INTERVIEW - Andy Bell

Back in August 2020 Andy Bell released a brilliant single called Love Comes In Waves and he very kindly answered some questions for my blog. Being the lovely guy he is, Andy was 100% up for another interview ahead of 3 Scottish dates next month under the guise of GLOK, his electronic alter ego.

GLOK play Edinburgh, Voodoo Rooms 11th October, Aberdeen, The Tunnels 12th October and Glasgow, Stereo, 13th October.

You can get tour tickets and pre-order Gateway Mechanics, the new GLOK album from this link.

Read on for an excellent interview. Andy is exceptionally open and honest as he reflects on his career, his songwriting and looks to the future. Is this an exclusive on a new Ride album?!

You've been super busy with Ride - the new albums have been fantastic and you've had a chance to reflect on your discography with reissues and playing albums in full on tour. 

Are there any songs (old or new - maybe you could choose one of each) that you particularly look forward to playing live? Why?

I really love playing Seagull off Nowhere because it’s never the same twice. I saw some early footage of us playing it recently, from 1990 or so, and the start what I was playing was all straight strumming, and Loz was playing a kind of Velvets beat. Now we do a version which is a bit more faithful to the recorded version, but there’s still parts of the song that can go into new places each time we play it. Of the newer songs - Lannoy Point is a favourite because it gets the crowds going. 

Seagull - Live on KEXP, 2015

Seagull - Live on The Happening, 1990

Lannoy Point

When you're writing, do you know in advance if the song is for Ride? Or does it depend where the song takes you? 

It’s not always immediately apparent and some would actually work in a variety of guises. But usually by the time I’ve finished a demo I know where it’s going to be going. If it’s a song with verses and choruses then it’s going to be for Ride, unless it’s going down a more folky path, which is often the sign that it will end up on a solo album. And the more dancey or  soundscapey music is for GLOK. But I don’t work on 1 song and finish it. I work on dozens of things all at the same time, everything is unfinished, I just dip in and out, and eventually something sounds done. Time will pass and I’ll suddenly feel like grouping sets of tracks together and sending them off towards a final point.

You recently toured America with The Charlatans. How did that go? Would you consider a tour or some one-off shows in the UK? I'm sure either would be immensely popular!

It was brilliant and we’d like to do it again. And yes, I’d love to do it in the UK. They’re a lovely bunch of people and so are their fans. 

NOTE - The Charlatans and Ride have just confirmed that they will be touring America again in early 2024.

You recently reissued Carnival Of Light, an album I really enjoyed when it was released. However, it is well documented that it created quite a bit of tension in the band at the time. Was it hard to revisit? What do you think of the album now? Do you have any favourite songs from it?

When I heard the remastered version I thought it sounded great, the production stood up really well. What I think it lets it down is my own songwriting and singing. I love the songs the rest of the band wrote, and some of mine on Carnival of Light are OK. The music and playing I like. I just don’t think I was playing to my strengths at the time. My favourites on the album are Moonlight Medicine and Only Now. 

Moonlight Medicine

You seem to have everything pretty nailed at present; Ride, your solo material and also your electronic alias GLOK. How are you feeling about writing and creating? Are you 'in the zone' at present?

I am working through a process, something I’ve been going through for the last few years. I feel like I’m still clearing the decks and opening the channels for myself to get into some kind of ongoing flow state. The music I’ve released since 2019 is all part of that. What was going on up to that point I regard as some form of hoarding and I don’t think that’s very healthy artistically. 

I’m definitely not there yet in terms of my headspace, there’s a time lag as well. Ironically the times when things are released can often end up being times when you feel at a dead end, possibly due to being in a different state mentally, having to look back over where you’ve been can prevent you seeing where you’re going. Right now I’ve not worked on anything new for weeks. It’s been a mad Summer and I’ve done almost no music, I’m feeling the lack of it, like I really miss it. I guess I broke my hand, that’s held me up a bit too. But saying all that, I feel like I’m getting into a better and better headspace musically all the time. It’s just an ongoing process. 

With GLOK, what kind of set up do you have for playing live? And, at home or in the studio, do you have a favourite synth or drum machine?

I have my guitars, pedals and amps, and I have re-edited backing tracks which have been remixed by me from the GLOK multitrack masters, to play over. To play them I use DJ equipment because that allows me to extend or reduce different sections as and when I want to. For GLOK gigs I am also joined by my friend Chris (Innerstrings) who will be bathing the whole thing in a psychedelic light show. 

You recently worked with Dot Allison who has released a beautiful album. Is there anyone you'd love to write for or play on a record with?

There’s an artist called Justine Forever, who has just released an incredible track called Klaus, I’d love to work on a track with her, but in a way I’m happy enough just listening to her music, it’s probably better than GLOK anyway. 

Klaus

Speaking of writing songs for people - You wrote songs for Oasis and Beady Eye. Would you ever consider writing a song for Liam and sending it on? He does have people writing for him. Turn Up The Sun was such a perfect song for him (and Oasis). I was at Benicassim in 2005 and you came on to play that first, it was so powerful. 

I think with songs like Chinatown and Once, Liam has no need to be working with someone like me. He’s doing amazing and more power to him. The songs I wrote back in Oasis and Beady Eye, I’m very proud of them and he gave them everything vocally, he delivered them with total commitment every time, it was amazing. I think that Turn Up The Sun was the best thing I wrote for Oasis so it was an incredible feeling for me that it got played so much on that tour. 

Once

Turn Up The Sun - Benicassim 2005

What was your favourite Oasis song to play live? Why?

Rock n Roll Star was the one I had the best time playing, because it just rips. 

Rock n Roll Star - Wembley Arena 2008

Lastly, what next? Any plans or are you going with the flow?

I have the GLOK UK tour in October, there’s also the GLOK live album Gateway Mechanics which is released on September 29th via ES (Electronic Sound). 

You can get tour tickets and pre-order the album from this link:

https://linktr.ee/AndyBellGLOK

We also have a Ride album finished and ready to go. It’s been along time coming, without a doubt the longest gestation period ever for a Ride record. It was mastered by John Davis, who has tragically just passed away. John was a very talented man who was a lot of fun to be around, a huge Bowie fan, and so enthusiastic and positive. He’ll really be missed. So yeah, the records ready. We just signed off on the sleeve art and then it’s up to the record company to give us a release date. But we’re really happy with it.

The Indica Gallery EP by Andy Bell

 The Indica Gallery was a counterculture art gallery in swinging central London between 1965-1967, most famously known for being the place that John Winston Lennon met Yoko Ono. In one of my favourite Lennon interviews he describes this meeting; walking in and seeing some step ladders and a magnifying glass, he perches on top of the ladders and peers through to see the word YES. If it had been NO or MAYBE then he might not have stayed, but the positive nature appealed to him and he stayed. The rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway, The Indica Gallery EP is the first of three EP's that Andy Bell is releasing between April and June 2021. Each EP will be released in a different format; 12-inch, 10-inch and then 7-inch, hence the series will be called Ever Decreasing Circles.

Bell's debut solo album The View From Halfway Down was one of my top 10 albums of 2020 and Andy also very kindly gave a very insightful interview for the blog around the release of his single Love Comes In Waves.

I love the creative energy that seems to be pouring out of Bell. Ride have produced some incredible music since reforming, while outwith that, Andy is releasing experimental electronic music under the guise of GLOK and psychedelic guitar pop with lots of grooves under his own name.

Electronic music and blissful psychedelic grooves gel on the 6-track The Indica Gallery EP as the artist Pye Corner Audio is let loose on 5 of the gems from Bell's debut solo album; Indica, Skywalker, Cherry Cola, Love Comes In Waves and I Was Alone. The 6th song is Bell in his GLOK guise also remixing Indica.

The remix of Cherry Cola is a particular favourite. The last couple of minutes are beautifully dreamy, there is feedback in the background as a sublime electronic riff is allowed to run and run, before fading to the guitar riff from the original.

Elsewhere I Was Alone just seems to float and glide. Ladies and Gentleman, we are definitely floating in space with this beauty! The pH value on this remix is a clear 14. Sublime.

Love Comes In Waves is transformed into ... well psychedelic waves that just keep coming! Skywalker sounds like it could do with a 12-inch all to itself, just taking off before teasingly being brought back down.

Love Comes In Waves (Pye Corner Audio remix)

With Indica it's interesting to compare two different artist taking on the same song. Pye Corner Audio layers beats and synths, creating a warm melting pot you could easily get lost in. Then Bell, as GLOK, starts with blips before adding beats, synth bass and then introducing a riff that reminds you this a remix, taking you on a trip. The remix compliments the original perfectly. 

The Indica Gallery EP is further proof that Andy Bell is in a rich vein of form right now. He seems to be blessed not only with real creative energy, but with the outlet to get things out there. Martin Jenkins aka Pye Corner Audio, works wonders, taking the songs to new places, yet they feel right, like this is a journey they had to go on.

Jenkins and Bell met at The Social in October 2019 for label Sonic Catherdral's 15th birthday party

"Pye Corner Audio was headlining with bdrmm and myself playing live sets, as well as Simone Marie Butler, Maps and others djing. Before this legendary night was over, Martin and I agreed we would work together on something, sometime. I wasn't sure he' remember the conversation, but luckily he did."      Andy Bell

"It gave me a great deal of pleasure working on these remixes, and I think the EP is a fitting companion piece to the album." Martin Kenkins aka Pye Audio Corner

Andy Bell - Bandcamp

Cherry Cola (Pye Corner Audio remix)

Pye Audio Corner - Bandcamp

Love Comes In Waves - Andy Bell interview

 

Andy Bell's love of music shines through on his social media channels. During lockdown I've enjoyed Andy's tweets of him playing cover versions (and tutorials) of his favourite songs. In addition Andy has talked openly about celebrating a recent landmark birthday. 

And then Andy posted news that he would be releasing The View From Halfway Down, his debut solo album, on 9th October, before treating us to a taster with the single Love Comes In Waves.

The fresh psychedelic pop vibe of the single sent warm tingles down my spine, there is an urgency and playfulness to it, there is a constant flow and drive, Bell sounds like he's having fun. The guitars sound glorious and I immediately wanted to play it again.

I was so inspired that I sent a few questions off and I was thrilled to receive a reply!

So read on for a feature length interview taking in the impact of COVID, Ride, GLOK (Andy's electronica alter ego), recording with Andrew Weatherall, the solo album and what Andy hopes the album will be thought of if he has succeeded.

A desire to create and play leaps out from the interview and I look forward to hearing the album in October, I'll be blogging on that on release.

But first - A few links and the video for the single before we get started;

Andy Bell - Bandcamp  

Ride - website 

GLOK - Bandcamp

Album pre-orders from Sonic Cathedral

How are you? How has life been for you over the last 5-months? What have you had to put on hold? What have you had more time to do?

I'm really good thanks. In the grand scheme of things I feel like I've had things pretty easy during lockdown. Luckily no-one in my family has been taken ill. It's hard not being around people outside of our family unit, but that has started to ease a little in the last few weeks. But there are still folks, such as my wife's parents over in Dublin, who we haven't been able to see at all, and that's been hard.

When this all started I had just come back from a Ride tour of Europe. It was the start of February and COVID was looming over the horizon but not here yet. Ride has a summer of festival gigs lined up and we were looking forward to that But Ride was coming to the end of a cycle rather than launching into a new one. This meant that we were mentally prepared to be winding down anyway, at least for the moment, which made it easier I think.

My immediate plan was to prepare for the first GLOK gigs, which had been put in the diary from March onwards. My GLOK live debut was due to be at an event called Music's not for everyone which was curated by Andrew Weatherall, and this was cancelled, not because of COVID, but because the great man tragically passed away at the start of the year. In fact his funeral was the very last time I saw people out and about, before lockdown started.

Mr Weatherall's passing was such a massive loss to music. Andrew was a titan of the musical culture I grew up with and definitely a hero of mine. It was sad to me on a personal level as well because we become friends a couple of years earlier, when he invited me down to his studio, ostensibly to buy a guitar off him. In the event, I ended up staying for upwards of 2 weeks, because when I plugged the guitar in to try it out, I ended up playing on something he was working on (a track he eventually titled Making Friends With The Invader - the guitar is a Vox Invader) and then another and another. These sessions, which took place in Summer 2018, were a fantastic memory that I will carry with me forever. Andrew had also become something of a mentor to GLOK and one of his last remixes, possibly his last one, was of a GLOK track called Cloud Cover. (check it on Bandcamp) 

As well as the Music's not for everyone gig, GLOK also had shows lined up at the Social, the Great Escape and Worlds Unknown. I was figuring out to convert my album Dissident into a live setting, when lockdown just obliterated all those plans. There was a GLOK remix album about to be released Dissident Remixed which ended up getting put back a few months due to COVID, that's now been released and has done really well. It's great - it includes that excellent Weatherall remix but also great mixes from Maps, Timothy Clerkin, Richard Sen, C.A.R. and many more.

So no GLOK gigs, no GLOK remix album, no Ride festivals, lockdown left me with only one thing to work on, an EP which I'd planned to put out on Sonic Catherdral, to follow up a 7" I'd released in 2019 as part of their singles club. I was trying to figure out which songs to put on this 12", out of all the possible choices, and it was doing my head in until I had the idea to maybe expand it from 20 minutes to 40 and make it an album. The change from an EP to an album was a direct result of lockdown. That, and a shedload of DIY!

You've announced your solo album The View From Halfway Down is coming out in October. Did you set out to write a bunch of new songs or did it just happen?

For me it was more a question of track selection. I recorded a lot of tunes with Gem Archer at his stdio back at the start of 2016, directly following the death of David Bowie, and this album draws from that but also other bits and pieces. The songs on this album were mostly finished before all of this. It was mainly vocals and mixing that happened this year.

The lead single Love Comes In Waves is real melodic psychedelic pop. Did anything specifically influence the sound of the single or forthcoming album? What kind of stuff were you listening to?

The influences shine through as clear as day I think, it's the music everyone knows I'm into. The Beatles, Krautrock, Spacemen Three, The Stone Roses.

Would you like to play some solo shows when it is possible?

I'd like to, yeah. I'd like to play some Ride shows too! And some GLOK shows! I'm basically desperate to play a real gig again. Ride did an online gig the other day, and although it was great to do, it basically just highlighted everything that was missing from that moment. I miss our audience and I can't wait to get onstage on a real tour with Ride again. I feel cheated out of the end of our last tour, but hopefully we can pick up again where we left off when this is all over.

What can fans expect from the album?

It's a pretty humble affair. Around half of the tracks are instrumental, it's not so much of a "songwriter" album. It's more about a listening experience, I tried to make something that I'd want to listen to. It's pretty gentle most of the time, touches of psychedelia, I think it sounds great in the sun. Basically, if I've succeeded, it's the ideal shoegaze barbeque album.