Ben Folds talks family, the music business

Ben Folds isn’t just a musician — he’s a storyteller.

Along with his keen sense of humor,… Ben Folds isn’t just a musician — he’s a storyteller.

Along with his keen sense of humor, the pop singer-songwriter is known for autobiographical anthems on the joys and tribulations of existence. Now, for his latest record, titled Lonely Avenue, Folds has collaborated with another storyteller who wrote the album’s lyrics: award-winning screenwriter and novelist Nick Hornby, author of “High Fidelity.”

Folds performed at Club Zoo on Thursday night, and The Pitt News had the opportunity to speak to him about his latest album, his current tour and the decline of the music business.

The Pitt News: You’re known for your lyrics and your writing style. Was it weird having someone else write them for you?

Ben Folds: Not really. I think a musician is, y’know, flexible to other people’s music … that’s what you do. I mean, singers constantly sing other people’s words. You find that a good song will resonate with people in different ways. It’s not a big deal to me, especially coming from Nick because I love Nick’s writing and completely trust what he writes. It made us work faster, which was nice. He’d give me the lyrics, and I’d kick out some music pretty quickly and send it back to him.

TPN: You’re on your second season as a judge on  the a capella-group competition show “The Sing-Off.” Do you feel it’s strange being a judge of music as opposed to creating it?

BF: I think it’s not dissimilar from producing an album. Now the competition side is a little foreign to me, but that’s part of the fun of the show, and that’s part of the competitors’ motivation. The part that I’m really attracted to is that, here are amateurs stepping up and it’s tough. [Laughs] It’s really hard to do. So I think they need a kind but firm sounding board. I don’t view it as thumbs up, thumbs down, you suck, you’re great; I think of it as, here’s what you’ve done, here’s what I’d like to see you do and here’s how I think you can get there.

TPN: I know it’s almost passé at this point to discuss music piracy, but obviously it affects every musician. Is it much of a problem for you?

BF: I don’t know … these are interesting things to ponder. I mean, I’ve never been afraid of it, but it has a big impact on the business, and I am in the business. On the surface, it would appear all of our incomes have been cut quite substantially as a result and … a lot of people have lost jobs … The music business is in horrendous condition, so you would think that affects me.

But I don’t know what it would’ve been like if the business had kept cranking the way it was … I don’t know if that’s better for music or if I would still be in business in that environment. This environment may be better for me.

This is probably controversial, but I don’t think that anyone who takes music should be punished for it, and I don’t know why, because they are stealing, but … I don’t know. [Laughs] I just don’t think they should be punished for that.

We may have lived through an era … that was very unusual, a very strange era where musicians and people involved in music could get rich … I think before that, it was a much smaller business. They didn’t even have records or mass concert promotions or radio stations, and this business that came up was possible because of the physical distribution … I think now it’s going back where it came from. Maybe I was supposed to be a traveling minstrel, I don’t know.

TPN: You wrote “Gracie” and “Still Fighting It” about your kids. Do you ever worry that you’ll write other songs about them in the future that will violate their privacy?

BF: No, I don’t worry about that. I think I would have raised spoiled children if they get upset because those are a gift, and I think they really dig them. To have that record — what a parent was thinking … it’d be like if I found a letter that my parents had written to me and put in a box, and you get a little time capsule. That’s what those songs are: little time capsules.

TPN: Do you think you’re going to keep challenging yourself?

BF: Well, the most important thing to me is to do things that have that feeling like when you made your first record … I adapt to a situation that … without being Mr. Rogers, lets me make some discovery. You don’t need to do something that you’re like, “Ah, I know what this is gonna sound like before it comes out of the speakers — that’s why I did it!” No, you did it because you haven’t heard it yet. That’s why you do it. And if that means I do a record with f*cking Evel Knievel’s grandson, great. And if that means I just do a solo piano in a hotel room, I might do that.