A mainstay of U.K. rock music since the early '90s, Welshman Andy Bell is the founding guitarist and co-leader of shoegaze legends Ride and the founder and chief songwriter for alt rock combo Hurricane #1, and also served as the second bassist for Brit-pop icons Oasis. Following Oasis' 2009 breakup, Bell joined Liam Gallagher and two other remaining members to form another band, Beady Eye, who remained active until the mid-2010s. Along with singer/guitarist Mark Gardener, Bell's mesmeric, heavily treated guitar work was one of the most prominent sounds of the original shoegaze movement, and following Ride's 1996 breakup, he was able to shift his talents into other popular bands as well as one-off collaborations, production work, and even DJing. Ride re-formed in 2014 to produce two more albums, during which time Bell also launched a solo career, first with his electronic work under the pseudonym GLOK, then under his own name with more rock- and dream pop-oriented albums like 2020's View from Halfway Down and 2022's Flicker.

Along with his former schoolmate, Gardener, Bell formed Ride in 1988 and within a year, the group joined the roster of Alan McGee's famed Creation label, already home to shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine. As heard on their trio of 1990 EPs and debut album, Nowhere, Ride's melodic '60s-inspired songwriting and shimmering wall of guitars helped them become critical darlings of the U.K. press. Over subsequent albums, their fan base and acclaim held steady, though a proper breakout moment never quite materialized and by the mid-'90s, their popularity had been eclipsed by the rapid ascent of Creation labelmates Oasis. An early fan and supporter of the group, Bell befriended the Gallagher brothers even as his own band was deteriorating.

When Ride folded after their fourth album, Oasis was an inspiration for Bell's next project, Hurricane #1. With Bell writing the songs and playing guitar and Alex Lowe handing vocals, the alt-pop combo enjoyed some chart success with their 1997 debut and 1999 follow-up, which yielded a pair of U.K. hits in "Step into My World" and "Only the Strongest Will Survive." Around that same time, Oasis were going through a shift of their own with the departure of two founding members. Bell, a career guitarist, was asked to join Oasis as their new bassist, an offer he accepted while quickly teaching himself their entire catalog on an unfamiliar instrument in order to make the first gig.

Throughout the 2000s, Oasis served as Bell's primary project, and in addition to playing bass, he contributed several original songs to the group's catalog over their final three albums. During this period, he also produced an album by the Swedish group Weeping Willows, gigged regularly in the U.K. and Sweden as a DJ, and collaborated with acts like DK7 and the Most. In the aftermath of a notorious Gallagher brothers argument, Noel left Oasis in August 2009, effectively ending the band. Bell and the remaining members regrouped as Beady Eye, where he switched back to guitar and contributed alongside Liam Gallagher as a more prominent songwriter. Beady Eye issued a pair of successful Top Five albums in 2011 and 2013, played at high-profile events like the 2012 Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics, and even began playing some of the Oasis catalog before calling it quits in 2014.

Unattached to a band for the first time in years, Bell and Gardener decided to re-form Ride for a major tour of Europe and North America in 2015. A reunion album, Weather Diaries, arrived in 2017, followed two years later by the group's sixth album, This Is Not a Safe Place, which hit number seven on the U.K. charts. During this time, Bell had also been working on a solo electronic side project under the name GLOK, and in 2019 he released the album Dissident on the Bytes label. Finally, several decades into his career, Bell issued his first solo album, 2020's View from Halfway Down. The following year, he released a companion piece, Another View, which featured a handful of Pye Corner Audio remixes, some acoustic versions, and a couple of previously unreleased tracks. In 2022, Bell returned with his second solo album, Flicker. The double album consisted of 18 songs, some of which he first began working on in the '90s and at other various points throughout his career. Over the course of 2022, Bell released several EPs of remixes, acoustic versions, cover songs, and other ephemera related to Flicker. These EP releases began with I Am A Strange Loop in October of 2022, which consisted of Flicker songs remixed by the likes of David Holmes, Claude Cooper, A Place to Bury Strangers, and more. In November, both the largely acoustic The Grounding Process EP and four song outtake collection Untitled Film Stills were released. In February of 2023, all three EPs were collected and re-released as an album-length document Strange Loops Outer Psych, offering a comprehensive companion piece to the studio album as it approached its one year anniversary. ~ Timothy Monger, Rovi