Ben Folds, musician, and Nick Hornby, writer, are teaming up to record a new album that is set to be released sometime later in the year. It’s isn’t uncommon in pop and rock music for the lyrics and music responsibilities to be divided. Many of the the lyrics to some of Elton John’s greatest hit songs were composed by Bernie Taupin. However it’s rare when a novelist gets involved. Hornby isn’t any old novelist of course. He is well known for having music fans. His rock music also plays a prominent role in his novels “Juliet, Naked” and “High Fidelity.”

The idea was formed by the two over dinner, with album rumors dating to 2008. However after that dinner they were never inside the same room together over the course of the project. Folds would receive lyrics from Hornby and then go to work on the music. There was some back and forth via email and the telephone.

In an interview with Paste Magazine, Folds discussed composing the music. He said, if the lyrics on their own were loud enough, they didn’t need any help from me. I was forced to be very selfless. I could look at it as Nick Hornby and Ben Folds and make sure my music got some attention too. Or I could approach it as this needs to tell the story. If someone ends up saying, the song made cry, but the music though was really stupid. It was boring and simple. Well great. Awesome. If they laughed or cried, or the lyrics moved them, even if sometimes it was thankless, I did whatever I thought it would take. There were other times when lots of music was required. I would sometimes feel like I was returning to music school to do things I hadn’t needed to do in quite some time. Things that were contrapuntally and musically very intense. I ran the gamut kind of from being the simplest I have ever been to going to Shostakovitch for some of the songs.

Folds said my mission was to ensure the lyrics spoke. It wasn’t always necessarily the way that Nick wanted them the words to speak. It make the collaboration an interesting one.