Ben Folds Five

The ironically monikered three-piece Ben Folds Five dispel any misgivings about a band's ability to rock without guitars. Mixing their hooky, energetic, piano-led sound with lyrics that fuse irreverence and vulnerability, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina natives are often grouped with the nerd rock movement of the mid-'90s, although their debt to jazz music -- not to mention Ben Folds' acerbic spin on the classic pianist/songwriter tradition -- ensured the trio a long-lasting legacy after their 1995 debut LP, Ben Folds Five. They subsequently split in 2000 following a pair of international-charting albums (1997's Whatever and Ever Amen and 1999's The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner) that helped launch Folds' solo career, which has included appearances on the pop and classical charts. The Five reunited over a decade later for 2012's U.S. Top Ten-charting The Sound of the Life of the Mind and accompanying tours, and they've since reunited again periodically for shows with the likes of Cake and Violent Femmes. A 2026, 30th anniversary reissue of their debut LP included an 11-song scrapped version of the album with seven alternate takes and four swapped-out songs. The group's story is, in many ways, the story of its de facto leader and namesake, Ben Folds. The son of a carpenter, Folds was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Upon graduating high school in the mid-'80s and coming a mere jury performance away from completing a bachelor's degree in percussion performance (incomplete due to a hand injury), the young musician drifted from place to place in hopes of discovering another way forward in music. Throughout a decade in which hair bands ruled the airwaves, Folds spent frustrating stints in Miami, Chapel Hill, New York, and Europe, a period that also included time in Nashville in the early '90s. In spite of the fact that Nashville was a songwriter's mecca, or because of it, Folds found the city's approach to songwriting frustrating and exclusive. While producers and managers wanted obvious hits, Folds wanted, instead, to follow his own, eccentric muse, and he found work mainly as a session drummer while there. When Folds finally drifted back to Chapel Hill in 1994, he formed a piano-based trio with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee, and within weeks, the band cut an indie single that attracted the attention of Caroline. After scrapping an initial version of the album and re-recording it with producer Caleb Southern, their animated 1995 self-titled debut sold enough copies to warrant the kind of major-label bidding war that young bands fantasize about. Eventually signing with Sony, the group released the Southern- and Folds-produced Whatever and Ever Amen and continued the strenuous touring schedule for which the band had become known. Releasing the singles "Battle of Who Could Care Less" and "Brick," disarmingly earnest ballad that became their biggest hit, into a climate awash with guitar bands, Ben Folds Five and their witty, offbeat, piano-based music were a welcome difference, and the group became critical and commercial darlings. The album ultimately landed in the Top Ten in Australia and Japan, peaked at number 30 in the U.K., and cracked the Top 50 in Canada and the U.S. Inevitable comparisons to piano composers of yore such as Todd Rundgren, Billy Joel, and Joe Jackson followed, but the group maintained their individuality. Over the next two years, Ben Folds Five kept their name in the press by releasing songs on soundtracks, as well as an album of outtakes, B-sides, and early live appearances called Naked Baby Photos. In early 1999, they released their third studio album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, which was also produced by Southern. It became their highest-charting album yet, rising to number 35 on the Billboard 200, number 22 in the U.K., and the Top Five in Australia. It came as a surprise to both fans and the media, then, when the band abruptly announced their split in November 2000 in order to pursue individual projects. Bassist Robert Sledge went on to form Brother Seeker with former Squirrel Nut Zippers members Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher, to play in Maxwell's Minor Drag, and after he was considered to replace Mikey Welsh in Weezer (they ultimately went with Scott Shriner), he founded the power pop group International Orange with the Old Ceremony's Django Haskins and others. Drummer Darren Jessee played club shows around New York City and started his own successful songwriting outlet with the band Hotel Lights. Ben Folds didn't stop, either, contributing "Lonely Christmas Eve" to the Grinch soundtrack, as well as the cut "Wandering" for the 2000 independent comedy 100 Girls, before releasing a string of successful solo albums, including the Billboard 200 Top 20 entries Songs for Silverman (2005) and Way to Normal (2008). Ben Folds Five did eventually re-form in 2011, contributing a new song to Folds' 18-track The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective. They made the reunion official in 2012 with the release of The Sound of the Life of the Mind, the band's fourth studio album and first since 1999. Produced by Guster's Joe Pisapia, the album marked their (and Folds') Top Ten debut on the Billboard 200, and it was accompanied by a sold-out theater tour. The group's members returned to their various solo and side projects, with Folds releasing his first piano concerto as part of 2015's So There, and Sledge playing in Chapel Hills bands such as Surrender Human. Jessee released his first solo album, The Jane Room 217, in 2018. In the meantime, Ben Folds Five periodically reunited for performance opportunities like concerts with Cake and Violent Femmes. They were one nearly a dozen bands to play a home-state show in August 2023 in tribute to Southern, who died earlier in the year at the age of 53. Ben Folds Five were back in September 2026, this time on Capitol/Ume, with a 30th anniversary reissue of their self-titled debut (31 years after its release). It not only included a remastered edition of the Southern-produced album familiar to fans but a "Shelved First Attempt" produced by Dave "Stiff" Johnson that featured alternate performances and four swapped-out songs (including "Evaporated," which was later re-recorded for Whatever and Ever Amen). ~ Steve Kurutz & Marcy Donelson, Rovi