American musician and producer Ben Folds was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1966. His full name is Benjamin Scott Folds and he began learning piano from his nine. He grew up by hearing artists such as Elton John and Billy Joel, while he used to play with various bands when he was in high school, not only piano but also drums and bass.
Folds’s first group was Majosha with which he released one EP and one studio album. He played drums for a couple of bands later, he studied in a music school for a while and he went to New Jersey where he joined theatre groups. He returned to North Carolina and formed “Ben Folds Five” in 1993 along with another two musicians. They released four albums until 2013 when the group broke up permanently. His first solo album was 2001’s “Rockin’ the Suburbs”, an alternative rock album which peaked at no. 42 on the US Billboard 200 chart. It was followed by the live album “Ben Folds Live” in 2012 and three EPs until 2014.
“Songs for Silverman” was Folds’s second album which came out in April of 2015, reaching no. 13 on the US album charts. He later contributed to the soundtracks of two movies and after the release of “Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP”, he began dealing with his next studio album. “Way to Normal” came out in September of 2008 and reached no. 11 on the album charts a few days after Amanda Palmer’s first solo album, in which Folds was the producer.
In the following years, Folds took part in various projects and collaborated with artists like Nick Hornby, Angela Aki while he became a judge in the competition TV-series “The Sing-Off” for four seasons in a row. He continued performing in several live shows and events, while he has collaborated with National Symphony Orchestra, as well as with a lot of American and Australian symphony orchestras. His most recent record release is 2015’s “So There”, an album with the New York chamber ensemble “yMusic”.
Ben Folds
Ben Folds
Ben Folds
Ben Folds