Photo by CJ Turner courtesy of Andy Bell
An Interview with Andy Bell of Oasis, Beady Eye & Ride
By Andrew Daly
The ’90s and 2000s U.K. music scene is retrospectively revered, and with good reason. Bands such as Ride, Oasis, Hurricane #1, and Beady Eye ran the proverbial musical gamut. At the center of all these groups, at one point or another, was guitarist and bassist, and songwriter Andy Bell.
Bell’s journey dates back to the early ’90s shoegaze scene, where he was integral to Ride. As the band’s lead guitarist, Bell set the bar at the highest level and, along with his bandmates, recorded several albums which would become sign markers for the genre. As the ’90s wore on, Bell formed another classic band in Hurricane #1, and while the band’s initial run didn’t last long, it was from here that Andy moved on to the seminal ’90s and 2000s legends, Oasis.
Now handling bass guitar duties, Bell, along with fellow newcomer, and veteran alt-rock stalwart, Gem Archer, pushed Oasis musically to create some of the band’s finest work. In 2009, Oasis gave way to Beady Eye, which featured the remaining members of Oasis sans Noel Gallagher. Once again, Bell played a massive part in creating two fantastic records – Different Gear, Still Speeding (2011), and BE (2013) – before Beady Eye ended in 2014.
Present-day, Andy is a member of a reformed Ride – whose 2019 record, This Is Not a Safe Place, was an outstanding affair – and has a burgeoning solo career underway, as evidenced by his exceptional solo record, Ficker (2022). To that end, Bell recently beamed in with ClassicRockHistory.com regarding his origins on guitar, the creation of some of Ride’s classic music, his musing on a potential Oasis reunion, and what’s next as he moves ahead.
What first inspired you to pick up the guitar? Can you recall your first guitar?
I asked for a guitar for my 9th birthday and started taking lessons at school, which I hated and quit; then I took a couple of lessons down the road and hated that as well, as he said I was memorizing the notes instead of reading them. So I quit and left it until my uncle Pete started teaching me. Also, I kept breaking the guitar leaving it propped up against walls, and eventually, it broke for good until a friend of the family gave me an electric which I played without an amp for a year or two.
Photo by CJ Turner courtesy of Andy Bell
What were the first riff and solo you learned? How doesn’t your approach today differ from your earliest days?
The intro of “This Charming Man” by the Smiths. Loads of Smith’s stuff that was what made me pick up a guitar properly. I just copied it by ear. I was 13 by this point, and that was when I decided to be a guitarist. Nothing much has changed, I’m not technically brilliant, but I do learn a new guitar lick every year or two [Laughs].
You’ve released some incredible solo material of late. To what do you owe your recent creativity?
Thank you. It was something I’d been considering for quite a while but hadn’t given it much time until the pandemic hit. I got through that period by making and playing music in different ways, whatever ways I could. And now, I have started several new avenues of music which weren’t really there before. I am kind of busy all the time now on a lot of fronts, but I enjoy it.
Which Ride record do you feel features your finest work, and why? What song do you love most, and can you recount its inception?
“Vapour Trail” from Nowhere is Ride’s best song, I think. I prefer it live to on record, though. I wrote the riff sitting on a bed in a B&B in a room I shared with the rest of the band on tour somewhere in England in early 1990.
How did you achieve the sounds on a song like “Vapour Trail?”
I don’t know; I follow my instincts. I think the band does the same, and we create the Ride sound out of that.
What was the process, and what gear did you use during Going Blank Again? How did it differ then from Nowhere?
It was a really different process. The first album was our live set, and the second album was written mostly in the studio. Gear-wise, I was persuaded by Graham Coxon of Blur to get a Les Paul, and that really changed my playing. Alan Moulder taught me how to bend strings like Jimi Hendrix, and so then I was doing that all over the album.
Is the guitar the be all end all when it comes to a song for you, or merely a vehicle for you to relay your message?
It’s part of the whole sound. I like to have control over guitar sounds, but if the song doesn’t need guitars, it doesn’t bother me, really. I’ve written on piano and keyboards as well sometimes.
How do you balance the head and the heart when writing and playing guitar?
Honestly, I’d say it’s equal parts of both at different times.
What guitars, gear, pedals, amps, and effects are you using, and why?
It’s been the same amp since 2009, a Marshall lead and bass 20W, through one of Gem Archers’ 4×12 cabs. Pedal-wise, it changes constantly; I have changed out three pedals during the three-week tour of the states I’m currently doing! Guitar-wise, I use a Rickenbacker 12-string and a Gibson Trini Lopez.
Do you prefer vintage guitars or new ones? What’s your desert island guitar?
I do tend to mainly prefer vintage guitars, although if a new guitar sounds great, I’ll happily use it. Desert island guitars: for electric, it’s a Trini Lopez. For acoustic, it’s an Epiphone Frontier. I don’t have one… yet [Laughs].
On the bass side of things, how did playing guitar influence your approach once you joined Oasis? Did you find the bass boring at all compared to the guitar?
Noel [Gallagher] used to say, “Guitarists make the best bass players,” and I think I know what he means. I loved playing bass in Oasis. It was a whole new world. Never boring!
Are there any Oasis songs you played guitar on in the studio that fans might not know about?
Hmmm. Well, whenever they wanted acoustic fingerpicking, they called on me; “Get spider fingers on this,” was the cry. I played on a few, and people might not know I played on “Soldier On,” a great tune from Dig Out Your Soul.
Noel has recently said he’d never close the door on an Oasis reunion. Would you be up for it if it were on the table?
If they gave me a call, I would do it in a heartbeat, yes.
What’s the secret to writing good shoegaze riffs and solos?
I don’t really know. I don’t think shoegaze was a way of writing for me; I just think we dressed up our songs in shoegaze production. It wasn’t built into the songs at the core.
What does Ride have in store for 2023? How about your solo career?
There’s a new Ride album awaiting mixing. No solo plans from me until after the next Ride record has been released and toured.
An Interview With Andy Bell Of Ride, Beady Eye & Oasis article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2023
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