Francesca Tirpak



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Introducing The Forum: a new, regular interview series, featuring artists - DJs, producers, designers and more - orbiting the Phantasy universe, and focused on both veritable legends of the electronic and alternative music scene, as well as undeniable new talent. In the debut edition, John Thorp speaks to Andy Bell, a founding member of acclaimed shoegaze band, Ride, whose comeback LP, ‘Weather Diaries’, was produced earlier this year by our own Erol Alkan. They discuss that fruitful partnership, how to crack a successful reformation and keeping up with their stellar live reputation.

Andy Bell, along with the seminal shoegaze indie band Ride, of which he has been a founding member and fixture since 1988, are very much on Phantasy’s Christmas card list. This past summer, they released their fifth album, 'Weather Diaries', following a twenty year hiatus, expertly produced by our creative director and Phantasy founder (not to mention lifelong Ride fan), Erol Alkan.





As such, we thought Bell would make the ideal candidate for the first in our weekly(ish) The Forum series here on the blog. There’s almost too much to talk about with a man who’s been a key part of two of Britain’s greatest ever rock bands; that two-decade gap saw Bell galavanting across the globe as bassist in the quite-popular Mancunian outfit, Oasis. Avoiding the temptation to ask ten questions exclusively about life with Liam Gallagher, we instead asked Bell to reflect on working with Erol, living up to their stellar live reputation on tour, dream reformations, and why 'Weather Diaries', is proving to be as relevant as any of their earlier work.

