Ilan Bell is a New York City-based indie singer-songwriter whose debut album, American Love, has aroused great expectation. Ilan Bell collaborates with Grammy-winning producer Paul Falcone (Jay-Z, Beyonce, Tom Odell) as well as indie bands TOLEDO and Vern Matz to create a collection of ballads and anthemic compositions that reference the 1960s and 1970s while pushing the sound envelope. As a writer-producer, Ilan Bell has been commissioned to write and produce for numerous artists whose work frequently appears on film and television. He was also instrumental in establishing the largest songwriting camp in New York City’s history. Anti Social Camp, hosted by hit producer Danny Ross, included prominent guests and artists including Walk the Moon, Rob Thomas, and JP Saxe. Almost 150 songs were produced at the camp, which was covered in Billboard magazine. Being both a musician and an advocate for other artists, Ilan Bell has been instrumental in revitalizing the New York City music scene.
Through It All is his debut single in collaboration with Grammy-winning producer Paul Falcone (Jay-Z, Beyonce, Tom Odell). It has already been included on more than 20 playlists and reviewed by a number of press publications. It is a piano ballad with lyrics in the foreground. Check out the song and the exclusive interview below:
1. Can you tell us a bit about how it all got started?
ILAN BELL: I came up as a writer-producer working for other artists in New York over the years. I’ve only recently become an artist myself and I just released my first single, “Through It All.”
2. Did you have any formal training or are you self-taught?
ILAN BELL: I was in-and-out of lessons for years, but I never really stuck with them. I was pretty resistant to going to school for music because I liked learning on my own, but I finally decided to do a master’s at Berklee. Overall, I think some of my most important learning ended up happening on the job. There’s really no substitute for being in the studio and doing “the thing.”
3. Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
ILAN BELL: I’ve always really looked up to the singer-songwriters of the sixties and seventies: Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan. For whatever reason, they spoke to me even when I was kid even though most of their lyrics were over my head. I still turn to their songs all the time for answers about relationships, work, adulthood, and everything in between. I owe them a great deal for showing me just how much a song could contain.
4. What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
ILAN BELL: The foundation of my songs is really the lyrics, so almost everything about the production makes sure that the words are front-and-center. This last album is somewhere in between indie and pop, between vintage and modern. Some of my favorite music lives in the in-betweens so that’s what I’ve tried to do for these songs.
5. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?
ILAN BELL: Because I’ve worked as a writer-producer for years, I’m very comfortable in the studio. Performing is a newer part of my life and I’m still learning. When I’m in the studio, I can do as many takes as I want—when I’m on stage, all I get is one. But even though I’m more at ease in the studio, I think that settling into live performance will just come with time.
6. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?
ILAN BELL: I’ve always felt that culture and politics are an inherent part of music but it’s very easy to be off-putting. So, I’ve always tried to make sure that I’m not preaching. Most of the time, I’ll just start from personal experience and every once in a while, those experiences touch on larger cultural topics. That has to happen incidentally, though, otherwise it ends up sounding forced.
7. Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it or are you expecting something more, or different in the future?
ILAN BELL: Oh, definitely. It’s the most meaningful part of my day and I’m lucky that I get to do it every day. There are no clear paths in the arts but there are moments of clarity along the way. These last few weeks have had a few of those moments and all the hard work starts to pay dividends—any challenges along the way suddenly make perfect sense.
8. Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song? Do you usually start with a tune, a beat, or a narrative in your head? And do you collaborate with others in this process?
ILAN BELL: At least for this album, I started every song with the lyrics. But most of my writing doesn’t happen in the studio. I’ll write anywhere that lightning strikes: a train, the shower, a party. And even though I’ll always prefer putting pen to paper, I’ve adapted to writing on my phone since it’s one of the few things I pretty much always have on my person. Once the lyrics are done, the music and the production are usually pretty quick because that part of the process tends to be more collaborative, so the workload becomes shared.
9. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?
ILAN BELL: I’m not too concerned with listeners understanding any one true interpretation of my songs, mostly because I don’t think that exists.Even my own interpretation changes when I revisit a song after a couple of years. So, I would never expect my songs to have a single, objective meaning. That’s what math and the hard sciences are for.
10. What would you consider a successful, proud, or significant point in your life or music career so far?
ILAN BELL: This last week has been a real highlight. Releasing a song as an artist was such an unfamiliar experience that I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I’ve been blown away by the response. The song seems to be resonating with people and it’s motivated me to put out as much music as possible this year.
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