Singer, songwriter Ben Folds performed last night at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Read here for his take on a cappella versus pop and how he designs his set lists.
You recorded a CD of college a cappella groups covering your songs. How did that come about?
A friend sent me a link of one of my songs being done by a university a cappella group, specifically a Columbia University group. And it was really good. I knew immediately that I wanted to make a record out of it.
Why do you think a cappella as a genre is important to integrate into pop music?
Well because I think it doesn’t, as much, focus on a celebrity and a personality. It’s more about the music in general. I also think it’s really good when you can do something that doesn’t require money, instruments, material, anything. It’s funny to me that people consider it a bit of a novelty kind of music. I would think that auto-tuned, computerized dance tracks with a model that’s been Photoshopped beyond recognition should be novel.
What comes first, the melody or the lyrics?
Music almost always comes first. My association with the melody seems to be really strong. So I don’t have to work at that really hard. What I do have to work at is trying to find out what it means. Even if it’s an instrumental song it’s going to mean something abstractly at least. I go about trying to haphazardly find the lyrics that don’t destroy the melody.
Do you have a method to designing your set list?
Well, it’s always different. Like right now, because I haven’t played in three months, it all seems new to me. I don’t really have a method, but when I get bored I start really shifting it up a lot, and people seem to be really happy about that.
Any songs that are your go-to?
I like to have a song called “Not the Same” somewhere toward the end of the set because it’s a three-part harmony, and people do it so well. It’s kind of like a treat for me because I’ll never get tired of hearing 2,000 to 3,000 people singing three-part harmony. I get sick of the song, but I don’t get sick of what it causes.
