Saw this posted over at the .com


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2006--Ben Folds is a peerless phenomenon with today's quickest songwriting wit, and it shows in his contributions to the upcoming DreamWorks film, Over the Hedge. Contributing three original new songs such as the ballad "Still," as well as a rewrite of his appropriately titled hit, "Rockin' the Suburbs," with special guest vocals by cast member and friend, William Shatner, and a cover of the Clash's "Lost in the Supermarket," Ben Folds brings his signature humanism to the film in a way no other artist can. It's Ben's inventive tunes and lyrical humility that make these new and reworked tracks some of his most exciting to date.
The soundtrack to this smart, animated comedy will be released on May 16th through Epic Records. In the form of both score and songs, this musical marriage helps contribute to the storytelling of the film about how we live from the point of view of the animals, told by the voices of today's most irreverent and loved comic performers; Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Steve Carrell, Gary Shandling, among many others.
Ben Folds teamed up with composer Rupert Gregson-Williams who wrote the score and Academy Award(R)-winning composer Hans Zimmer who served as the executive music producer for the film. Gregson-Williams comments on Ben's involvement:
"I could have written this sweet orchestral score for the movie, but with Ben's sound, we could do something different, something a bit more rock 'n' roll. We had never even met each other before this, but when he came in to work, there was no ego with him. He just loves music, so it was great fun working with him."
Ben Folds will continue to demonstrate his musical progression, this summer he will once again join the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. As a testament to the loyalty for his fans he will layer in the complexity of orchestrated stings to his collection of live EPs, which will be released later this year along with a new studio album in 2007. Ben Folds' contributions on the Over The Hedge soundtrack and to the music community confirms he is one of the most prolific alternative artists of his time.
.
[Edited 5/9/06 3:24am]

I hope Ben's songs are available on Itunes separately. It sounds a little like he helped with the score, too. Or am I misunderstanding that?

I'm sure it will availible on iTunes...


and yeah, it does sound as if he had a hand in it..


thats a really good thing too

Did you like the Symphony stuff? I watched some of it, but I couldn't get into it. It might've been the mood I was in, but the energy didn't seem right.

u2prnce said:

It sounded as if they needed a bit more practicin to get into the swing of things, but i think ben likes the rough sound sometimes..

i dug it.. "Goodnight sweet baby" was amazing...

heard some samples of the new songs.. nice stuff.. doesn't sound like soundtrack music..but thats a good thing..


songs sound heavily produced like the Rock'n The Suburbs album'ish sortof...

www.myspace.com/benfolds

Still Reprise is on the new album.

and its f*ckin beautiful

Sdldawn said:

Does anybody think they're gonna run out of animals to computer generate? How many cartoon animal movies are there gonna be?

Sdldawn said:

That is all to the good, imo.

u2prnce said:

Well. I dont plan on see'in it.. i agree on that aspect of it..

I dig that he put out music to a different crowd.. but this music doesn't seem to have any relation to the movie.. thats a good thing i guess

u2prnce said:

yes, agreed.

"I stay focused on details.. it keeps me from feeling the big things.
but watch the microscope long enough things that seem still are still changing..."

this is why he is one of my favorite all time songwriters..

that song is amazing.. i love how it breaks into a jam at the end..

"Still Reprise"


I must give the impression
that I had the answers for everything
you were so dissapointed
to see me unravel so easily..
But its only change.. Only everything I know.
Even the things that seem still, are still.. changing.

Mother misses her baby
but I only wanted to be me.
She changed address and haircuts
and boyfriends and light bulbs.. it's easy..

But its only change, only everything I know..
Even the things that seem still.. are still changing.

I stay focused on details
it keeps me from feeling the big things
but watch the microscope long enough
things that seem still are still changing.

Even the things that seem still.. are still changing.

Written by Ben Folds

That blows my mind that a song of that stature is on an animated film.


Thats a very serious, and emotional song.


Oh well.. As long as its released.. this could be one of my favorite tracks by him.. its like an emotional rollercoaster..

his singing makes me sad sometimes...

We are apparently the only Ben Folds fans here Didn't I hear he is doing some eps this year?

Folds is one of my favs. However I was a little disapointed with the WASO DVD> It just didn't work for me.


I will say I like his business model of one major album every few years with series of EP's for die hards with all new stuff.

I do miss the old (5) band I think they served a purpose similiar to the Police and the Revolution where they weren't the main songwriters but they pushed the other out of a comfort zone into new domains.

The new songs aren't on Itunes yet.

u2prnce said:

May 16th.

Sdldawn said:

whoohoo!

"Side of the Road" just came up on shuffle. It's playing right now. Forgot it, but it's good.

u2prnce said:

Yeah thats a beautiful track...


he knows how to get u sentimental..ish.

Ben wrote in his blog on myspace bout the new songs/soundtrack...


Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Over the Hedge

i did five songs for this movie.

what a process... not a painless one, but i think that's the nature of big budget animated films.
it's a kids movie and i like it because it's a look at consumerism from some silly points of view. a good thing for kids to see. sure, suburban sprawl, consumer waste are issues that get talked about a lot, but it's all part of our lives, and i think it's good for kids to see it all early on from different points of view. through the innocent eyes of animals gives a fresh look. even if you've already seen your share of animated animals. so when they pitched the movie, i was in because i agreed with it's intent. and the animators act it out for you and show you cool sketches and feed you in their cafeteria in los angeles.

i began writing the songs to story boards which were fairly raw. my original music for the scenes became appropriate as the production of the CGI animation began to blossom. my songs began to sound small and overly detailed when viewing the movie. so we concentrated on simpler and much larger, more pointed production and songs. dreamworks could have gone with a super pop extraveganza with 12 platinum acts, and i often wondered why they didn't. but they didn't because they wanted a single voice as sub narration beneath and i was flattered that they wanted me and i gave it all i had, even if it meant sometimes sacrificing musical things i wanted to do for the better of the movie.

so the songs were written to picture. tight as a gnat's ass. if they changed some frames, i'd record the whole fucking thing again if i needed to, to keep the feel and timing. i was determined to serve the film and not interested in random needle drop, but in adding feeling or irony or highlight to the narrative. there are a lot of people working on these kinds of movies, and each has an opinion, so sometimes it got hairy. and your phone rings 100 times a day, usually right when you press the record button in the studio. but all in all, when watching the film with the music, it all came together.

the assignment i had to get my head around was rewriting lyrics for 'rockin the suburbs'. i had to think on that one... if i wanted to bastardize something i'd already written. they wanted a rewrite for the end credit. when i saw the film and they'd used the original for temp music, i knew i HAD to change the words. they didn't fit, nevermind that there are 'shits' and 'fucks' which is absurd for a kids movie. the 'suburbs' music was perfect though, the directors were right and i decided not to be a pussy and i worked on a rewrite. instead of being about angry white boy music, it's simply about living in the suburbs and about all the things you buy.

in the end, the version that i was happiest with didn't make the movie. it could have, had i been willing to change more lyrics. the film makers did not want to push a few issues and words with kiddies and parents, which is fair enough. so we used a mutated version of the original for the film and i wrote shatner a little piece to rant in the bridge. i'm putting out my version, 'suburbs remix 06' out in a few ways so it sees the light of day. this way you'll hear my original impression of a rewrite, while the children's film version will serve 'over the hedge' better. i kinda think 'suburbs remix' is as strong in its own right as the original. many will disagree, fine. but i'm very happy with it since i see it as a completely different song.

the opening credit song 'family of me' was written very tightly to the picture. the challenge was to make it work by itself outside the movie. and i decided not to extend this song and try to make it into more than it was. but if you're bored sometime and have the dvd, watch the opening scene with the volume down and try and imagine the music that should go there. kinda fun. i spent a few days with the scene trying different things out. the directive was to write a song that let the kiddies know that RJ, the racoon played by bruce willis is at a low point. that he's in trouble. i decided to make him brag about how great he was, so the irony of that would play against his perdicament. the background vocal lyrics always contradict the lead vocal. the original lyric was 'ooh, i'm an asshole' but obviously that didn't last for long. the directors and producers got a good laugh and then they stopped laughing when i tried to explain why it's okay to say 'asshole' in front of kids. i think it's the 'hole' part. ass might be alright. i don't know...


'heist' was supposed to be silly kids fun. but we needed to tell the audience that the racoon, RJ was a pied piper, a bit of a salesman. the characters are all still innocent so it has to be irony free, except for just a hair of foreshadowing that it might not always all be alright. the song insists that you can buy and use as much as you want, more will appear on the shelves the next day. otherwise, it's just fun for kids so they'll throw more popcorn.

'still' is the watershed song for the two main characters and what i put the most thought into. it's about how things change when you're not expecting or when you're not looking. and i wrote it imagining the gary shandling character, verne, as a sad scientist who's been looking at inanimate objects through a microscope to avoid bigger picture issues. but he realizes that even the things that appear to be still are actually moving and changing as well. so in his trying to avoid the bigger reality by obsessing over details, he's realizing the details all add up to the same thing he's run from. in the soundtrack version, i got into the racoon's history with his trailor mom some, but that was a little outside what the film called for....

'lost in the supermarket'. a clash classic. i was trying to walk that line between making it work for kids and not cheesing one of my favorite songs up too badly. i have a fear of horn sections which i've been addressing lately. haha. and i think it worked out just fine. maybe the children will now go out and listen to 'london calling'.

all in all, the production, the songs are built specifically for a massively colorful detailed big production film and i enjoyed the challenge of matching that and trying to enhance the narrative the whole thing. now i've done that, i'm probably not going to make a career of it it anytime soon. it nearly drove me fucking crazy. i hope you enjoy the film. god bless america.

ben

Cool info. I love this guy. He's so real and no bullshit. I can see why he and Henry Rollins get along.

It sounds like maybe there are differences in the soundtrack and movie versions of songs.

They should've used Jesusland in this film.

A Family of Me is a really nice track.. just way too short.. just over a minute long...

check benfolds.com there be a link to hear the new songs

u2prnce said:

Lullabye is beautiful on it.. best one.. better than the original.

by a longshot