'Silverman' puts Ben Folds back in groove

Folds and Shatner decided to work together after years of friendship and earlier collaboration.

"(He's) not a rapper, and he's not a poet," Folds said. "He's an actor and as a good actor he should transcend the acting themes. So putting his voice to music couldn't be a literal thing."

Folds' varied interests have also taken him deep into photography and prompted him to try to develop a Broadway musical, perhaps the perfect venue for the life-story-in-three-minute songs in which he specializes.

"There are quite a few Broadway producers who seem to be really keen about the idea," he said. "I always thought I wouldn't do that because I wanted to bring that element to pop music rather than be all literal and at home with it, but now I feel like I would like to bring it to a musical. ... I think we'll have a show out in New York within two years."

The Internet has helped keep Folds' musical career alive even as he has shied away from the pop limelight and increasingly television-centric music industry.

"The old music business withered," he said. "'The Ashlee Simpson Show' and Nick and Jessica. That's what the music business turned into, which is fine, but it's not what I'm comfortable with."

"Everything I release goes to at least No. 1 or No. 2 in Internet sales," he added. "Attendance at shows is way better than when we had a hit, so I think business is great."

At the same time, he has delved deeper into photography. He spends many hours in the darkroom getting images just right, and his gave his recent EPs photography terms for titles: "Sunny 16"; Speed Graphic"; and "Super D."

Folds left Chapel Hill years ago — he now splits time between homes in Nashville, Tenn., and Adelaide, Australia — but during his recent visit back he went to the street where he once lived. Squinting his eyes as he looked through the viewfinder of his classic Leica camera, he took his time framing a shot of a dilapidated garden — he can't help but laugh at a dead tree in winter.

As with his music, Folds' viewfinder captures a physical truth, but its the artist's interpretation that brings the picture alive.

"My gig as a photographer is to capture my kids growing up in a real way," said Folds, who has twin 5-year-olds, Gracie and Louis. "It's a damn shock to everyone around them when they bloody their nose and everyone else is helping them out and cleaning them up and I'm there taking a picture of it. But in 10 years they will thank me for it."

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