Andy Bell Walks Clash Through His New Acoustic EP | News

Andy Bell never sits still. Guitarist in shoegaze legends Ride, his solo output ranges from pastoral psych-pop whimsy to left-field electronics under his GLOK guise.

Recent album ‘Flicker’ was a triumph, featuring some of his most potent solo work to date. Following this, his ‘I Am A Strange Loop’ remix collection boasted different viewpoints on his work, courtesy of David Holmes, Richard Norris, Maps and bdrmm.

Now Andy Bell has dipped into his acoustic side. Just in time for Autumn, ‘The Grounding Process’ features reworks of ‘Flicker’ material, initially recorded for radio sessions before being mastered by Heba Kadry.

Out now, a full vinyl edition follows on November 25th, via shoegaze stalwarts Sonic Cathedral. The warming video for ‘She Calls The Tune’ is online now, crafted in endearing fashion by Andy’s daughter Bailen Bell.

The full EP is out now, and we’ve grabbed a track by track walk-through from Andy Bell, so you can read and listen at the same time…

“‘Something Like Love’ is the most popular song from Flicker and one of the oldest, starting life in the ’90s. It’s probably the only one that dates back to the Ride era.

“The riffs for ‘World Of Echo’ were written while I was on tour with Oasis, at the height of my La’s obsession. It went through a few iterations from then onwards, but never had a final melody until last year.

“‘She Calls The Tune’ was the first song I wrote after I joined Oasis, ending a period of writers’ block which I had started going through some time in 1999. The ’90s had caught up with me, and I ended up moving to Sweden, seriously considering leaving music behind and becoming a full-time dad. Then a quite random series of events happened, and I ended up being invited to join Oasis, which lifted me right out of the doldrums and gave me a brand-new lease of life.

“The song is all about getting over writers’ block! Its very first performance was to an audience of Liam Gallagher, Gem Archer and Richard Ashcroft in a Milan hotel room. No pressure! I don’t think I ever saw it as an Oasis song, it’s very introspective, but I have them to thank for the fact that I was able to write songs again at all.

“‘Lifeline’ was another riff which had to wait a decade or two for a song to fit. I remember being on an Oasis UK tour with Shack, and sitting around backstage somewhere, on acoustics with Mick and John Head jamming around the Simon & Garfunkel version of ‘Scarborough Fair’. The riff for ‘Lifeline’ followed soon after, along with the one from Beady Eye’s ‘Girls In Uniform’. It was always called ‘Lifeline’ but I never found the right lyric for it until recently.

“‘Love Is The Frequency’ is a riff I came up with around the same time as ‘Millionaire’ – late Oasis / early Beady Eye-era. Again, I never had the melody at that time. You can hear the influence of The La’s in this song for sure, but maybe more so The Coral and their sound on the album version. It’s a bit of a sea shanty.”

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‘The Grounding Process’ is out now.