Ben Folds Five Biography

Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966), more commonly known as Ben Folds, is an American singer-songwriter and the former front man of the musical group Ben Folds Five. He is widely acclaimed for his prowess as a pianist, songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist.

Ben Folds was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to middle-class parents. Due to his father's work as a builder, he moved frequently throughout his childhood. Because of this particular lifestyle, making friends was difficult. As a result, Folds became attached to a piano his father had brought home when he was 9. The piano was actually the result of a barter trade his father made with a customer unable to pay Folds' father for his work. During this time, Folds listened to songs by Elton John on AM radio, and imitated them by trial and error.

During his years at R.J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer. In the late 1980s, Folds and long-time friend Jay Pichardo joined the band Majosha. The group released several records including Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus and Shut Up and Listen to Majosha. The band broke up, but Folds eventually got a publishing deal and moved to Nashville to pursue it.

Things didn't work out and Folds moved to New York where he began to act in theater troupes. He also played weekly gigs at Sin-é, famous for being the cafe which had helped start Jeff Buckley's career.

It was there where Ben Folds Five was started. The trio of Ben Folds, bassist Robert Sledge, and drummer Darren Jessee formed Ben Folds Five in 1994 (VH1 Bio). As Folds put it, “Jeff Buckley was being signed at that time by Columbia and I was talking to Steve, his A&R guy, and somehow we knew the same people or something. So I ended up moving back to North Carolina, got a band together, played our first gig after a month, and then after another couple months we signed to Caroline Records. Our first record was out eight months after that.”

As of 2005, Ben Folds has released four solo LPs, including an experimental side project called Fear of Pop which was released while Ben Folds Five was still together. His first solo release after the breakup of the band was Rockin' the Suburbs in 2001 on which he played nearly all the instruments, notably guitar, an instrument frowned upon during the Ben Folds Five days. A year later, in 2002, he released Ben Folds Live, a collection of live solo recordings. In late 2003, two solo EPs, Speed Graphic and Sunny 16, were released, and with a third entitled Super D released in mid-2004.

His most recent solo album, Songs for Silverman, was released in the United States on April 26, 2005. The album featured Jared Reynolds on bass and Lindsay Jamieson on the drums, thus returning to the trio format in earnest. This album includes the track "Late," a tribute to the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and also features backup vocals from "Weird Al" Yankovic on "Time." (Folds had played piano for Yankovic's song "Why Does This Always Happen to Me?" on his Poodle Hat album). Folds also contributed to William Shatner's most recent album Has Been as a producer, arranger, and backup vocalist. Shatner also sang vocals on Folds' Fear of Pop song, "In Love" which was once performed live on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In May of 2006 he contributed three original songs ("Heist," "Family of Me," "Still") to the soundtrack of "Over the Hedge," a DreamWorks production, as well as a cover of The Clash song "Lost in the Supermarket," and a remix of "Rockin' The Suburbs" with some new lyrics written to complement the script of the film.

On October 24, 2006, Folds released supersunnyspeedgraphic, the lp, which is a compilation of songs that were released off the EPs Sunny 16, Speed Graphic and Super D. He is also slated to release a live CD featuring string-backed classics next year. He announced on his MySpace blog that he plans to work on his next studio album in October.

Folds resides in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, photographer Frally Hynes, and their twin children, Louis and Gracie. He recorded a song for each of his children on his two most recent albums -- the song "Still Fighting It" on Rockin' the Suburbs for his son Louis, and, for his daughter, "Gracie" on his most recent album Songs for Silverman. The family also spends a few months each year in his wife Frally’s hometown of Adelaide, South Australia. He is currently touring such countries as the United States, Australia, and Japan with drummer Lindsay Jamieson and bassist Jared Reynolds.

From 1987-1992, Folds was married to Anna Goodman, who co-wrote the lyrics to several of his songs, including "Alice Childress" and "The Last Polka" from the album Ben Folds Five, "Kate" and "Smoke" from Whatever and Ever Amen, and "Lullabye" from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.

Folds also provided a number of songs for film soundtracks. Some of these include "Lonely Christmas Eve" for the Jim Carrey film How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (2000), a rendition of the Beatles' "Golden Slumbers" for the film I Am Sam (2001), and the song "Losing Lisa" for the film The Sweetest Thing (2002). He has also done charity compilations, from performing "Wicked Little Town" (from film and stage show Hedwig and the Angry Inch) with Ben Lee and Ben Kweller on the benefit album "Wig in a Box" (2003) to appearing on No Boundaries, a benefit album for Kosovo refugees, with the song "Leather Jacket." John McCrea, lead vocalist of the band Cake, provided backup vocals to the song "Fred Jones: Part 2" on the album, Rockin' the Suburbs, as well as making a live appearance, which can be found on Ben Folds Live.

"Magic," a track from The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner, and "Evaporated," a track from Whatever and Ever Amen, were featured in separate episodes of Dawson's Creek.

A Ben Folds Five concert and accompanying tracks were featured in a Japanese drama, "Long Vacation" in 1996.

The song "Wandering" was featured in the 2001 movie 100 Girls.

In 2004, "Wandering" was featured in the Kevin Smith movie, Jersey Girl.

In 2005, Ben Folds' song "The Luckiest" was used in a TV advertisement for RSPCA Australia.

In 2005, Folds performed live on the Australian TV reality show "My Restaurant Rules", (Adelaide restaurant opening).

Folds is featured on the May 9, 2005 episode of PBS's "Austin City Limits".

The song "Rockin' the Suburbs" was featured in the 2005 movie Duane Hopwood, starring David Schwimmer and Janeane Garofalo.

In January 2006, Folds was featured on the television show "Love Monkey."

Ben Folds was interviewed for the VH1 series "I Love the 80s" about the keytar, and in "I Love the 80s 3-D," where he did commentary on Phil Collins.

On April 10, 2006, the Ben Folds song "The Luckiest" was played at the end of an episode of Everwood.

On April 11, 2006, the Ben Folds song "Still Fighting It" was played during the episode of Scrubs entitled "My New Suit."

Ben Folds is one of the featured performers on the soundtrack for the 2006 film Over the Hedge. The soundtrack features five of his songs and a remix from the clash : "Family Of Me," "Heist," "Lost In The Supermarket," (Strummer/Jones - The Clash - 1979) "Still," "Rockin' The Suburbs (Over The Hedge Version featuring William Shatner)," and "Still (Reprise)."

He also performed a song called "Red is Blue" for the animated film Hoodwinked.

On April 23, 2006, Ben Folds performed "All U Can Eat" on The Henry Rollins Show on IFC.

On October 19, 2006, Ben Folds, dressed as a pirate, performed "Learn to Live With What You Are" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.