WHETHER YOU THINK they’re Billy Joel or God, Ben Folds Five are going to keep on making music. Over the course of two studio albums, five years and a whole lot of globetrotting, the natives of indie rock focal point Chappel Hill have established themselves as something greater than an anomaly - a rock band without guitars - with their aura of cartoon-like indestructibility.
Piano man/vocalist Mr Ben Folds has a cartoon-like joviality to match - "Oh, I love Australia," he gushes. "One day, when I grow up, I’m going to move there."
Inspired by Elton John - "He never made [studio] albums that way, but his live album 11:17:70 is piano, bass and drums and you can tell there’s potential for it to be very powerful" - Folds carried the idea around in his head until he found the "right people", who turned out to be bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee.
"I realised that something radical would have to happen in order to produce even some relatively conservative results," Folds says. "In other words, you really have to freak out with the format and try a lot of things and just make it keep up. And then someone would ask, ‘Well, why not just get a guitar?’. But I think when you have to take a totally different process, the message is a little different and I think you could feel that. And I don’t think we sound like anyone else making records at the moment."
Hailing from the hub of American indie rock hasn’t necessarily assisted in the band’s development, Folds says. "It’s not very literally supportive," he states. "I think it’s economically supportive: one is encouraged to be artistic in this town, but I wouldn’t say we’ve been embraced by the musical community here. We haven’t been shunned either. You’ve probably heard of Dave Matthews? He’s from Charlottesville, which is about the same size as Chappel Hill, and it’s probably about 80 miles away from here. They, like, have Dave Matthews Band Day. The mayor proclaimed it Dave Matthews Band Day on April something each year... now that’s supportive. I don’t want Ben Folds Five Day or anything like that, but you don’t get that sense here of like 'Wow! We're proud of these guys!'. People around here ask me if I still play in that band ; I don't know if they're joking or not."
Since Ben Folds Five played the Livid Festival here last year, they've completed American and European tours and Folds has spent time working on a solo instrumental record, with the producer of both Ben Folds Five albums, Caleb Southern. "I think the touring has changed everything, you know," Folds says, rather solemnly. "It's been really tough. It's enough to wash a band up and wash you down the commode. I honestly think it's too much, but then I realise how much you have to do. If you're doing something relatively - and I use the word 'relatively' - unique, you have to go out and state your case. Which is the reason we tour so much.
"It's kind of a catch, you know, because by touring that much, it's harder to be creative again because you're tired and you feel like you've been repeating yourself a lot. I'm sure the last album was affected deeply by the fact that we toured a lot . It made the album more mellow and a little more introverted and it has an odd tension to it. On the surface, it's a very happy record, but there's something really odd about it, it's a strange record. And I think the next one may be pretty grim."
Folds is looking at setting aside this August and September to work on songs for the band's next album. "I hate to do it on appointment, but basically I have to stand up on a picnic table with a machine gun and tell everyone to back off," he says, laughing.
Unlike Whatever and Ever Amen , the new record won't be recorded in Folds' home studio. "We're going to go into a real studio this time," he says, breaking into a southern drawl. "Time we grow up. It really sucks recording in your house. It's a total pain in the arse. You know, stuff breaks all the time and it's just uncomfortable, really. I wouldn't recommend it. The one thing it does is it makes for a unique record, because you're the only one that recorded in that studio, you know.
"But there's just so many times you want to make music and you have to chase wires under the house because you're in the middle of a take and something went down. The band really didn't have to do that, that was the producer, but still, you've got to stop and worry about whether it's going to be working anytime soon and it was right in the middle of when you just finally started getting it. Stuff like that makes it not worthwhile, and also the acoustics of a house are potentially pretty terrible. I mean, in this house they are. It's the worst sounding house on the earth, man."
Ben Folds Five play Festival Hall this Thursday (July 30), supported by Snout. Whatever and Ever Amen is out on Epic/Sony.
There was a cool little picture with the article, but my scanner's too stupid to scan it clearly enough to see the details. Maybe I'll get it to work... someday.