How does a sold-out show at The Rave feel intimate? Let Ben Folds play. And let him bring just a piano. OK, and a drum set that roadies quickly assemble onstage so Folds can dazzle the fans. And let him play a nearly two-hour set.
Milwaukee fans will show their appreciation, as they did Saturday night, when they threw a Santa hat and a Marquette University basketball T-shirt onstage. Folds lovingly displayed the shirt on the side of his Baldwin piano for the remainder of his show (even though it smacked him in the head when the over-zealous fan tossed it), and he donned the hat while he sang a cheery Christmas song about Santa getting stuck in a chimney.
After the show, Folds enjoyed some carrot-beet juice (which he blended himself) and talked to OnMilwaukee.com about his music, sing-a-longs and baseball.
Why baseball? Because Oakland A's pitcher and Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito was hanging out backstage.
OMC: Barry, you said you missed a recent Ben Folds show in L.A. and didn't get your fill, so you flew in for the Milwaukee show. How long have you been a fan?
BZ: I bought "Naked Baby Pictures" in 1998 just because I liked the cover. I thought the cover was cool. Then I put it in, and ever since, it's just been great. (Ben Folds Five) came to L.A. in 1998, and I was playing ball in college, but I never had time to see them. Then I flew out for two Ben Folds shows in New York last year with my sister, and she just got totally inspired by the singer/songwriter thing that's not really out there. Just little things like explaining a song before you play it (during a show). (Zito's sister, Sally Zito, is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter. Barry has performed with his sister, backing her up on guitar, and he comes from a musical family. He says his father composed and arranged for Nat Cole for 15 years, and his mother sang.)
OMC: So, Ben, what do you think about having a Major League baseball player for a groupie?
BF: (Laughs.) We've met a couple times, we get on. It's cool. I wanna get a chance to see (Zito) play ball sometime. I have a couple of three-year-olds, and I don't have the luxury at this time of flying around to see games. I've never seen a baseball game at all. When I was a kid I used to play baseball in the backyard. And I played soccer, that was my thing.
OMC: You've never seen a baseball game?
BF: I've never seen a baseball game. I'd love to see one. I saw a basketball game once when I was, like, 12 and it blew my f***in' mind. It was great. It was exciting. It's kinda like rock music in a way. There's interaction; they're inspired by a crowd.
OMC: Let's talk about this tour, "Ben Folds Live." Just you and a piano ... with a little help from the audience. You have the audience bellow out assigned horn parts of songs. You have the higher and lower voices harmonize. It's audience participation. How did that come about?
BF: I was watching an Atlanta Braves game on TV and the audience members started cheering ... no, just kidding. Really, it's just kinda evolved from the audience because they are so familiar with the music. You hear people singing along, and I started thinking that I could kinda conduct it a little bit and bring 'em all together. And once that happened, it was so huge, a couple thousand people singing harmony. Not like they're singing the chorus, but a part. I think it's really powerful. I love to egg that on a little bit because I love to hear it.
OMC: And how was Milwaukee? How did they do with the audience participation?
BF: Oh, they were great. They were great, and they were right on. There was a song called "Missing the War" that I never play. And it was kind of embarrassing really because I was forgetting the chords and they were nailing the harmonies. I think a lot of 'em are musicians. There's a lot of good music out there, but there's definitely a gap. I seem to be filling that niche at this moment. People who are musical appreciate it.
OMC: What do you think about when you're on stage? Are you just focusing on the music?
BF: If I'm thinking, I'm probably not "on." Usually if I'm in my head, it's not happening. When I am thinking, it's usually about that I should stop thinking. It could be about my taxes. Sometimes I feel like I'm gonna be bored; I've done this sh** too many times. But people are so inspired, and that inspires me. You've got to find something new in the songs every night, and ya gotta mean it, or it makes you sick. It makes me sick if I go up and play and I don't mean what I'm doing. I won't do it anymore if I feel like that. That's why the band (Ben Folds Five) quit. We didn't mean it anymore, and that's what we kind of promised ourselves. When it wasn't inspiring, and we weren't into it, it didn't matter how lucrative it was. And believe me we would have gotten paid a lot more money if we'd continued as a band. We had contracts pending on the next record and stuff, but it was making us sick, so we just didn't do it anymore.
OMC: You've covered Elton John, Jackson Browne, Liz Phair, George Michael. (Folds treated The Rave's audience to an edgy take on Michael's "Careless Whisper.") Do you make your choices based on the song or the artist or something else?
BF: They're all different. The Elton John cover was because Elton was calling me up and being really encouraging last year. He's always been supportive of what he's thought was good music. I remember when we all kind of thought he was finished with his career in 1979, but he got some kind of award and he turned around and said "I don't deserve the award. This guy you've never heard of yet, named Elvis Costello, deserves it." Anyway, he just called up one day out of the blue. And I was like, "F***, Elton John on the phone, that's weird." And he said, "You're doing the right thing. Your solo album's great. I know you're worried about leaving the band (Ben Folds Five). Keep at it. It's hard work." He would know, right? He's been doing it for 30 years. Maybe a year after that, he came though Adelaide, Australia, where I lived, and played a show and called up. I went to a sound check, and we worked up a couple songs. And I sat in on the concert and I played with him. Then he was gonna come and sit in on one of my shows in Sydney, but I had to cancel that show. So, we didn't do it. I'd learned "Tiny Dancer," so I had to play it somewhere. (Laughs) So, I started playing it on tour, partly because I was getting bored of my songs.
OMC: Are there artists who you haven't met or worked with yet but would like to? Do you have a "dream collaboration"?
BF: One was getting to work with and play with Neil Hannon of "Divine Comedy," who's not that well-known in America. But, he's amazing. "Liberation" is a great record. That's his first record. Neil and I were talking about putting together what would be a "super-group" to us. (It would be) Rufus Wainwright and Elliott Smith.
OMC: So, what's next for you?
BF: I'm gonna go back in the studio as soon as this tour is over (December 7). I'm not going to give myself very much time at all. I want to do it quick. Every time I give myself time, I think too much. It gives you the opportunity to suck and then fix things. I think I spent most of life learning how to not suck, and there's excitement in putting down a take where you do it fast and you have to do it right. That way you're getting the real thing.
I've got a crazy plan for next year. I want to do three records next year total. One with somebody else, then a couple of mine. I'm gonna tour Japan in February, Australia in March. Other than that, I probably won't hit the road again until a year from now.
OMC: You're a classically trained drummer. You were also an English major, but you never graduated. Do you ever step back and say, "How did I get here?"
{INSERT_RELATED}BF: Oh, yeah. I've had, like, four lives already; it's a trip. And playing a show is a real dramatic time to have one of those flashbacks, but it does happen sometimes. None of it is exactly what I thought it would be, and it's better. My career is much better than what I had thought it might be. When we (Ben Folds Five) first started having radio success, it really wasn't fun at all. It was miserable. I didn't understand the business. Now I'm in a position where the music business is not interested in what I do because it doesn't know how to make money off of it.
So, I don't have to kiss radio stations' asses, I don't have to do "meet-and-greets" after the show. It's great. All I have to do is play shows. It's so pure because the audience isn't there because they've had it crammed down their throats. I really appreciate the audience. They know about what I'm doing and they're real intense about the music, and I am, too, so it makes us all have something in common.
