How To Write the Perfect Breakup Song with Ben Folds
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2020
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lorenzo is a dental student with big dreams—of becoming a rock star. Lorenzo plays a mean guitar at open mic night, but there's one thing holding him back: He doesn't know how to write his own songs. In this episode of How To!, we bring in master songwriter Ben Folds, former frontman of Ben Folds Five, and author of A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons. Many of those lessons are about how anyone can unlock their creativity. Ben breaks down his own music, and tinkers with Lorenzo's attempt at writing a break-up song. He tells him to embrace cliché, then slip in something unexpected. Also, switch the first lyric with the second. Will it work?
Do you have a problem that needs a creative solution? Send us a note at howto@slate.com.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius. |
| 0:22.6 | Talk about generational talent. |
| 0:23.7 | Coming to headphones near you on April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. And when you've performed, like, tell me a little bit, there was like a dental school video. There's like something about the Backstreet boys or something like that. Oh my god. Did you |
| 0:37.5 | did you guys Google me or find this online? Yeah. Oh my yeah yeah yeah. Oh, God. Are you going to make me sing it? |
| 0:43.9 | Yes. Okay. Everybody. Do you have D.K.? Do you have D.K.? I don't remember the next line. I'm never going to listen to Backstreet |
| 0:56.0 | Boys without thinking about the need to brush my teeth again. |
| 1:01.1 | This is how to, and I'm Charles Duhigg. Each week on the show, we try to find creative solutions |
| 1:06.8 | to people's toughest problems. But on today's episode, we're tackling creativity itself. |
| 1:14.0 | My name is Lorenzo from Montreal. |
| 1:16.8 | Lorenzo is a dental student by day. |
| 1:18.9 | It's not the most glamorous job, but I love it. |
| 1:21.0 | I think it's great. |
| 1:22.0 | And an amateur musician by night. |
| 1:24.3 | Yeah, yeah, emphasis on amateur. |
| 1:26.7 | I took lessons for guitar when I was a kid, and I would go to the guitar club, |
| 1:31.4 | and they would do open mics like every two weeks. |
| 1:35.0 | So I would go to the open mics, and I would always just play covers. |
| 1:39.0 | I was far from the best musician there, and I was far from the best singer, |
| 1:42.6 | but I was one of the better performers. So I would always just go with a lot of energy and really draw the crowd in. |
| 1:53.3 | Lorenzo is a pretty outgoing guy. And despite what you might think about dentists, he's got a great stage presence. But he says that there's this one thing holding him back. |
| 2:02.6 | So I reached out because I would always go to those open mics and I would only play covers |
| 2:07.5 | and I've always wanted to write my own music and perform my own music for other people. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peach Fish Projects, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Peach Fish Projects and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.