— by Joe D'Angelo, with additional reporting by Conor Bezane and Gideon Yago
From the Ramones to the Donnas, groups whose members have identical names are nothing new. But when the shared name isn't fictitious, things can get confusing.
"We pretty much started going into last-name land," said one-third of the Bens, Ben Kweller, or "Kwellah" as his Australian bandmate Ben Lee calls him. "And I call [Ben] Folds 'Folds.' But 'Lee' already sounds like a first name, so we just call him Ben."
"I think it's because I'm like the alpha Ben in some ways," Lee joked. "It's sort of a natural state of supremacy and domination that happens."
Together the trio have recorded tunes for an untitled EP that becomes available online starting December 30. From three-part-harmony folk songs to remnants of electro-pop, the EP's four songs are about as divergent as their creators — the onetime leader of pre-pubescent punks Noise Addict, a piano-playing Southern gent and the former frontman for a harder-rocking Hanson called Radish.
"Every song's different," Lee said. "There's a new wave song ['Xfire'], there's an indie-pop song ['Stop!'], there's a Police kind of like chugging kind of '80s thing ['Bruised'], and there's a kind of folky track ['Just Pretend']. We were free to be as goofy as we wanted, so that was pretty special."
Like the Justice League or X-Men, each Ben joined the team with his own distinct ability.
"Kweller is a freestyler," Folds explained of the former blue-haired Radish singer. "He really is. Like, he's just he's a little ... he has a different way of creating than anyone I've ever really seen. Ben Lee is like a conceptual writer. And I don't know what I am, but somehow I fit into it."
The three Bens had known each other awhile — Kweller and Lee had toured together with the Lemonheads' Evan Dando, and Kweller had opened for Folds — but it wasn't their idea to get together. Chalk up that stroke of brilliance to the fans.
"People from each of our Web sites sort of talked about the idea because they thought it would be funny," Kweller said. "So me and Ben Lee talked about it a little, and we were like, 'Hey, have you heard about these kids talkin' about that.' "
"We were all going to tour Australia separately," Lee said. "And we were all friends, so we just decided to do it together. I think Folds came up with the idea [to record together] when he was in the shower, and my answer to basically anything is 'Let's make an EP.' "
Leave it to lonesome Folds, who's been playing mostly solo since his Ben Folds Five trio disbanded in 2000, to recruit some companionship. The three convened in Nashville in early March and cut four songs in as many days.
"I went to the toilet and came back and they were starting to write a song," Folds said. "That's bizarre to me because I like to think about it for a while and sit on it. They were really spontaneous."
Soon after recording, they embarked on the Rock Over Australia tour, taking the stage to the song "All About the Benjamins" by P. Diddy. A U.S. tour is being discussed, but even if nothing more ever comes to pass, they'll always have Nashville.
"The whole thing about a project like the Bens is that you can only do it when it's totally natural, spontaneous and fun," Lee said. "There's just no point just doing it for the sake of promoting something or whatever, so basically if we get the urge we can do it again, but we'll see."
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