Ben Folds’ latest record,So There, was made in conjunction with New York-based chamber ensemble yMusic, who co-arranged the songs and contributed much of the album’s instrumentation.
The classically oriented sextet has previously worked with Dirty Projectors and José González, as well as recording compositions by the likes of Nico Muhly and Sufjan Stevens. Prior to teaming up with yMusic, Folds recorded the three-part, 20-minute Concerto For Piano And Orchestra with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, which prompted him to seek out a chamber ensemble.
“I had planned on making this record with small chamber groups to fill out the fact that there’s a piano concerto,” Folds says. “But when I met y, we went into the studio and had a ‘meet the parents’ day where we just threw around ideas, and I left going, ‘I’ve got lyrics – I think this is going to be that kind of album.’ And so we just headed down that path of my writing songs to suit them.”
The songs on So There are certainly enhanced by the accompaniment of yMusic (who contribute strings, flute, clarinet and trumpet), but they’re not dependent on it. ‘Phone In A Pool’ and ‘So There’rank among Folds’ most immediate pop songs, while ‘Not A Fan’ is a stripped-back tale of disappointment.
“As soon as it gets into the craft of a pop song, I want to know that it’s built well, I want to know that I can play it in any way I need to,” Folds says. “I’ve been playing those songs solo sometimes as well. I think they work very well that way too, but there’s something really special about [yMusic]. We’ve been touring for nearly a year together now and have really hit that totally spontaneous, mind-reading thing that happens sometimes. So we’re having a really good tour.”
Folds and yMusic are heading to Australia this month, and audiences can expect to hear songs from all across Folds’ multi decade songwriting career, as well as material from So There.
“They can sort of pivot on a dime, so if we decide to throw together something really quick from an old album [we can],” says Folds. “A couple of times some of the members have said, ‘I’ve never heard that song. That’s a great song. Let’s arrange that.’ And it’s a hotel room session scoring the music and by soundcheck we’ve got a new one.”
Recent setlists have included several songs from Folds’ solo albums, including ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Zak And Sara’ and ‘Landed’, plus Ben Folds Five favourites ‘Steven’s Last Night In Town’ and ‘One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces’. Folds enjoys reworking songs he’s played hundreds of times before, but long-time fans needn’t worry about them being manipulated beyond recognition.
“I don’t get so bored with my songs that I feel I need to totally overhaul them,” he says. “I like to change them, but they don’t need to be unrecognisable. This is a good way to do it, because the instrumentation is so different that I feel like I can take the song at the tempo that it asks to be at and the song is its most expressive in that way, but just the instrumental side of it is radically different. Because of that it brings new life into it, but at the same time it still speaks.”
Over the last decade, Folds has completed a series of collaborations. He made Lonely Avenue with author Nick Hornby, recorded songs with Regina Spektor and Kate Miller-Heidke, and has frequently performed with symphony orchestras. But while he certainly has a sustained interest in working with different artists, he doesn’t see it as unusual.
“I think everyone does that if they stick around. You reinvent something, you work with new people – that’s pretty normal. But I think mine were notably probably different. That’s probably the difference. But even think about solo acts where it’s like, ‘Well, that was their touring band for three years, then they did this with these people and then changed producers.’ They do that, it’s just not as noticeable. It’s a lot more radical to take someone like yMusic out and forgo the rock band. But I think it’s normal to find collaborators. I think my attention span is probably somewhat like Elvis Costello’s. I’ve been told that before.”
So There concludes with the aforementioned Concerto For Piano And Orchestra,but Folds’ flirtation with highbrow composition doesn’t mean he’s renounced his trademark sense of humour. For instance, ‘Yes Man’includes the line, “Why didn’t you tell me that I got fat / Now I’m crying all the way from the Fotomat / Because I see I’ve got more chins than the Chinese phone book has”.
The album’s cheekiest moment, however, comes in the form of ‘F10-D-A’.The lyrics are a commentary on the notes being played – though Folds skews it to become “F’d in the A with a D, with a big fat D”.
“I was thinking of sort of an educational tool,” Folds says. “Right before the session I was like, ‘I guess there’s a way to have the names of all the pitches be words,’ and then kids would know there’s an A, there’s a G. And of course, the way my mind works it’s F’d in the A. So I guess that’s not a kids’ song anymore.”
Ben Folds with yMusic perform at theConcert Hall, Sydney Opera House onSaturday August 20 and Sunday August 21.So Thereis out now through New West/Warner.
