Here follows a transcript of the interview. Adam is Adam Spencer, the DJ on Triple J's Breakfast Show.
The basic idea of the show was Adam Spencer asking Ben a lot of questions and Ben giving him long answers to them. Three songs were played during it: Fear of Pop, Army, and In Love (remix). I think that they messed up, because that was supposed to be the album version of In Love. Adam says something over the music, but it's real quiet and it gets cut off, but it's something like, "oh, this isn't the-". So the radio station messed up and we all got to hear a remix of In Love. But I don't know which one. If anyone who did catch that and can tell me which remix it was, e-mail me.
Ben Folds, how you going?
I’m well, thank you.
Good to hear. What’re you doing out here, you’re not playing any concerts, you’re just hanging out.
I’m just hanging out. Actually, I’m, I’m moving to Adelaide tomorrow.
You’re serious!
Yeah.
Going the long term at Adelaide, you there for life or what?
That’s correct.
You’ve, you’ve taken up Adelaide as your home?
Well, for now. Yeah, uh, my girlfriend’s from Adelaide, and, uh, we’re having kids.
It doesn’t get any more sensitive, than, I mean, you know, we’re twenty seconds into the interview and he’s moving halfway around the world for love. This man is a love machine. You’re serious, have you been to Adelaide much before?
Um, yeah, a few times.
Nice little place?
Yeah...
Does it do it for ya?
I like Adelaide, yeah it’s cool.
Well you got the girlfriend there, you’re laughing.
Yeah, I’m laughing...
I wanted to ask you a question. We played a song by Reef just before the 8:00 news...
Ah...
...and I was mentioning the Reef grew in my estimation when they appeared on the show Hey Hey It’s Saturday out here...
m-hm
...and, uh, having a look around at the set and the show, changed their mind at the last second and played "You’re Old"...
(laugh)
...instead of uh, um, uh, "Put Your Hands", and then it reminded me of course, of you, with doing the um, getting a bit carried away on the Midday Show...
That was the same week...
...and banging the piano, it was a, it was a, it was one of...
It was a big week for channel nine.
It was a return to those, those hideous days of the seventies when U.S. rock guys were just destroying this country. Um, Midday Show, you might know, since, no longer with us...
Yeah...
Do you take responsibility for that?
Yeah i think that, that probably had a lot to do with that, that little appearance when we, I don’t know what happened, I, I, um, wrote, uh, Geoff Harvey and that when I got here...
(laughter)
I did.
That’s sensational, you’ve finished playing the song and you’ve got up and just, you know, thrown the chair round a bit, and Geoff’s just lost control?
Yeah, he weren’t happy about that, uh, that was, I think, um, think that was his piano I was playing, and, uh...
(laughter)
I, I didn’t even know, I mean, well a lot of times, you know, like uh, I’ll be rough on the piano, and, uh, you know, there’s always someone taking care of the, you know, the bill...
(laughter) So it was the Midday Show meets the Who.
Yeah, we got to be the Who for five minutes, because we were, before that we were the Churchboy Five, so... so it’s kind of cool, but actually uh, uh, Geoff ended up being a pretty good guy. We, we, uh, we, we had a beer in the lobby of the hotel, um, last time I was here.
You’ve made up of the rift ??
We made up. And, he, he, he told me he, just, he just, you know, was overcome with anger and didn’t, didn’t, didn’t know what hit him, and, and he’d never do it again...
...because there are a few people in the Australian music industry you really shouldn’t get on off side with them, Kylie is one of them...
Yeah.
Oh, if she turns, whoo, Geoff, don’t get offside with Geoff. You know, Geoff’s rubbed out bigger acts than you before, son, he’s just said "they’re not coming out here anymore" you know like, Duran Duran, just suddenly split up mid eighties, no one knows why, Geoff...
It was Geoff.
It was Geoff, um, they, they, they turned up on you know, Midday one day, wore, wore the wrong leather pants, sung "Hungry Like The Wolf" when they said they were gonna sing "The Reflex"...
And that was it...
Geoff just spat the dummy. Bizzare. Wanted to ask you about the Fear of Pop CD, which we played a bit of last year, would it be right to describe it as a side project? What is it? Cause it’s not the Ben Folds Five, where’d it come from?
Um, yeah, yeah, I guess you’d call it a side project, um, yeah, just went in the studio and recorded a lot of things that I had in my head, and, um, that was you know, on the weekends and any time that I could get and we were out on the road and...
So you were still doing, you didn’t lock yourself away for six months, you were still doing other work?
Yeah, yeah, we were still doing the band, and I just kinda, kinda did that, so that’s on the side, yes, that’s a side project.
(laughter) Did it take...
Yes...
Yes, that formally qualifies, did it take long, cause there’s some, there’s a wide range, and some really weird stuff there, surely that didn’t just come out in a couple of hours?
Um, I had, I had almost a month to, to work on it at one period...
Almost, almost a month...
Yeah, I...
Amazing.
...had nearly a month to work on it and then I went back uh, you know, sometimes it would be a weekend, sometimes I would get off the tour bus and run into my house and record something, it was whatever time I could find.
Excellent, well, we’ll play Fear of Pop, the title track...
Yes.
And the artist track...
Yes.
...from the side project...
Yeah.
...Fear of Pop Volume 1, is there a volume 2 on the way or was that just a tease?
Um, I don’t know, I didn’t really think about that, yeah, sure I should do, I should do Fear Of Pop Volume 2...
Ok, well we’ll give you five minutes while we play this and you can bang this out, I was.. you can probably bang something out, it’s amazing. Here’s Fear of Pop, this is Volume 1, the title track Fear of Pop, it’s twelve past eight, we’ve got Ben Folds Five here, breakfast on Triple J...
Fear of Pop
I can see me
Three stories tall
Floating high
Above the wall
Like Adam Duritz
My bedroom wall
I'm taking pictures
I'm lifting off
I'm lifting off
I think I'm gonna
I think I'm not
I'm gonna think
Another thought
I think I'm gonna
I think I'm not
I could have done it
I had my shot
I thought you said it
So I could not
Say that I thought it
Fear of pop
Fear of pop
Fear of
Pop
Yeah
I'm taking pictures
I'm lifting off
I can see me
Three stories tall
I'm kinda ugly
You're gonna look
You're free to run
But here's a book
Fear of pop
Fear of pop
Fear of
Pop
Fear Of Pop, off the Fear of Pop Volume I CD, put together by Ben Folds and Caleb Southern, and um, there’s a beautiful moment happening here in the studio, Jo Chichester and Ben Folds are just swapping Adelaide anecdotes, and I’ve been to Adelaide a couple of times, but you guys are naming individual streets, and people who live on the corners of individual streets, it’s very beautiful. Just wanna ask you a quick question, you were mentioning about track 2 on Fear of Pop, which we won’t have time to play, is Kops, your big 6 minute sort of ?? theme song epic, and there’s this stuff at the end with all these voices going, "hey freeze, asshole, get out of the car", that, that’s you?
That’s, uh, that’s me and a couple of interns, just a couple of high school kids that worked, worked there, we had a couple of mikes set up, in the, in the, in the parking garage and we were running around and one guy was driving this car backwards and around the microphones and stuff, yeah, it’s so we we’re getting fumed out, and the, you know in fact, our, well my record company guy got in on it and started running round the mike as well and fell down and busted his knee...
(laughter) I was, I’m sorry to laugh at his expense, but we’re, see, we have images of Ben Folds working in some massive international studio, with all the state of the art technology, you’re out in a garage doing figure 8’s shouting "drop the gun, asshole"! That’s just fantastic. Now the new album, we’re about to play the song Army, off the new album, can you share with us yet the title of the new album? Cause I’ve got here as yet untitled. (handbeat drumroll)
(in a weird voice) The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner.
The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, for the few people in the audience who might not know, who Reinhold Messner is, who’s Reinhold Messner?
Uh, Reinhold is a uh, very famous mountaineer from Austria, and, uh, he’s climbed some of the world’s greatest peaks, by himself, unaided by oxygen or helicopter support...
mm hmm
...and, uh, sat at the top, ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, smoked some hash and went back down.
(laughter) Ok, did, did you decide originally we’re going to name it after some great mountaineer, you had...
He has three toes left...
...you had Messner, you had Edmund Hilary, you had, uh, uh, ?? and all that, and then you, you went with Messner, or did you decide, it’s gotta be about a great Austrian, you know, it could have been Strauss, it could have been Reinhold Messner, or were you just a big Reinhold Messner fan from the start?
Uh, well, it was the name...
(laughter)
...Reinhold. And the thing is, we didn’t even know who he was. We had no idea who he was. Darren, Darren the drummer, his, um, when he was at high school he, he and some friends were making fake ID’s, uh, for, uh, everyone in Charlotte, North Carolina, and...
Everyone in North... that’s fantastic.
Well everyone under the age of 18...
I was gonna say...
...was, uh, supplied with the Reinhold Messner ID...
(laughter)
...but he didn’t, they didn’t know who he was, they just had the name from somewhere, and so, Darren told me that story, and it was like ‘uh’, it, it kinda stuck, uh...
It’s a, it’s a basic I test, IQ test for bouncers to see if they can spot the fact that they’ve let 17 people...
Yeah...
...with the same obscure Austrian name in on the one night.
Well, he finally, uh, Darren, Darren went to uh, and spent a night in jail, uh, cause someone beat him up one night, so that’s what they do, they throw you in jail for getting beat up...
(laughter)
... "come on you’re coming with me"
(laughter)
"you can’t fight"
You been trying to cause trouble by just lying there getting the shit kicked out of you.
Yeah, so they, he was in the cop car, and he and his friend were sitting in there in the car, and they both had fake ID’s that said Reinhold Messner...
(laughter)
...and the cop’s going "uh, we have a Messner, khhk, uh, Reinhold Messner, 27, and another Mr Reinhold... Messner, 27" ...
(laughter) Both have the same address in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Yeah.
Ok, the song we’re going to play is Army, and I was listening to it, I love it, it, it references the mullet. The mullet haircut that we talk about long and hard here on Triple J, especially with the Merrick and Rosso in the afternoon, so the mullet is not just an Australian thing, it’s a worldwide concept?
It’s a worldwide concept, it’s, uh, it’s uh, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, sweeping the uh, the nations...
I’m gonna ask you the most difficult and forthright question you’ve ever been asked, Ben. Have you ever mulleted up youself, don’t lie to me, just you and I, have you ever worn the mullet?
Let me, let me consult uh, my, um, let me consult my, my, attorney before I answer that.
(laughter) This is Army, by Ben Folds, it’s twenty past eight, it’s breakfast on Triple J.
Army
Well, I thought about the army
Dad said ‘son you’re fucking high’
And I thought ‘yeah there’s a first for everything’
So I took my old man’s advice
Three sad semesters
It was only fifteen grand
Spent in bed, I thought about the army
I dropped out and joined a band instead
Grew a mustache and a mullet
Got a job at Chick-fil-a
Citing artistic differences, the band broke up in May
And in June reformed without me
And they got a different name
I nuked another grandma’s apple pie and hung my head in shame
Oh
Been thinking a lot today
Been thinking a lot today
(ahhh) Think I’ll write a screenplay
(ahhh) Think I’ll take it to L.A.
(ahhh) Think I’ll get it done yesterday
Aw shit
In this time of introspection
On the eve of my election
I say to my reflection
God please spare me more rejection
Cause my peers they criticize me
And my ex-wives all despise me
Try to put it all behind me
But my redneck past is nipping at my heels
Been thinking a lot today
Been thinking a lot today
Been thinking a lot today
I thought about the army
That’s Ben Folds with Army, off The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, a big hello to Greg, who rang up in the middle there, and I love the way Ben, that you got to break Greg’s heart, by suddenly being reminded by someone else, you’re heading off to Melbourne tonight.
Yeah.
Just all, y’know, just all compacts together. Um, that’s Army, off The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, were you actually thinking of joining that army yourself, thinking of signing up at any stage?
Oh, yeah, definitely, because I was trying to figure out a way to pay for college and and, uh, the ROTC in America, will put you, uh, through college if you do four years for them.
Tempting?
Well, I, I was a little stoned when I thought about that.
(laugh) Great decisions made under the influence - number 42.
Yeah.
I’m gonna join the foriegn legion.
Well, you know it’s funny cause I, I, I’m, I’m not a pot smoker at all and I, I was really nervous about it and so I’d, I would smoke some pot in my bedroom in high school, so, so, I’m in there getting high and I thought, you know what, I need to join the army so I can pay for school, and I went out to tell my father and he’s sitting there watching TV and I said, "hey pop, you think I should, I think I, I think I’m gonna join the army", and he just looked up at me and said, "you’re fucking high", and then, and...
(laughter)
...and looked back at the TV set, and then I went back to my room, going, "can he tell, or is that just an expression? maybe he can tell, it’s just an expression, can he tell?"
Maybe Dad’s a real human being, dammit! Um, thanks so much for popping in this morning...
No problem.
...if it’s all right, I’d love to play um, In Love...
Yeah, great.
...with William Shatner, talk me through working with William.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, uh, well...
Very professional?
He’s great, yeah, actually it was one of the most, like, uh, painless studio experiences I’ve ever had. He came in there, and he you know, put his glasses on, and he looked at the thing that I’d written, and he’s like, "okay, now if I understand it, this character is... pretending. So, let’s pretend". And, and he just went, and that was it. I mean, it was great, I mean, he did a couple of takes, and I loved it, and it was in, and we did some, did some press and TV shows and stuff, had a, had a ball, he’s cool.
It’s, uh, inspired of course, by, uh, this, his album, the Transformed Man.
Yeah, definitely, yeah I had that when I was a kid...
Spoken word...
...and that was like one of my favorite records when I was, like, 9 years old, and now I really still have a soft spot for the record and when I was recording this I was like, "man this needs, this needs someone like talking over it or some shit", you know, and then, it worked, so...
It’s great, cause Transformed Man when you’ve got the spoken word version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and that’s like, you know, "look for the girl, with her wind in her eyes, and she’s gone!" and it’s labelled by some people as an absolute work of art, by some as the most bizzare or worst thing they’ve ever heard, but it’s William! It’s William being William.
It is, and it, I think it’s closer to the work of art then anyone is willing to admit.
Would you like to please front announce...
Yes.
...In Love
(in a DJ voice) And now, Fear Of Pop, featuring William Shatner with the hot hot hot track on ladies night, two for tuesdays, three for thursdays... In Love
When can we get the album Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner?
April 27th.
And here’s, with the strings, William Shatner, and with those strings, we say goodbye to you, Ben Folds.
Goodbye.
We are in love with you too. Thank you for your time, thank you for falling in love with Adelaide, and I think there’s a job for commercial radio for you there, if you choose to move on...
Why thank you...
It’s breakfast on Triple J.
(oh this isn’t the-)
In Love (remix)