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Written by KZYR
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Saturday, 18 April 2009 |
Ben Folds discovered many college acapella groups were singing his songs, so he decied to record an album of musicless verses.
Ben Folds was as surprised as anyone else that his songs were
popular fodder for the repertoires of college vocal groups -- which
gave him the idea for his new album, "Ben Folds Presents:
University A Capella!"
The 16-song set features 14 of the groups -- including the
Spartones from the University of North Carolina, one of the schools
Folds himself attended -- performing intricately arranged
renditions of Folds songs such as "Brick," "Magic," "Evaporated,"
"Fair" and "Army." Folds, who became aware of the phenomenon via
YouTube, selected the groups and songs and produced the album,
which comes out April 28, and also recorded two of his own a
capella tracks, "Boxing" and "Effington."
The songs, Folds tells Billboard.com, "are definitely built for"
the a capella group treatment. "My songs have all the things you'd
hope they'd have, because they're classical structured. It's pop
music, but they're built to be interesting in their voicing and
chord changes. They're kind of made for elaborate arrangements, so
it makes sense to me they would appeal to these (groups)."
Producing the tracks while flying to and from gigs on his tour to
support 2008's "Way to Normal" was "exhausting," Folds says -- but
worthwhile.
"I'm a songwriter first," he explains, "and yet I've never really
been covered. In a funny way, I still always think of the
(recordings), when I do them, like demos. I figure they're going to
be covered by somebody important one day. So of course I was
thrilled. I got to hear the songs actually take flight. These are
the songs doing what they're supposed to do."
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 18 April 2009 )
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