Biography
-
Years Active
2009 – present (15 years)
-
Founded In
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States
-
Members
- Brian McBride
- Kenneth James Gibson
Bell Gardens was the musical collaboration between Canadian-born Kenneth James Gibson and American Brian McBride (died 2023). Exploring chamber pop, folk rock, psychedelic pop, and Americana, their first EP, "Hangups Need Company", was released on their own imprint Failed Better in 2010. Southern Records released their first LP, "Full Sundown Assembly", in late 2012. Rocket Girl released the band's second LP, "Slow Dawns For Lost Conclusions", in October, 2014.
Based in Los Angeles, Bell Gardens began with just Kenneth James Gibson and Brian McBride (of Stars of the Lid). When McBride traveled to Europe in the Fall of 2007 to tour for Stars of the Lid’s And The Refinement of the Decline, Gibson had sent him some demos of some tracks he had been working on. Upon returning from tour, recording for the duo began.
Initial recordings found the duo trying to stay faithful to a time period in which songs had been recorded. Wanting to experiment in what they believed to be a classic type of sound, the two used mainly live instrumentation, thinking about what was available in studios from the 50s to the mid 70s. Pre-set software sounds were rejected for their own recording of pianos, strings and horns. Even the sounds of the strings were often recorded flat in an attempt to preserve both room sounds and the natural sound of the instrument. If you were to ask Kenneth and Brian about the process of recording, they would probably say that the music they’re making in Bell Gardens is more “experimental” for them than their previous work. Their EP Hangups Need Company is loosely based on a sense of “pop” from another time.
Gibson has used eight or more different monikers, from the California dream noise rock project of the middle 90s, Furry Things, to his techno artisanry as pendics.shuffle. McBride is better known as one half of the nocturnal lullaby giants, Stars of the Lid. McBride died on 27 August 2023.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
