Knoxville News-Sentinel article - August 18, 1991

Print interview with Brian Bell
Publication	Knoxville News-Sentinel
Interviewee	Brian Bell
Interviewer	Wayne Bledsoe
Date	August 18, 1991
Title	Former Knoxvillian Bell signs with major record label
Format	Print
External link	Archive via Newspapers.com
References	See where this interview is referenced on Weezerpedia

Former Knoxvillian Bell signs with major record label Author: Wayne Bledsoe (Knoxville News-Sentinel) Published: August 18, 1991 Brian Bell left Knoxville for Los Angeles when he was 18. "I didn't even let people know I played guitar," says Bell. "There just wasn't any reason." Bell has just joined the list of current or former Knoxvillians that are recording for major record labels. Carnival Art, in which Bell plays bass and sings background vocals, recently signed with Beggar's Banquet Records, which is distributed by RCA. The group's album "Thrumdrone" was released this month. The other Knoxville-connected acts recording for the majors include: The JudyBats, on Sire, Ashely Cleveland, on Atlantic, and Every Mother's Nightmare with former Knoxvillian Rick Ruhl, on Arista. Bell, who graduated from Bearden High School in 1987, says he used to jam with the Knoxville group the Blue Shrooms, but never got around to performing with the musicians at one of their shows. Bell first went to LA to study at the Musicians' Institute. "I thought it would be real cool to live in California, but I didn't want to go without a reason," says Bell. Bell says it wasn't quite what he expected and "Hollywood turned out to be a real scum pit," he says. "It was a real growing experience to live in this scum pit with no car," says Bell. "There is no good public transportation." The town is full of musicians. He answered an ad to replace Carnival Art's departing guitarist. The band had been together for three years and had recorded an independent album. They had tried out "about 50 guitar players" before Bell gave it a shot. They passed on Bell, too. Eventually, though, the band's bass player (simply known as Ed) took over guitar, and Bell and the band had hit it off so well they called him back to ask if he wanted to play bass. "I said, 'Sure, but I don't have a bass.' So they said, 'you can use ours.' So that's what I've been doing ever since." With Bell signed on, the band began recording another album. "You can find ways of recording in studios after hours for nearly nothing," says Bell. "So we recorded our first album for practically nothing, but we had to record from 12 to 4 a.m. at night. ... We used like U2's wasted tape or whatever." So when Beggar's Banquet gave the group money to record their album, most of the disc was done and there was enough left over to live on. The band recently finished filming a video for its song "Mr. Blue Veins." Bell says the song was inspired by one of Tak's neighbors, but the actual character (a man who holds his breath until he gets what he wants) is fictional. Tak's neighbor was recruited to appear in the video. "He's painted blue and he holds his breath," says Bell.

See also

• Category:Brian Bell Interviews