American singer-songwriter Ben Folds is currently stuck in Australia due to the coronavirus pandemic, but has announced plans to create new music while in the country for the next few months.
The veteran performer, who has been touring Australia for nearly 25 years, arrived in early March for a national tour in which he played a set accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of each city he was performing in.
However, “the timing of cancellations and postponements meant missing windows to safely return to the US,” Folds explained, leaving him unable to return to his California home.
“I moved from a hotel into a temporary apartment situation here in Australia for the next three months, setting up internet and sourcing enough equipment to make music for you,” Folds explained in a statement posted to his Facebook page yesterday (March 22).
“I’m nearly set. And most importantly, I’m sporting a baseball cap – which is the mandatory look for an entertainer in exile.”
“Now I gotta get groceries, Internet, write a new record, and make some music for you.”
Read the full statement from Folds below:
An update on my whereabouts & plans.I was on tour in Australia. The timing of cancellations and postponements meant…
Posted by Ben Folds on Saturday, March 21, 2020
This marks the second time Folds has been based out of Australia. From 1999 to 2006, Folds had a home in Adelaide with then-wife Frally Hynes and his two children, Louis and Gracie.
His time in the city inspired the triple j hit ‘Adelaide’, which reached number 37 in the 2004 Hottest 100.
Folds’ last solo LP was 2008’s ‘Way To Normal’. It was followed in 2010 by ‘Lonely Avenue’, a collaborative album with author Nick Hornby.
Folds also released a 2012 reunion album with Ben Folds Five entitled ‘The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind’, and a 2015 team-up with orchestral collective yMusic for the album ‘So There’.