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May 11, 2007

Timbatado? Furland?

Sounds Effects had a lovely chat with Nelly Furtado this morning and instead of the usual boring answer to the proverbial question of "what's next?" Furtado said that she and Timbaland are thinking of forming a rock band. The Canadian songbird and the producer-du-jour, who was at the helm of Furtado's current blockbuster "Loose," have "such an intensely creative chemistry we thought why don't we do this all the time?"

Posted by Joan Anderman at 02:40 PM

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Ben Folds Goes Pops, Plays With Dolls

"Sound Effects" chatted briefly with Ben Folds for a little item in today's Names and Faces column. But we thought we'd share more of the piano rocker's thoughts on playing Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops tonight and working with Dresden Doll Amanda Palmer on her first solo album here.

On "Ben Folds and WASO in Perth," the live DVD with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra that began his journey into working with symphony orchestras:

"It was a fun DVD but it was a bit of trainwreck because what I was trying to do was actually incorporate the orchestra as a rock band and your standard procedure would be 'rock band plays onstage and the orchestra plays around what you always play.' But what I asked the arrangers to do was to eliminate the rock band and make the orchestra very aggressive. No one could ever really remember when that had been done exactly, so we're having to invent the formula. I’ve played four nights with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and all those (others) in Australia now and Baltimore and Houston and we must have made five revisions now, so Boston will get the advantage of having charts that are much more streamlined and rehearsed and I know what to expect. This should be a breeze."

On the snobby attitude he sometimes encounters when working with orchestras:

"The Boston Pops is such a different situation because they have such a strong (identity as) "the" Pops Orchestra, so they have known for years that you can compartmentalize these things and make it work. But most symphony orchestras don't have that angle as comfortably. And so what they're discovering is they can bring in certain popular acts and make a few bucks and I think that they view it as wet t-shirt contest night. If they can just put up with the embarrassment they'll make enough money to pay their principal players. And I enjoy that sort of respect when I walk in of wet t-shirt contest but by the end of the rehearsal or certainly somewhere in the middle of the performance they get it."

On hooking up with Palmer and work on her new album:

"I wrote a fan letter. I’ve never written a fan letter before. I think the Dresden Dolls are one of the best rock bands, they're just great. Big fan. When someone's as great and unique as Amanda is, it builds in its own challenges because you're trying to do things that haven't been done before if possible because it warrants that kind of treatment. But the biggest challenge is to find a way to do this with all the greatness that she needs with everything at my disposal without Brian (Viglione). Because he’s not just a drummer, this man, I think he's a total genius."

On inviting the Dolls up to play "Coin-Operated Boy" during his symphonic tour in Australia:

"It was fun because the orchestra had to sit and watch them do it and the orchestra, they're not Pops orchestras there, they're very snobby, they're normally doing Mahler and they look up and all of a sudden there's these two, as they see it, freaks entering the stage and I don't think they expected such a strong showing out of them. And it was really good."

Posted by Sarah Rodman at 10:59 AM

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