It was pretty cool. But no, Nick won't be doing anything like that. He's back the UK. He's got a couple screenplays and writer shit to do, you know.

Because the nature of so much of your songwriting tells a story, this record isn't a jarring change for you, despite the fact that you didn't write the lyrics. You've been telling stories your whole career, and this is really another record of stories.
Yeah that's right. And I guess like attracts like, I guess it makes sense that the two of us would work together, we have a lot in common. And I'm not sure that there was a final result that would be different or the same or that there was any final result that was considered. For me, it was more about the opportunity to write songs that I wouldn't normally have written. Because I throw away melodies that come to my head all day long and it seems really wasteful but I imagine that a lot of song writers and musicians would kind of feel like "Hey, there's starving people in Africa and you're throwing away your food." I do throw away a lot. So this was an opportunity. And the reason I do this is because I can't possibly write lyrics for all the melodies that I come up with, so this was an opportunity to make sure that I was being useful.

Moving a couple of steps away from the record, you did a cover of Elliot Smith's Say Yes for the Onion AV Club's Undercover series. Was that song your first choice, or did you have some other songs you had been looking to do that were already taken?
Yeah, I got to them too late about the Kurt Cobain song. I can't remember which one, maybe it was "Sliver" you know, "grandma take me home." I thought that would be fun. I'd covered Elliot's song a long time ago, so that was a shoe-in because it was something I used to do. So that was a second choice only because it was something I had done before.

Are there any songs, by anyone, that you haven't covered yet but you'd like to?
There's so much stuff. Nothing I really thought of lately because my mind hasn't quite been in that mode. But there are always great songs out there to do. Nothing specific that I can think of at the moment.

The last time you were in Philly, one of your openers was a local a capella group, the West Chester University of Pennsylvania Gracenotes. What is it like to see this large group of young people doing your music?
Oh I love it. They're really inventive with it and they understand the song and the reinterpreted it and it's already different. Because the arrangement is all vocal, it has to be different. They have to come up with something really cool with the arrangement. I'm always really moved by it if it's anywhere close to good. But that's the nature of a capella music. Live, it's always really moving. In a room with no microphones, in front of an all-singing group, it's just always really moving.

Is there any other musician you would like to hear cover your work, and if so what would you like to hear them do?
Any great singer of a different ilk would always be fun. What I wouldn't give to hear Stevie Wonder or lots of classic great singers, or even modern singers. Whoever I didn't have it in my head when I've written my songs that they had to sound like my voice. I just do the sort of bare minimum in expressing the song and that in itself has become sort of a style I guess. No vibrato, no rock pronunciation of words. All the "r"s stay in tact. You know, I don't say "I want you to be my lovuh!" instead of "lover." I just get the point across. I would love to hear great singers sing my music. But my music hasn't been covered that much because when it comes down to it, there's actually a lot to it. I haven't had overwhelmingly popular songs, so I think that makes it more difficult to cover. For whatever reason, I've most been covered by university a capella groups and amateurs. But I don't get covered by people who are in business to sell records, and there may be a reason for that.

Because you're already selling them?
There are a lot of songwriters who have albums full of songs they've recorded and othe recording artists come along and cover them. That's pretty normal, especially for a singer-songwriter, like Ryan Adams gets covered quite a bit. But for some reason, and I'm not sure what it is, my songs don't get covered. And I really don't know why that is. It would be cool. But that's what makes it even more special that the a capella groups are covering them in droves, because they're finding a home somewhere and that's really what you want when you write a song: you want to see the little fellas find homes.

Do you have a favorite venue in Philly?
I've always played the Electric Factory and this time we're playing the Tower Theater to mix it up. I don't know, it's not really a venue thing, it's more where you are. There's no doubt that Philly, for most good musicians, is a total home. The first thing that a famous musician ever said to me, Paul Simon was talking about, a long time ago before we were making records, I met him for about two seconds, which he wouldn't remember, he was mentioning that "Yeah, you know Philly's always been a great place for me to play." And I've always found the same thing. When you talk to musicians, they all say Philly's a great place to play.

Is it the vibe from the crowd, the excitement, the respect they pay the music?
I don't know, I really don't know. It's something that happens sort of en masse, in an audience or a group. I don't know, I think maybe what you get is that it's an intelligent and musical crowd that also hasn't always had it so easy. There's a tough element, so the things that are cathartic are more cathartic and the things that are fun are more celebrated. It's just musical.

Ben Folds is playing in support of his new record, Lonely Avenue, at the Tower Theater tonight at 8:00 p.m. Tickets ($47 – $52) are available online.