After a 12 year hiatus, the reunited Ben Folds Five have found a changed music world that includes music festivals, album pre-order campaigns and digital promotions.
Members Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee got a taste of the influence of the internet four years ago when the trio performed 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety as a Myspace special event. Several years later, the recording of three new tracks for a Folds box set eventually paved the way for appearances at Mountain Jam, Bonnaroo and Summerfest last summer.
Fans that enthusiastically responded to the group’s sets at those festivals were greeted with even better news – a brand new studio album and an international slate of tourdates.
Released last September, The Sound of the Life of the Mind is everything one expects from the alt-pop act – melodic hooks, harmonies and a musically adventurous spirit. Despite the passing of 13 years since BFF’s last studio release the new album offers a connection to the groundbreaking past while displaying the maturity of the present.
Coming out of the Chapel Hill, North Carolina music scene in 1994, a piano-based trio that could mix pop smarts with jazz complexity became a welcome antithesis to the barrage of loud-quiet-loud guitar acts that arrived after alternative rock became a part of the mainstream. A hit single, “Brick,” on the band’s second effort, “Whatever and Ever Amen,” confirmed that more than just college kids searching for something different could handle this musical concoction. “The Sound of the Life of the Mind” continues to balance an individualistic approach with a willingness to be inclusive.
The band received an internet boost when the video for the album’s first single, “Do It Anyway,” was produced by Nerdist Industries and world premiered on its channel. The clip featured the Fraggles, stars of the Jim Henson Company’s “Fraggle Rock.”
This was followed by an opening night concert at New York Comic Con and, later, a special Guitar Center Sessions that featured an interview and a seven-song performance. Broadcast on Direct TV, the session should be available on the internet.
Catching up with bassist Sledge we discussed the band’s 12 year break, starts and stops to a full-fledged reunion, his distinctive contribution to the Ben Folds Five sound as well as the recording of the new album and musical relationships within the band.
JPG: Since we’re going back in your history, let’s go back to 2000. Why did you stop and what kind of happened to start things up again?
RS: In 2000, man, we were so burned out. We were doing like over 200 shows a year. I guess that’s common for a lot of people but we were doing over 200 shows a year and constant press and constant videoing. We were just totally burnt out. Personally, I was ready to take a long break because I had no quality of life. I felt like I didn’t have any friends anymore.
I think Darren wanted to go pursue some other things. He wanted to work on his songwriting and maybe release a record. I can’t really say where Ben’s head was at. He, of course, made a solo record right after that. I think that all of us had plans but not with each other. It was very amicable. Nobody screamed at each other. I think Darren just called me and said, “Look man. I’m tired and I just want to do my own thing.” He was the first one to split. Although he doesn’t remember that, I remember it very well.
It was all very amicable and we were just so burned out on the band and just so burned out from traveling that it didn’t seem like that big of a deal until we started talking to people we worked with and they’re like, “What?!?!?? What the hell? This is stupid.” And we were like, “We can’t do it. We’re tired.” In retrospect, I wish that we would have just said, “Everybody’s going their separate ways for awhile but the band’s not broken up.” That would have been cool. But, it was a good, clean break and it was a good launching point for everybody to go on and do something else.
The funny thing is that in ’07 I was still burned out on the band. I didn’t want to go back (slight laugh) and do the band again. But around ’08 I started thinking, “Well, you know, it might be kind of fun to play a show again.” And then, boom, Ben called and said he wanted to do the Reinhold Messner album front to back for MySpace. And I’d really gotten to the point where I was ready to do it again. I guess Darren was, too.
And that show went fantastic. Everybody played really well together. We only probably needed to rehearse for a half an hour to do that show. We had the luxury of having that hall for two days while they set up cameras and stuff, so we really got to play with each other a lot for a couple of days and it was just really magic. We rediscovered that the three of us playing together is effortless. There’s so much energy between us.
JPG: Going back to the hiatus. Do you think one of the hardest things for musicians is saying, “No?” If you guys would have said, “No” and cut down from 200 dates to even say 150 and not do this and that, then you would deal with things at a better pace.
RS: That’s so hard. It just depends on who you’re working with. But yes, you’re right. It’s really difficult for a musician to say, “No.” You say, “Yes” for most of your life trying to get anywhere and establish yourself or just get your head above water and feel comfortable, and then when you start drowning emotionally (slight laugh). It’s hard. It’s really hard to say, “No.” It really is. It becomes almost impossible without doing something dramatic, like having a nervous breakdown and end up on the cover of the magazine rack in the grocery store. Really. I think that some of that stuff might even be staged just to get a break.
JPG: Looking at bands that are considered in the jamband or punk genres that tour regularly throughout the year, does it blow your mind? Make you think, “How do these guys do it?” or have you talked to them and they’ve figured something out that you didn’t.
RS: Ummmm…I would like to talk to them. I’ll tell you what, at the time that we were touring, I didn’t know anybody on the road who toured harder than us. It was well over 200 dates a year. I’m in awe of those people who can do it, but I guess that they just figured it out. They’ve got some kind of routine that keeps them sane. Maybe they can afford enough people around them to buffer themselves from each other a little bit so that they can still work together and not take things too personal or have too much interpersonal stuff with the band or maybe some of them are brothers…
JPG: Moving forward. When you did the MySpace show was there talk of getting together and record and tour or was it just, “Okay. Well, see you. I still need a breather.” When did it firm up?
RS: I think being called six months later and I was wondering why it took him so long. We were making more phone calls with each other at that point, just talking casually about a whole lot of personal stuff. It wasn’t a lot of work stuff. Ben called me when he had the Nick Hornby record in the can and said that he wanted to make a record. I think that that was the timeline, and it took two years of talking to get the band in the studio because of schedules, mostly Ben.
JPG: Then, you got a taste of working together again when you did the three songs for the box set in 2011.
RS: We’d been talking about making a record but it was kind of obvious that it wasn’t a good time to do that. Sony wanted to do the box set, which is good for the band, good for Ben. It reintroduced the notion of the band doing something together and also got us working together again. We went into the studio and did that. I wish that we had more time. I was really glad that we did it and it was great to play with them again and great to work in the environment that we ultimately put the record in.
Personally, I was a little frustrated because it sounded so good that I wanted to keep going. I could tell that there was a lot of potential there. It felt, like I said before when we got together and played, it felt right. I don’t ever have that feeling. I played with a lot of fantastic musicians but I’ve never had quite that same feeling with a band. They’re sort of like my bros. We just had to clear some schedules after the retrospective. It was like six months later when we went in the studio.
JPG: At that time you were living in Chapel Hill. Does it still have a vital music scene?
RS: Yeah, there’s a lot of really good bands here. And I’m always surprised. There’s a lot of good stuff. Raleigh had a really good scene over the last 10 years. Bands like Avetts and Megafaun and groups like that are doing real well. Chapel Hill is part of that. Everybody is sort of intermarried. The folk and bluegrass scenes and the Americana stuff’s been really strong in Chapel Hill for a long time; since the last 12 years, at least.
JPG: Were you producing or playing on those types of records? If not, what kind of studio work were you doing?
RS: I had a studio at my house for about four years and I did a few records for people. I probably did five records. I did a couple records for a band called Hobex with Greg Humphreys. I did “U Ready Man?” and part of “Wisteria” album before that.
I did a bunch of local stuff that nobody would know. I played session bass for a lot of country-tinged folk stuff around here. I played with a band called Mandolin Orange, a fantastic band. Mostly duos. Sometimes bigger bands.
JPG: So, you were keeping yourself busy musically? It wasn’t like you completely turned your back on the music world and completely got away from it.
RS: Oh, no. My God, no. That’s all I’ve ever done. That’s the thing I’m actually really good at. Like, I suck at a ton of stuff but if you prop me up onstage and give me some good music to play, that’s the thing I excel at. I just really love to play. I’ve done a ton of session work, I’ve taught music for awhile over the last four or five years. I do pick up gigs around town, mostly professional stuff. Unless someone’s paying me…because I have a kid now and I’m trying to keep the lights on so I tend to pick up mostly paying gigs, which limits my range a little bit. (slight laugh)
JPG: But it kept the lights on.
RS: Yeah, it keeps the lights on. I like to be professional. That really helps. When I got back together with Ben and Darren, I played better than I used to.
JPG: I guess you were playing different types of music and you were able to bring that back in.
RS: Yeah. I played pop music and R&B on sessions and onstage, and I played a bunch of Country and Americana as well. Upright bass and electric bass.
JPG: Was there much call for your patented use of the distortion pedal on these sessions?
RS: (slight laugh) Not as much. And it was kind of nice because a lot of people came to me like, “Oh, well, you’re this guy whose in a band. I don’t really know much about your band, but, obviously, you’re professional.” I’m like, “Yes, I’m professional.” And they hire me to do the thing and I play bass real well.
People who knew me really from the band, that’s all they want is for me to step on the distortion box and play a solo. It makes me feel really limited. Most people would like to have that problem; have what they’re known for (slight laugh) and are getting work from it, but it doesn’t seem like the whole me. I can play a lot of different type of styles. I play finger style. I grew up playing slap, pop and funk and all this stuff. I can do all this stuff but I don’t mind being known as the solo bass distortionist.
JPG: Listening to the new album it’s so cool when that bass distortion comes in out of nowhere. It’s not expected within these catchy and melodic songs with harmonies. Where did that originate?
RS: When Ben met me, he heard about me through his brother. I was playing in a band called Toxic Popsicle. We were this punk rock funk band that played too fast. We were trying to be danceable, but we weren’t really. We were just playing super fast and playing this funk stuff that didn’t even sound like funk because it was too fast. But it was really fun and we’d blow people’s minds, and I played with a lot of distortion in that band. I would take solos with distortion and Ben really got into that idea. So, when we started this band, trying to service these songs and trying to paint a picture and tell a story in a more broad sense than I’d ever done before, that was just part of my legacy; this tool that I brought with me.
And also, it must be said that I was an angry young man (laughs) and I played a lot of really aggressive music like heavy metal and punk funk. And, I guess I bring something to playing with distortion that a civilized sort of well-adjusted person might not. You know what I mean? Like Pete Townshend when he kicks it in. He gets this gleam in his eye and he’s like, “Hell yeah! This is amazing! I’m going to melt someone’s face off!” All of a sudden he’s empowered. I guess I have that same attitude.
JPG: In the late 80’s there was the whole punk funk moment. In that realm, it’s noticeable but not as noticeable as when it pops in now when you do it in Ben Folds Five.
RS: I really like it because when I first thought about it I was like, “Wow what a contrast.” Number one, we don’t really need a guitar. You don’t miss the guitar at that point. Also, it adds this abstract idea. It’s like, “Where did that even come from? Why would you even do that, to mess up this real pretty piano ballad or whatever with distortion?” It draws a very abstract line, something kind of aggressive and powerful. It really does contrast and support the song really well. All that stuff happens in your mind in about five minutes during rehearsal and everybody starts nodding and their eyes get big and they’re like, “Yeah.” I can analyze it now but it just felt really good.
JPG: It brings up this aspect of the band’s material. The only word that I can think of right now is ‘pretty’ but then there’s more going on within the song that’s more acerbic wit, dry wit…
RS: Sardonic
JPG: Yeah, sardonic. It makes me view Ben Folds Five as kind of a punk band wrapped in melodic material.
RS: It’s just subtle and not so subtle social commentary going on. The things I like about what Ben is saying, he’s just sort of dissatisfied with a lot of people not doing their best. I really relate to that. I’ve seen a lot of hypocrisy, a lot of weirdness in the South that is difficult to deal with and I think Ben deals with it in his own way, clever social commentary going on.
JPG: I also mean that as far the band itself, the idea that a song could be going one way and then you smash it up and take it another direction. It’s the whole package, not just the lyrics.
RS: Right. The lyrics I think are enabling in a way. There’s that and also Ben is such a fantastic musician and people used to say stuff about Frank Zappa when we first started and we wanted to steer clear of any comparison like that. But I will say that the band has a lot of musical ability so we can really change and be convincing, mostly convincing to ourselves. That’s the first thing. In a song like “Erase Me,” all of a sudden it sounds like an opera in the bridge. That seemed like an obvious choice to us but that might be a little jarring to other people.
JPG: Also with “Erase Me,” it starts off with the distortion pedal, almost like a re-introduction, as if to say, “Here we are!” Then, it cuts off and goes into a quieter more melodic world.
RS: I guess we’re from the ‘90s…what’s that movie, the Pixies movie? Loudquietloud. That’s where we’re from. You know, stuff like “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Super loud then it gets quiet then super loud again. I think that that’s a really powerful way to support a lot of different ideas. It doesn’t have to be, “I’m happy, I’m sad. I’m mad or I’m brooding.” You can use that to illustrate the same idea and just put a different light on it. Put it in orange instead of blue. That’s more where we’re coming from.
JPG: How does the writing process work and did it change with this album because you weren’t together for such a long period?
RS: Ben came in with a lot of song starts, songs that, maybe, had music for the verse and chorus for most things. Most of the song starts had verse chorus riffs but there was no form to the song and in most cases, not many lyrics, just melodies. He had rough ideas about the songs but it wasn’t until the band played through a lot of these song starts that…this is what he said that he really heard them the way they should be in a way.
Some things made it and some things didn’t. As song starts started to fall off and we narrowed it down to 15 songs, we spent more time on each song. It was just a narrowing down process that took about two weeks. Then we got burnt out on that and then Darren brings in a whole completed song, which is what most bands do. (slight laugh) It was like a breath of fresh air. We got to work on a completed song, which is reinvigorating. Then, Ben got back to finishing lyrics and we finished it up.
The majority of the tracks were done completely live. There’s a lot of elbows being thrown and weird timing and stuff that just got left in there because the performance sounds complete, and that’s where I come from. I want people to imagine me playing because that’s what I’m doing. I’m performing a song. We’re really fortunate that we played off each other really well and got some really good takes.
JPG: When you say that Ben came in with pieces of a song is he just playing something on the piano or is he playing a demo with a rhythm track to give you and Darren some sort of guide?
RS: We sit in a room together, just the three of us at our instruments with headphones on — tape is already rolling — and Ben just starts playing piano and we scramble to follow him. I’m not even able to see his hands most of the time. I figure it out as quickly as I can. That’s how we do it. Not many of them had any prior recordings. He didn’t do any band recordings. That’s not usually what he does.
JPG: At that point are you and Darren looking at each other to figure out what you are going to do together or is it just chaos until something sticks?
RS: I usually get inspired really quickly about something. I start developing parts really fast and so does Darren. We sort of develop parts and then bend our ears towards each other and develop parts and bend our ears. Working as a three-piece you can really get a lot of individuality. It ends up working that way where you’re working on your own solo interpretation of this idea and also the other half of your brain is working on flattering someone else’s interpretation. As soon as we hear something, we’re instantly coming up with our parts because things are happening so fast. That’s just the way we work.
We don’t start off with traditional arrangements where Darren just plays two and four on the snare drum. Doesn’t usually work that way. We don’t usually dictate to each other that this thing’s going to sound funk or that this gonna sound R&B or whatever.
JPG: Going back to the timeline of playing the MySpace show, recording several tracks for the box set, did you record “The Sound of the Life of the Mind” before you played festival dates such as Mountain Jam and Bonnaroo?
RS: We were at the very end of recording when we started that. In fact, the week prior to Bonaroo we were recording vocals all week. We did the majority of the background vocals for the record at House of Blues Studio D in Nashville the week prior to Bonaroo.
JPG: So many bands tour first in order bring awareness and then release an album. Why was the plan, record an album first and then tour?
RS: We decided early on to not be so nostalgic about our own material. I believe what this band does well is spontaneous music. We wouldn’t be characterized as a jamband but we’re actually a pretty good jam band. Some of the material, Ben had been playing solo for a long time and for us to just go out and be nostalgic about the ‘90s and then also to reinterpret the stuff that had been interpreted by Ben in his solo shows wasn’t as satisfying to us as making a full length record that we can go out and represent ourselves as we are now. It worked out really well.
It was a little bit difficult in the beginning to negotiate with anybody because a lot of bands drum up support and do some touring. Us taking a different path, maybe, limited us in the industry. We didn’t think about that too much. We just said, “Since Ben has a fantastic studio…” I don’t know if you know about his studio, it’s Chet Atkins’ old RCA Studio A room on Music Square West in Nashville. So it’s this gymnasium-sized old school studio built for symphonic recording. Ben has a facility there now and a whole lot of people have been making records there. It was built in 1962.
So, we go in there and play for six weeks. During that time we decided to go with the Pledge Music campaign to get some pre-sales going. We established a whole lot of pre-sales for the record before it was even finished and came up with our own plans for marketing before we even signed a distribution deal with Sony. Everything was in the can. The enthusiasm for the record was there. Everything, before we even got a record company involved. It was just our own record company for awhile We had the luxury of doing that because Ben has this nice studio.
JPG: Do you guys allow people to tape your shows?
RS: Yes, they can tape. We only have one front of house engineer. He has his hands full. I don’t want to invite people to start trying to get a feed off of his board and we don’t have a setup for people to get board mixes. If they want to bring a personal hand held recorder, be my guest.
JPG: What about mic stands?
RS: Without having a section, that might be a little bit intrusive for other people’s space. I’m a novice about this stuff. I’m sure that there’s lots of bands who have a policy and have it worked out to where everybody has a good show regardless of whether they’re taping or not. Right now, my policy is handheld-only.
JPG: That’s still good enough for some people because I’ve downloaded a couple of shows from your current tour.
RS: Yeah?
JPG: Somebody got in with something.
RS: That’s cool. That’s fine. I mean I think a lot of songs that we just jam on and kind of spontaneously make up…Ben hears something from a heckler or someone from the crowd and he makes a song out of it. There’s plenty of those songs out on the internet and they eventually become album tracks. I think those improvised versions have a lot more fire than some half-baked version that we’re still roughing out in the studio.
JPG: A lot of those sites are from people that are so fanatical that they’re so excited to get a slightly different version from one show to the next or a different setlist. On to Pledge Music. How was that used with the new album?
RS: It wasn’t used to finance the production. It was used to pre-order quality product like digipaks and vinyl albums to get people interested.
You have a goal, and you say whether you goal is 50 per cent met or not. In our case, we set our goal kind of low. We just wanted to pre-order a bunch of vinyl but then it got to about 500 per cent of the goal. So, we had a lot pre-orders on the record and that was really flattering and unexpected.
I don’t know a whole lot about Amanda Palmer’s campaign. Evidently, that’s the most successful Kickstarter campaign that probably happened in the last year; that she just raised so much money. I know she raised well over $100,000. All we ever wanted to do was get enough money for a pre-order record.
JPG: With this hand-on approach, do you feel that that you’re in the same position that you were in the music world that you were before 2000, kind of your own world but that’s okay?
RS: Yeah, there’s pros and cons to that and that’s true. It’s, sometimes, a little bit alienating as far as your marketing contemporaries go. We’re very different from a lot of other bands in the market place. So, finding, carving out our niche is, sometimes, difficult. Staying within our own bubble and slowly growing fans has been easy, but, of course, there’s a cap to that. Personally, I want everybody to get along (slight laugh) but I do feel that.
I have plenty of other musician friends, but I definitely think that certain elements of the band are extremely contemporary. It’s just that we service the song in a way that other people don’t. I think that that’s where the divide happens. In order for Ben to be his full self, sometimes, people get their feelings bruised.
JPG: What I meant is that although there’s more groups featuring piano today those mainstream acts have a certain slickness and that you guys have a uniqueness to your take with the bass, drum and piano that incorporates different elements and styles that makes it your own, that isn’t quite easily categorized.
RS: Well, thank you. I just think that Darren and Ben could play convincing jazz. They could blend right in and play on a record that sounds like it came from the ‘50s or ‘60s. That’s the inspiration that they mostly draw from as players not as writers. I could fumble along and support them and not sound like a complete idiot, I hope. Our take on piano, bass and drums really has more in common with Ramsey Lewis Trio than it would, say, early ‘80s Elton John or Bruce Hornsby or something like that, which is a lot more dance-driven and steady whereas we have a lot of chaotic car crashes in our music for effect. That’s just what we think is art. We certainly know that if we turn on the drum machine we could get people to dance and Ben has done that. He’s covered Ke$ha and his duet with Regina Spektor was very unconventional for him and kind of dancey but when me, Ben and Darren get together and play as a band, the unit becomes an instrument. It’s just not a very mainstream instrument.
JPG: Earlier, you mentioned in regards to the band’s success as being “capped.” You didn’t receive the Colbert Bump when you appeared on “The Colbert Report?”
RS: The Colbert Bump! We did. I think we did. We definitely received a Muppet bump. That was amazing. We’re open to it. I would like to present myself as a band to the people. Anybody can get involved and there are some associations that we do reach a wider audience and that’s fantastic because I’m really proud of those collaborations. It’s something that the whole band is proud of. Working with Chris Hardwick and the Henson team [on “Do It Anyway”] and working with Stephen Colbert was a dream come true. I don’t want to sound like I never want to purposefully limit myself, but I do think that there’s a lot of bands that are in their own niche these days. We’re very familiar with it.
JPG: Being on “The Colbert Report,” I imagine you’ve seen the show so you’re prepared as far as how he interviews his guests. Is there a pre-show talk with his staff to get you ready or do you just run with it?
RS: Well, it doesn’t take any urging for us to be wacky or be dry and have fun with an interview. Our presumption was before we even talk to anybody that that was part of the reason that we were going to be on there and we were going to have a whacky interview. Then, we were told, “No, let Stephen do the talking.” “Okay, that’s fine.” And then, right before we went on they go, “Don’t let Stephen do all the talking. Go in there and tell your story.” They’re like, “Don’t leave him hangin’.” I’m like, “Okay, we’ll do that, too.”
Stephen’s a southerner. He’s from South Carolina. I’ve got relatives in Charleston. I know a little bit of what it’s like to make it in the northeast and have these Southern roots. You end up being a little bit of a wild card. I really admire that in Stephen Colbert, that he’s such an individual, that’s he’s very rooted in the South; something that is still part of me. It was nice to be on the show with him. We had some stuff in common. I was really happy to be there.
JPG: It comes off really well with him and the majority of musicians. Once in awhile you get somebody who is gun shy, afraid to play along.
RS: He met us in the dressing room prior to the show. He shook my hand and said, “Feel free to disabuse me of my beliefs.” I said, “Alright.”
