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Brian Bell
"My parents were both teachers so a sense of scholasticism was always prevalent in my musical training.
My love for music began at the age of four when I begged my mom for piano lessons. I loved almost all
music I heard at that time, except for Barry Manilow and Liberace. I studied piano from the age of four
to twelve, then switched to saxophone in fifth grade. My mom taught at the same elementary school I
attended and tried to get me into every extracurricular activity she could. I think part of the reason
for this was because she stayed at work until five almost every evening, and needed me out of her hair.
Since most kids had gone home - strike that, ALL kids - I was left alone in this institution to entertain
myself. The schools music room was located behind the gymnasium so after playing endless games of
"H-O-R-S-E" against myself (and I always seemed to lose), I'd sneak into the desolate music room
tinkering at its piano until it was time to leave.With my elementary days behind me I left the loving ever watchful eyes of my mother and entered a new world of terror - "JR. HIGH". It's here where I came to the realization that playing in school band was for nerds, but I did it anyway because practice was after school and I didn't get picked up until very late. I had a terrible time during these years socially and I grew to despise the snobs at my school. During the summer of eighth grade I met Tim and Glenn Maloof, two advanced city kids from LA., who brought with them punk rock, skateboards and vegetarianism. Unfortunately for them they lived way out in the county and were zoned to a very rural High School. Actually I was zoned for this school too, but since my mom taught in the "city" (meaning there were actually stop lights), I was able to attend the "privileged kids" school. We all decided to acquire instruments and jam our way out the ennui of being a teenager in the state of Tennessee. My parents weren't thrilled about me deciding to become a rock musician and said I had to pay for the guitar myself. I mowed countless yards that summer and sold my Atari 2600 to my nephew. Then, with my meager earnings, I went to the local music store and bought a red Ibanez Strat copy, a Road Star II, for $300 bucks. Along the way I worked out a deal with my parents to pay for guitar lessons from the best teacher in town, Ben Bolt, who studied with Andre Segovia. The first year of high school I wanted to be around my new friends from California, so I transferred to their school. It was there where I learned nothing, academically speaking. But since the work load was so light we focused on our instruments and dreams of being rock stars.
Most garages in the area were converted into "Steel Magnolias"-type beauty parlors. Not mine or the Maloofs. Our parents let us transform our garages into mini-Woodstock concert halls adorned with posters of Hendrix and Black Sabbath for inspiration as we attempted to cover Black Flag, Marginal Man, and "early" Metallica. Returning the following year to my old nemeses at Rich Kid High, with long hair and worldly knowledge I became what I never was in Jr. High - popular. I continued guitar studies throughout High School with Ben Bolt on Friday nights. When other kids were going to football games and having pizza or whatever they did. I was focused on getting the hell out of Dodge. During this time Tim and Glenn formed a band called "The Bloo Shrooms" heavily psychedelic in spirit. They were making a name for themselves touring the Southeast during the summer. My parents were much too strict to let me join in the fun, nor (with good reason) did they trust me.
I applied to a music school in LA my senior year and with coaxing from Ben he helped talk Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver into sending me to Hollywood. It's there where I met drummer Mike Elliot, and we ended up working in a record store together. Mike from Maine and me from Tennessee, we educated ourselves on some of the music we missed by not growing up in Southern California. We did everything necessary to obtain new music. Unfortunately that meant stealing cassette tapes. Stealing by down loading was not an option yet. I attended a sound engineering school after the year of music school, because my parents would have never allowed me to stay in LA unless I was doing something which involved a school (even if it was a scam).
By the time I had finished I was way past due on my time to play in the LA music scene. So I started looking for a band to join. This was at a time in LA music history where everything seem to suck and bands like Poison and Guns and Roses dominated the Sunset Strip. I answered an ad in a local paper for a band who listed references such as: Bob Dylan, R.E.M. and the Violent Femmes. This was before "alternative rock" was a term and music of this nature was known as "college rock". Well, my parents would like that. I auditioned and joined the band Carnival Art as a bass player. We recorded a record and were signed after our third show to Beggars Banquet Records/RCA (coincidently a lot of the music I stole at the record store was on that label). That third show was opening for Soul Asylum and our fourth show we were the opening act for The Pixies. It was all down hill from there. After recording another album and EP we were subsequently dropped and it was during this time that a new band was making a splash onto the scene, Weezer.
I had already dreamt up Space Twins by this time and started to write my own songs. I had had it with control freak singers and went back to the six-string, and taught myself how to sing, or at least how to fake it. I saw Weezer perform at a cheesy venue on the Sunset Strip. I was really impressed with the singer and the songs, and I couldn't understand why they were playing at such a lame place. I wanted to help them by offering my contacts to the hipper side of the LA music underworld. I met Rivers that night and we exchanged phone numbers. I think I called him once after that time to congratulate him on being signed to Geffen Records. Then six months later he returned the phone call and asked my if I was happy in my present band situation. The answer was no, and since Space Twins was nothing but a dream at that time, I put it on the back burner and joined a band where I barely knew any of its members. He asked if I could sing and I said, "Sure, been doing it for years." Basically, I lied. I flew the next day to New York where they were recording with Rick Ocasek of "The Cars".
During the hiatus between Pinkerton and the Green Album Tim Maloof moved back to his LA homeland and we started jamming with Mike Elliot. Later we convinced his brother Glenn to move back as well, who by that time had switched from drums to guitar. We started jamming in his small garage off Melrose and we recorded and released "Goddess of Love" in 1997 as a 7" single and played many shows in the area. We have recorded and written loads of songs since but we feel these on "The End of Imagining" tell the story best. Thanks for waiting so patiently for our efforts.
Sincerely grateful,
Brian Bell
