dissention
06-24-2003, 07:09 PM
The Piano Man
Ben Folds rages against the machine and discovers a more honorable method to making records
by Chris Harris - June 19, 2003 ~ The Valley Advocate (Western Mass.)
Piano-pop troubadour Ben Folds is tired of business as usual, and he's about to do something that's almost unheard of in the record biz: He plans to release three new collections of his solo material in a way that will make it very hard for his label, Epic Records, to make a big profit. And believe it or not, Folds has Epic's support on this idea. "It's just not worth it for me to work at feeding the current machine, which is just about dead," Folds said, referring to the music business. "I don't feel like I should have to do the same exact things J. Lo does, for instance. In this business, as an artist, it doesn't matter who you are -- you'll find yourself collaborating with WalMart on an album cover. It happens to me every time."
It happened last spring, in fact, with the release of Folds' live album, Ben Folds Live, which featured an audience shot from one of his live shows as its cover image -- in that crowd snapshot, you can see a Folds fan, giving the official salute of all Manhattan taxi drivers. WalMart refused to stock the album on its shelves because of the offensive image.
"And the label tells me, 'WalMart won't sell the record because there's someone giving the middle finger on it,' and I'm like, 'Well, what do they want me to do about it?'" Folds said "'Well, they're going to call us and tell us what's acceptable.' That kind of **** will drive you crazy."
Folds spoke from his recording studio in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he's spent the last five weeks writing and recording a batch of new songs for the forthcoming releases, all of which will be EPs. The first, tentatively titled Speed Graphic , is scheduled for release at the end of July.
Folds plans to release the EPs on vinyl; they'll be available in CD form at his shows. Fans will also be able to order them through various websites, like Amazon.com.
"The internet is where people are discovering music, not in the stores," he said. "If people want to buy it, let them buy it online. In this business, you've got to make such a big deal about every record. The hype behind a record release is so oppressive for anything that's going to resemble art -- begging every outlet and retail chain and radio station and magazine to please, please, please help us make this ****ing so-called masterpiece the summer's greatest thing.
"It's ****ing ridiculous," he continued. "At some point, we'd forgotten what we're selling in the first place -- music. And believe me -- I'd put 'em in cereal boxes if [Epic] would let me. I'm just so fed up with the bull**** that I'd be happy to put them in a Wheaties box."
Folds has been in the game a long time now. Back in the 1990s, an era dominated by grunge and hard rock, Folds made the piano cool again with his band, Ben Folds Five. In 2000, the Five -- Folds, kitman Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge -- called it quits.
"It was just over," Folds explained. "It was like, 'Oh, the car's not running anymore. It's out of gas. Let's get out and walk.' That's what it was."
The band's infectious, three-part harmonies and piano-driven style of rock-infused pop earned the Five a solid following -- one Folds inherited when he branched out as a solo artist. Folds proved he'd been the creative balls behind the band with the 2001 release of the solo album Rockin' The Suburbs. On it, he turned his trademark sarcasm up a notch, pulling no punches on songs like the title track, which takes light-hearted jabs at Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, the poster boy for hollow "white boy" aggression. Folds mocked Durst and his followers, most of them whining, pampered suburbanite teens, pissed but with nothing to be pissed about.
Folds' digs weren't just pot shots from a musician getting on in age. At 37, Folds doesn't feel too old to be relevant in today's musical climate. "I've always felt like a dinosaur," he said. "I've always clung to a discipline of music that hasn't been valued since I've been making a living at it. But I think that because rock 'n' roll is still a young form, that we're still trying to define the age at which it's still cool to be doing it. I don't feel that 'white people' rock has progressed much, so I don't feel like an old man when the cutting edge is supposed to be the Strokes. It just makes me feel white."
Folds' music is personal -- something, he said, he's unable to avoid. "I write songs from the music first, and then I try to decide what those songs are about," he said. "And I've always figured that half of the songs were about some other mother****er. But I find out they're all about me later on. That's just the way it works out. If I'm not creative at the end of the day, I tend to make up a story about some guy who's a musician, who has to go get his teeth drilled in 10 minutes."
And with that, Folds said goodbye and headed out to the dentist.
---------------------------------------------
What do you all think? He certainly has a point about artists who feed the machine. A very smart man, that one.
Ben Folds rages against the machine and discovers a more honorable method to making records
by Chris Harris - June 19, 2003 ~ The Valley Advocate (Western Mass.)
Piano-pop troubadour Ben Folds is tired of business as usual, and he's about to do something that's almost unheard of in the record biz: He plans to release three new collections of his solo material in a way that will make it very hard for his label, Epic Records, to make a big profit. And believe it or not, Folds has Epic's support on this idea. "It's just not worth it for me to work at feeding the current machine, which is just about dead," Folds said, referring to the music business. "I don't feel like I should have to do the same exact things J. Lo does, for instance. In this business, as an artist, it doesn't matter who you are -- you'll find yourself collaborating with WalMart on an album cover. It happens to me every time."
It happened last spring, in fact, with the release of Folds' live album, Ben Folds Live, which featured an audience shot from one of his live shows as its cover image -- in that crowd snapshot, you can see a Folds fan, giving the official salute of all Manhattan taxi drivers. WalMart refused to stock the album on its shelves because of the offensive image.
"And the label tells me, 'WalMart won't sell the record because there's someone giving the middle finger on it,' and I'm like, 'Well, what do they want me to do about it?'" Folds said "'Well, they're going to call us and tell us what's acceptable.' That kind of **** will drive you crazy."
Folds spoke from his recording studio in Chapel Hill, N.C., where he's spent the last five weeks writing and recording a batch of new songs for the forthcoming releases, all of which will be EPs. The first, tentatively titled Speed Graphic , is scheduled for release at the end of July.
Folds plans to release the EPs on vinyl; they'll be available in CD form at his shows. Fans will also be able to order them through various websites, like Amazon.com.
"The internet is where people are discovering music, not in the stores," he said. "If people want to buy it, let them buy it online. In this business, you've got to make such a big deal about every record. The hype behind a record release is so oppressive for anything that's going to resemble art -- begging every outlet and retail chain and radio station and magazine to please, please, please help us make this ****ing so-called masterpiece the summer's greatest thing.
"It's ****ing ridiculous," he continued. "At some point, we'd forgotten what we're selling in the first place -- music. And believe me -- I'd put 'em in cereal boxes if [Epic] would let me. I'm just so fed up with the bull**** that I'd be happy to put them in a Wheaties box."
Folds has been in the game a long time now. Back in the 1990s, an era dominated by grunge and hard rock, Folds made the piano cool again with his band, Ben Folds Five. In 2000, the Five -- Folds, kitman Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge -- called it quits.
"It was just over," Folds explained. "It was like, 'Oh, the car's not running anymore. It's out of gas. Let's get out and walk.' That's what it was."
The band's infectious, three-part harmonies and piano-driven style of rock-infused pop earned the Five a solid following -- one Folds inherited when he branched out as a solo artist. Folds proved he'd been the creative balls behind the band with the 2001 release of the solo album Rockin' The Suburbs. On it, he turned his trademark sarcasm up a notch, pulling no punches on songs like the title track, which takes light-hearted jabs at Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, the poster boy for hollow "white boy" aggression. Folds mocked Durst and his followers, most of them whining, pampered suburbanite teens, pissed but with nothing to be pissed about.
Folds' digs weren't just pot shots from a musician getting on in age. At 37, Folds doesn't feel too old to be relevant in today's musical climate. "I've always felt like a dinosaur," he said. "I've always clung to a discipline of music that hasn't been valued since I've been making a living at it. But I think that because rock 'n' roll is still a young form, that we're still trying to define the age at which it's still cool to be doing it. I don't feel that 'white people' rock has progressed much, so I don't feel like an old man when the cutting edge is supposed to be the Strokes. It just makes me feel white."
Folds' music is personal -- something, he said, he's unable to avoid. "I write songs from the music first, and then I try to decide what those songs are about," he said. "And I've always figured that half of the songs were about some other mother****er. But I find out they're all about me later on. That's just the way it works out. If I'm not creative at the end of the day, I tend to make up a story about some guy who's a musician, who has to go get his teeth drilled in 10 minutes."
And with that, Folds said goodbye and headed out to the dentist.
---------------------------------------------
What do you all think? He certainly has a point about artists who feed the machine. A very smart man, that one.