Millennial Fair – Ben Folds

 

Introduction:
By Samuel Wrest

Ben Folds, full name being Benjamin Scott Folds, was born in Winston–Salem, North Carolina within 1966. His music career started in 1988, when Ben joined a band called Majosha. The band broke up in the early 1990’s, and Ben formed a band called Pots and Pans. However, Pots and Pans broke up in a very short space of time due to two of the members deciding to set up another band, which Ben wasn’t involved within.

Perhaps the most important thing within Ben’s music career was the forming of Ben Folds Five, a band that was set up in 1993 and consisted of Ben Folds (piano) Robert Sledge (bass) and Daren Jessee (drums) The band was extremely successful in the 1990’s, capturing the hearts of many with their very different music style. The band eventually broke up in the year 2000. Although it may have been a risky move for Ben to change from a band member to a solo artist (which has ended in disaster many a time) Ben pulled it off nicely, which can be clearly seen through his successful solo career.

Within 1998, while Ben was still part of Ben Folds Five, he decided to have a shot at his very first solo album, Fear of Pop, which he made the following comment upon: “it helped satisfy my need to express some things musically - textures,orchestration, rhythms - things that don't always naturally fall into the standard threeminute singer/song format.” Each song of Fear of Pop was written by Ben himself, and the album came out as quite the success, despite it only being a side project of Ben’s, and his serious attempt at being a solo artist was still yet to come.

In September 2001, Ben released his second solo album: Rockin the Suburbs. Rockin the Suburbs is, in my opinion, one of the greatest albums to date. It truly shows Ben Folds talents within music, giving superb songs such as “Annie Waits”, “Not The Same” and “Fired”; it delivers a mixture of sorrow, love and humour. Through listening to the whole of this album, you will clearly see how much talent Ben has in many instruments, as although his main talents lays with the piano, he is also a fantastic guitar, bass and drum player, among many other instruments.

In December 2001 at New York’s bowery ballroom, Ben performed his very first solo performance, and in the spring of 2002, Ben travelled America for a two–leg solo tour. He later went on to perform the “Ben Folds and piano tour” in July 2002, and through one of these live performances, Ben put together 17 tracks into his second solo album; “Ben Folds Live”, which again shows Ben’s talent on the piano and among many other instruments.

Ben Folds is currently touring America, and will hopefully be working on another album sometime soon.

More about Ben:

Official Ben Folds Website
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