STARPOLISH: Let's begin with this question from a StarPolish fan: “How does it make you feel when fans describe your music as a 'soundtrack to their lives’?”

FOLDS: I think that's a big compliment. I guess it's like writing a journal or something, and there are some like-minded souls that are going to relate to it. That's really cool.

STARPOLISH: As a follow-up, the same person also wanted to know what sorts of things you did in high school and early college for fun.

 

“I can't imagine [a Ben Folds Five reunion] anytime soon. I don't think any of the three of us are interested in that now.”

FOLDS: College and high school were really kind of pathetic for me (laughs). I mean, there's no excuse for not having fun with your life, and there's nothing cool about that at all. But when I think back on it, a lot of people were just gasping for air and hanging onto something to hold them up in the water, because that's really a tough time. I guess some people are blessed in that time period and then have to struggle somewhere else.

STARPOLISH: You didn't have any fun at all in those days?

FOLDS:I'm trying to think of what I liked... I guess my idea of fun then was just mischievous shit. Sometimes me and a friend of mine would skip school and go play squash at the Y. See, I had to work a lot -- I worked eight hours a day at one job or another and went to school at the same time, trying to make sure that I was going to be able to afford college. I don't like romanticizing your struggle; that's just not cool. But that was just my honest memory.

STARPOLISH: So you earned your own way through college? <

FOLDS: I didn't make it through. I had help from my parents too, but we needed all that we could get. I was leaving school as fast as I could, with a lawnmower in my trunk, mowing a lawn or two. Then I would work a late-shift sometimes at Hardee's, and then go to school. Probably 90 percent of what you learn comes from outside of school; school is just sort of the structure, the babysitter.

STARPOLISH: Another fan writes, “I've always admired your knack for being able to come up with unique piano parts that are strong yet simple. Do you look to your technical knowledge when writing songs, or do you just play what you hear in your head? How do you develop that initial musical idea on the piano?”

FOLDS: You have to have technique to illustrate an idea or to get something across. Pure musical expression would probably be someone screaming his lungs out, lying on the street somewhere -- and that's just not musical. There's so much work involved in the technique. But I always found that as I was learning my technique and my craft, my expression waned a lot because your brain goes to that technical side and you forget about the expressive part. You have to be patient. You have to learn your technique, and then you have to know when to put it away and let it become second nature. It's like riding a bike: You don't go “Okay, now I have to put my feet on the pedals.” You hear people making music all the time where they're striving to push their technical ability, but you can also feel they're not using it toward expression. It has to be effortless, just like speech or whatever. I do think it's important to get your legs and learn your technique, but it can't consume you. I haven't had to think about it as much as some people, so I think I'm kind of lucky. Neil Young probably has a lot harder time coordinating his voice and his guitar, but he's got his expression so down that the things he does have a grip on are helping him. He also probably knows more than he lets on.

STARPOLISH: The same writer adds, "I just saw you in Nashville. Is the Baldwin you played the same one you used in BF5?"

FOLDS: Yeah, it is. For the past two years with the band I had that piano, and it's the same piano I recorded the album on.

STARPOLISH: Another fan ask what types of venues do you like, and why?

FOLDS: I like all of them; it's actually interesting to play the blockbusters. But if I had to reside just in one size of venue, it would probably be one to three thousand [people].

STARPOLISH: That's big enough to generate excitement, but intimate enough to reach everybody?

FOLDS: Yeah, it's good energy. There's a technical thing in there too: You get too small with the club and there are some things I want to pull off that aren't technically happening on the stage, like your monitors aren't right, or the room sounds funny. If I were just at a piano by myself, I'd probably be okay playing for a hundred or two hundred people.

STARPOLISH: Do you have any plans to do a second U.S. tour?

FOLDS: We're gonna try to get through the States as much as we can on the album, but it's hard because there are fifteen other countries to do. I'd like to get through two or three times.

STARPOLISH: Here's a question about touring outside of the U.S.: “I'm just sitting here in sunny Adelaide, wondering when you might be back home. Also, any hints on secret gigs?”

FOLDS: I'm going to be home a lot over the holidays, and I'm gonna be home in a few weeks. And, yeah, we're going to do something, possibly at Grace Emily or someplace about that size. You should look out for that.

STARPOLISH: A StarPolish member from Tasmania wants to know if you'll be playing there at all, and whether you'll be at the “Big Day Out” this year?

FOLDS: I don't think we're doing the “Big Day Out.” We want to get to Tazzy, but it's a production thing -- carrying and renting production to the island is expensive. It's like, when we can afford to do it, we'll do it, but when we come to Australia we're really on a budget, because it costs eight thousand dollars to fly the crew over.

STARPOLISH: A U.K. fan writes, "You're touring here in December as the support act for the Manchester band James. Do you know their stuff, and what do you think of it?"

FOLDS: I like James fine, but I think that we've just cancelled that tour. We've really been weighing out the option of doing the gigs in smaller places and having it be our own show. I've never been that big of a fan of opening big things like that, so I don't think I want to do it right now.

STARPOLISH: Another fan said he caught your show in Boston and was blown away by the new band, but wondered if you’re thinking about a new name for the band as you’ve previously joked.

FOLDS: It would be fun to come up with a name for the band, and I could incorporate that when we tour. But the reality is that I'm supporting a record that I played all the instruments on. If I just come up with some random name, it's still my name on the album, so that's kind of confusing. Part of being a solo artist is the freedom to go do it solo or come next time with an orchestra or whatever. I love this band; they're great, and I'll definitely keep working with them. They're my old friends, so we'll see. Unfortunately, it would be one of those "Ben and the So-and-So's" vibe, and I'm not really nuts about "and the" names.

STARPOLISH: We also received what by now must be a familiar question: “What are the chances for a BF5 reunion tour in the distant future?”

FOLDS: I don't think so. That really wasn't our style. If it seems completely natural, like something that would just sort of happen, we might do that, but I can't imagine that anytime soon. I don't think any of the three of us are interested in that now.

STARPOLISH: Another StarPolish fan said there’s been speculation on your website, www.benfolds.org, about the numbers in the song, “One Down.” What do they mean? Are they related to how many albums BF5 put out, and how many you need to make to be able to settle down with your family?

FOLDS: The truth is, I had 4.6 songs left as my "requirement" in my old publishing deal. So I wrote 4.6 songs to finish that out. It was kind of an absurd thing in my contract, which I won't get into, but that's where it came from. The first song I wrote was “One Down, 3.6 to Go.” Then I put in a song called “Girl,” a horrible thing that's supposed to be uncomfortably close to a boy-band song; you're not supposed to know if it's a joke or not, and that's why it's funny to me. Then there's a song called “The Secret Life of Morgan Davis,” [which is] a polka about this guy who runs around trading crack. Then there's another song called “Make Me Mommy.” Then I co-wrote a song with my wife, so that she would get .4 [percent] of the credit. The idea was that I had been asked to just write some kind of crap and turn it in for five years -- and I would have made a lot more money. But I just couldn't bring myself to just sit down and write junk. But then that year it was like, “Okay. Uncle. I gotta get some money, so I gotta get out of this deal.”

STARPOLISH: Someone else asked about why the re-release due out in September cancelled? “Some of the songs recorded for the 'new' Ben Folds Five album were supposed to be on there,” he asks. “Any chance the label is planning a second Naked Baby Photos? And how many songs did BF5 leave behind?"

FOLDS: There's some stuff that was vaulted and never heard of again; I don't even have a copy of that stuff. I've got to listen to some of it to see what's good and what's not. Then I think that one day, when it's the right time, we'll put out a retrospective thing and put some really cool [unreleased] stuff on it. Again, it just seemed a little premature. Too many products would be coming out at once. The label didn't think it felt right, and I didn't either, so we canned that idea.

STARPOLISH: One of StarPolish’s most active members asked about where the concept for the video came from. “You in the Fred Durst getup was a nice touch, but my favorite part is when you backwards out of the pool onto the diving board and start smiling,” he writes. “ For some reason, that just cracks me up.”

FOLDS: That's all [Weird] Al Yankovic. He's just funny. He's really good at what he does. I just showed up and did what he told me to do.

STARPOLISH: Another fan asks if it’s true that you're a huge Sifl & Olly fan?

FOLDS: Those guys are great -- real creative. They're really cool and actually good musicians as well.

STARPOLISH: You’re in the position of being able to work with other artists now. What other artists would you like to work with? FOLDS: I couldn't tell you, off the top of my head. It needs to be dictated by the song – you write a song, and then if there's casting, you go out and find somebody to do it. There's zillions of great musicians out there.

STARPOLISH: “I love your mention of Michael Jackson in Rockin’ the Suburbs,” writes another fan. “Will you ever play an MJ cover in the future?"

FOLDS: The trouble with playing covers by people like Michael Jackson is, you get someone that fuckin' talented doing a great version of a song, and I wouldn't know what to do with it; it's already been done so well. But I don't know. Maybe. It depends.

STARPOLISH: Someone asked is Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson were influences on your songwriting?

FOLDS: Um, did this person come out to our show in Cincinnati?

STARPOLISH: She does say in her post, "Maybe I'll catch you in Cincinnati?"

FOLDS: She said that? There you go. I don't know all their work inside and out, but I can see we're on the same planet, and the shit I have heard I'm sure rubbed off on me.

STARPOLISH: Rundgren especially writes with a real keyboard feel and traditional structure.

FOLDS: Oh, yeah. It's more of a school of thought than anything. It's like jazz extensions on the piano: Your hands have five fingers each, so things tend to fall in the same way if you follow a certain path. So it makes a lot of sense, that Todd Rundgren/Joe Jackson school.

STARPOLISH: Another StarPolish member notes that Doug Martsch's guitar says “Ben”' “I know this is on his guitar for his son, but it's the same handwriting as the BF5 logos. Did you get the idea to write the logos like that from Doug, or vice versa?”

FOLDS: I don't think either one was true. I just met Doug for the first time a couple of weeks ago,

STARPOLISH: She also asked if you plan on writing more songs with Frally, and perhaps even performing with her in the future?

FOLDS: Well, we're thinking about her doing the bridge of "Gone" in Japan, because she'll be there for that. She's not a professional singer, but she's got a great voice and a really cool vibe, so we'll see how comfortable she is with it. I'm not gonna make her do anything [laughs].

STARPOLISH: Someone else asks how having a family has influenced your musical life? “Do you bring them with you on tour, or are they at home? Do you see yourself putting a stop to the music business to focus on family any time soon?”

FOLDS: I think those things can live together, but you're gonna have to compromise the amount of time you put into both of them. I don't think it's real natural to try to go out there and rock when you're …

STARPOLISH: When you’re… maturing?

FOLDS: Well, I don't know. That's kind of bogus, too. I mean, there's Neil Young again -- he does it, and he's old. I haven't figured it out yet; I'm just playing it by ear.

STARPOLISH: A StarPolish member wants to know what happened to your song, “Breakup at the Food Court”? “I know it was supposed to be on the scrapped BF5 album, so do you plan on doing anything with it, or do Darren or Robert plan on using it?”

FOLDS: They've never really heard the song; the three of us never played it. It was a half-finished idea that I had, and this guy from Spin magazine and said, “What are you working on?” I was writing everything in the studio, and that was on the list of things I was writing. I was like, “I dunno.” I hadn't finished any songs, so I was kind of bullshitting my way through it. “Breakup at the Food Court” was the title of one song I was finishing, and I think now that the title was much better than the actual song (laughs).

STARPOLISH: The final two questions come from a StarPolish fan named Amy: “Have you ever had an out-of-body experience? How about strawberry salsa?"

FOLDS: Out-of-body experience? No … but has she ever tried strawberry malt liquor?