On La Via Negativa,Seattle songwriter Joel Bell gingerly wraps incisive, fearlessly honest observations in buoyant rolling melody. While the songs on La Via Negativa are immediately engaging (as any tightly built tune should be), spend some time with this poetic and painterly record and you’ll discover concentric rings of meaning packed into deceptively forthright lyrics.
The son of an intelligence agent, Bell discovered music as an eight-year-old residing at the Intercontinental Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. His best friend at the time was a large record collection. Often, just before daybreak, Bell would sneak into the nightclub on the top floor and mess about with the band’s instruments; “The ashtrays were still full; the bar was sticky. I loved the glow of the red lights on the electric instruments, and the rhythm box on the organ with all the buttons. My future was sealed.” During his fourteen-year stint abroad, pop music would be his constant companion; both a refuge and a source of a tenuous connection with the West.
Fast forward to 1997, and see Bell’s band, Mrs. God, fold. While there was some label interest in a solo record, and even a recording budget, A&M passed. “…And then the GM who’d championed the record at Ultimatum (the William Morris Agency imprint) was let go. The new GM at Ultimatum liked my work but… There was another singer-songwriter to support and would I pick up the tour as his 5th Beatle, playing guitar and keys?” laughs Bell. “Oh, and you’ll be opening for the Goo Goo Dolls…” Back from the road he decided to just throw the record, titled Baggage Claim, to the four winds and see what fate had in store. YeahYeahYeah lauded its “sophisticated, jaded but wise pop tunes.”
Soon enough life got in the way, as Bell and his wife (he a sometime record producer and she a commercial photographer) returned to Seattle to care for ailing family. As the new millennium dawned it became clear that Bell needed to chase his fortune along a new avenue. “Once music and photos became free I saw that it was time to harness my temperament, schooling, and knowledge of aberrant character traits to become a shrink” says Bell. “I had to do something…”
At that time, Pete Pagonis, Bell’s partner in Mrs. God, got the idea to mine their catalog for pop gems, master them, and seek out some adoration (and perhaps a few lucrative sync licenses.) They chose Lazy as a name for the “band”, and in 2003 released Essentially. The band’s music was described by Mundane Sounds as “based upon the early 80s and early 90s sound, indebted as much Joe Jackson and Elvis Costello as it is to Barenaked Ladies and Ben Folds.” Their plan worked; there were many placements and the songs, even in the background, endured for a while.
Bell settled into his new reality, still producing the occasional record, but mostly enjoying the markedly less fraught day to day existence of being a therapist. Yet when inspiration strikes and a song demands to be written the best course of action tends to be grateful acquiescence.
Performed entirely by Bell and recorded is his home studio, and mixed and mastered by Ric Vaughn (Damien Jurado), La Via Negativais a collection of these bottled bolts of creativity. Informed by a life immersed both in thought and music, the records’ well-turned, on point compositions support insightful stories told with an elegant economy of language – and just enough of a wink and a nod to let you in on the joke (no one has ever rhymed “Ekhart Tolle” with “Folly” as far as we can tell.)
“The banal soup of adulthood can destroy you,” so says Bell, “but music is still the depressant and anti-depressant for me. Struggle seems negative on the surface, but it is the only path toward psychological health that isn’t faux-spirituality. Do the difficult work of dropping defenses and pride. Keep acting in good faith in a tragic world. Do what heroes do: get creamed by life.”
Glide is proud to premiere “La Via Negativa” a piano romper full of Boroque-folk gallantry and a touch of simple pop pleasures. Bell delivers with a singer-songwriter flair that is reminiscent of 70’s most righteous songsmiths, yet with an edgy indie flair that summons the unpredictable.
“The song “La Via Negativa” started on guitar as a minor blues vamp, an encouraging chant about keeping my spirits up. We need that kind of voice sometimes, whether it arrives from a song, a parent, or in this case, a dream. Once I moved it to piano with the BBC radio footsteps, the recording came together quickly. It’s a whole world, a march, a waltz into the fray, where Private Bell and his wounded pals rest at the edge of something terrible. Henry the 5th came to mind. So did Cole Porter. I think the sardonic middle section is more like Wings, maybe. Generally, once I stumble on the right sound, the recording process is fairly smooth. Lyrics are always where I scratch and scratch for the right line which is funny because “It’s OK, It’s alright” is the epitome of cliche, but I couldn’t improve on the voice from a dream. I like recording, setting up mics and getting tones and I send mixes to my old band mates from mrs. god and Lazy for input. La Via Negativa, this track and the EP as a whole, coalesced once I figured out how to cut vocals again. My voice is different than it was but I think I can do something with it again.”
One Response
Joel is a rocker par excellence. The poignant lyrics of his La via negativa are just the latest in his long and st times storied adventures with rock and roll.