Ben Folds is hoping to have his next album out in September, but he plans to keep previewing new songs at shows before then, including appearances at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee and festivals in Berlin and Britain.
“We’ve played most of the album here — there’s not a lot to unveil,” Folds told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters to promote Bonnaroo. “We’ve got two or three songs that we were sort of holding onto, just so that someone would buy the record. But it’s not a bad idea to play one of those new ones at Bonnaroo; that’s kind of a special show, so we may do that.”
Folds added that even with their massive crowds, festivals such as Bonnaroo provide a sympathetic environment to try out new material. “It’s a music audience, and that’s pretty impressive for the size of the audience,” he explains. “The last time (at Bonnaroo in 2006) we played in front of a really large crowd and we were playing mostly stuff off an album that’d just been released and it all felt pretty good [and] pretty musical.”
At shows already this year Folds has played a variety of songs from the new album, his first since “Supersunnyspeedygraphic” in 2006. Among the titles have been “Hiroshima,” “Errant Dog,” “Effington,” “The Bitch Went Nuts,” “Free Coffee” and “Kylie From Connecticut.” The album has no title yet, however.
“That’s going to be one of the last things, I think, that’s going to fall together here,” he said. “I’m not really sure. I may have a couple of ideas, but we’ve got some really good stuff going for the artwork that I’m excited about. So I kind of want to get that in order and see if that helps me make up my mind.”
Know for the wry sense of humor he infuses in his lyrics, Folds told the Bonnaroo call that he’s also looking forward to checking out some of the comedians who are part of the festival bill.
“I can relate to that because I’m a little bit of a clown,” he said, “but I don’t think I’m like ‘Keystone Cops’ kind of clown. The last time I met Louis Black, and he was really cool. We had a really good talk and it was fun. I get along with comedians well pretty well.”
