I've been thinking a lot about music gear lately. I'm blessed to have some really wonderful equipment. I was going to write a whole blog post about the gear I use, but there's already a page on my website dedicated to that (go here for all the geeky details of what I'm using at the moment)

I'm a bit of a gear geek and I enjoy reading about the latest gadget or guitar to be released, but as I mention at the top of the gear page, the most important things are really your ears and your fingers.

Ears

I really believe that when choosing musical equipment, you've got to trust your ears. It's all too easy to get swayed by big names or big price tags. These are obviously a guide to how something will sound, but there is great music to be made on cheap and mid-range instruments. Especially with guitars (where I spend most of my time looking) you can't guarantee that something costing more will sound better. In fact, I've found that sometimes really expensive guitars may look immaculate and play beautifully, but they sound... ordinary. Often it's the "imperfections" that give something its vibe. So while a PRS may be technically superior to a Tele in terms of woods and hardware, there's something about a Tele that just sits well in the mix.

I also know of guys who have bought cheaper acoustics and ended up playing them over their more expensive ones. And of course, valve amps are technically flawed in a lot of ways, but that is what gives them the character that we've grown to love.

It might be worth considering what sound you're after as well, and purchasing accordingly. In my view a sound with character is more interesting than something that is technically "perfect" (and that applies to voices as much as guitar sounds).

The other thing to bear in mind is that you want to get to a point with your playing where you sound like "you" regardless of what you're playing. Which leads me on to...

Fingers

I often fall into the trap of thinking that upgrading my equipment is the answer to getting the sound I hear in my head, both vocally and on other instruments. While you need to have equipment that will do a job for you, once you get to a certain level of quality (and that level is probably quite a bit cheaper than many of us would think) the tone is in the fingers, in the technique, in the feel of the player. Iconic guitarists (Clapton, Metheny, The Edge) sound like them, whatever they're playing. I know I'm not the first to make this observation.

So enjoy a bit of guitar geekery by all means, but let's not get side tracked into thinking that's where the interesting stuff happens. For the most part, it takes place in the ears, fingers and head of the musician.

If you enjoyed this post, you might want to check out the film "It might get loud" - a really interesting film about different approaches to the guitar, and to music in general.

I thought I'd continue this little journey through my back catalogue and write a post about my first album - "Human Conditions". I made this album in the summer of 2006, and the thing most people comment on is the fact that I've lost a couple of stone since the cover pictures were taken.

I'd been in a studios quite a bit, but never recorded any of my own songs. Once again I set myself a tight deadline and had to race to meet it - I really wanted the CDs back for some gigs at the end of August. In the end they were delivered to the Lincolnshire showground on the Friday of the gig, and my Dad had to fit 1000 CDs in his car in addition to all the other stuff he already had with him.

For me, the standout tracks were "Ships", "Slippers" and "By the sea", and I still occasionally slot those into my live set. Lately I've been rediscovering a few of the others too - a couple of bluesey numbers "Long, long way" and "When I'm gone".

Slippers in particular always seems to strike a chord - it seems to manage to challenge people without them realising.

I guess this was my first chance to produce my own stuff as well, using some of the things I'd learned working with guys like Howard Williams and Dan Bowater, who I'd done sessions for in the past. I guess it was a chance to do some of the musical things I liked but hadn't had a chance to do before - like the layered up Ebow on "Ships", or the reverse wah wah solo on "Freedom".

In fact, it's probably some of the most involved guitar stuff I've done, and listening back to a few moments (like the octave solo in "This song won't change your life" or the "Guitar doubled with rhodes" solo in the title track usually raises a smile.

There are probably a few things I'd do differently if I did the album again, particularly focusing more on the vocals, but as a first attempt it has a special place in my musical journey.

As I tweeted a few days ago, I'm down to the last full box of these on CD, so if that's what you're after, don't hang around too long. Stocks of downloads aren't running as low (!), but you can buy that way too if that's your thing.

I thought I'd blog a little about my back catalogue, since some of you round here may be new (hello! do introduce yourselves). This post is about "Name in Lights" which came out in 2009.

We recorded the album "live" to capture a bit of the vibe of an actual gig, with the crowd responding and getting involved. So it's a "live" album, but all the songs were new.

The story began some time in the middle of 2008, when I was starting to gather together a collection of songs that would become a record. Playing live, I'd started to do a few more "funny" songs, and I wanted to get some of them down on record, but the idea of singing about "biscuits" and doing a full studio arrangement didn't seem quite right, so it was decided to do a live recording, and the date was set for 8th November 2008 - its proximity to bonfire night perhaps didn't make it the ideal choice, and if you listen closely, you can hear a few fireworks going off in the background.

Dan from dB Studios brought a load of gear in a van and set up in the community centre down the road, and we hit record and played everything you hear on the record (and some things you don't hear too!).

James Middleton, drummer and percussionist brought lots of things to hit and shake, and added a lot to the songs. We only had one rehearsal in my living room, and so things were certainly fresh, but I've always loved James' playing, and he excelled himself on this one.

The plan was for Mark Prentice to join us on bass that night, but due to a diary clash, he couldn't be with us, but he added his bits later, as did Mark Edwards who played some gorgeous hammond, piano and rhodes, both very tasteful and in keeping with the feel of the evening.

I added a few guitar bits too, and then we mixed the recording. All the vocals were the ones from the night though, and although there are the odd croaky moments, I think we really captured something special.

As a songwriter, the thing that really has to stack up for a record like this is the songs - and when the arrangements are simpler, you really have to be confident in the songs. This record has the first recordings of songs that are still in my live set, including fun stuff like "The need for biscuits" and "Should have learned", as well as things like "Time is right" and "Thursday night" which have a real energy to them.

The quieter songs like "Tuvalu" and "Unnoticed" still stand up for me as well. I occasionally hear from people who have been touched by some of the tracks on the record, like "Keep me going" which has inspired them in their life, or given them encouragement, and that means a lot.

This is also the album with "What I call romance" on it, which always seems to resonate with couples when I sing it live. They sometimes come and ask about it, and call it "the one about throwing up" which it isn't really, but I know which one they mean.

With a bit of distance, I get to appreciate what's right with a record, rather than hearing all the things that aren't quite how they should have been, and I guess I'm proud of it. The thing that gets the most criticism is that jumper, but hey, you can't please everyone...

 

Have a listen and download if you'd like to, or order the CD here.

 

Bit late on the details for this one (sorry!), but I wanted to fill you all in on the single release for the track "While we sleep tonight" which happened at the start of the year, to coincide with the 2 year anniversary of the Haiti quake.

The aim of the single release was largely to raise awareness of the situation, and to raise a bit of money for Tearfund too.

The video has been watched quite a few times on YouTube, and played on Radio 2, and I did a number of radio interviews at the time, which is all really good.

Here's the video:

Here's the press release that went out at the time:

On 12th January 2010, at 4.53pm local time a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti, poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It entrenched poverty, making over a million people homeless, as well as claiming more than 200,000 lives. Many people across the world responded to the disaster with thoughts, prayers, money.

Says Paul, “I remember making breakfast on the morning after the earthquake hit. I had the radio on and the news was breaking. The good night’s sleep I’d had in my comfortable bed was hard to reconcile with what had just happened in Haiti.”

This juxtaposition was to prove the spark for the song “While we sleep tonight”, which explores the issues of suffering in the world.

Paul comments “At times like this, there are lots of questions, but not a lot of answers. I certainly don’t have them, but something in me wanted to respond.”

The song is taken from Paul’s recent album of the same name, and is probably one of the most emotional moments on the record. The beauty of the music provides an atmospheric backdrop to some of Paul’s most thoughtful and poetic lyrics to date.

A few months after the album was released, Paul heard about an exhibition by Sheffield-based photographer, Richard Hanson, of images taken in the aftermath of the quake in Haiti. The exhibition was held in conjunction with Tearfund, who commissioned the photos.

“I remember wandering around the gallery space, looking at these stunning images, reading the stories of the subjects. I love the way Richard’s pictures focus on people – their stories of pain, loss, resilience and hope are written on their faces.”

Tearfund and Richard kindly gave permission for their images to be used in the stunning video to accompany the song, which can be viewed on Paul’s website (paulbellmusic.com).

If you haven't already got the song and would like to get hold of it, you can get it here in the download store or on iTunes and the proceeds all go to Tearfund. If you've already got the song, of course, you can just donate some money to Tearfund.

Like an opportunist thief at the OXO office Christmas party, this seems like a good time of year to take stock. So I thought I'd review the past 12 months from my perspective - think of it as a Christmas letter inside your card, except with less bragging about my kids' GCSE results.

Firstly, I've played a load of gigs this year. I think 30 or more, from Portsmouth to Whitley Bay, Bury St Edmunds to Cheltenham. Almost all of them lovely. Mostly solo gigs, but some with other musicians, which are always special. In particular I really enjoyed playing alongside Yvonne Lyon, Philippa Hanna, Jude Simpson, Charlie Barker and Open Road Music. And as I've already mentioned on this blog, Grapevine and Greenbelt were special ones.

Here's a little video of "While we sleep tonight" from one of the Greenbelt gigs (in the music shop, hence the chatter!)

I've done quite a few radio bits and bobs this year, with quite a few interviews and the odd live session. I've probably waffled quite a lot, and had a few of those "I've no idea what I actually think about that" moments, but it's been fun. Was great to have a track played on Radio 2 this year too - a lovely way to finish the year off. More please!

There's also been other kinds of music this year - studio sessions, covers band gigs, playing music at church - as in so many things, a balanced a varied diet keeps things healthy and regular.

I guess the big event of the year has been writing, recording and releasing "While we sleep tonight" my third album and my bestest so far. If you've not heard it yet, do check it out, download it, order it, spread the word - it means so much.

So what of 2012? Aside from hopefully competing in the London Olympics (I've not checked but I'm fairly sure you can just turn up on the day?) I'll be out gigging more, writing more, singing more and hopefully unleashing a some more musical goodness on the world. It's all a bit vague at the moment (apart from some of the gigs, which are already in the diary), but you can join in. Music is like a conversation - it's informed by what's going on in the world, what's going on in our lives, what others are saying (playing). And like a conversation, it makes more sense when there are others involved.

Have a fabulous Christmas and a great new year!

This is the last post in the "song by song" series about my album "While we sleep tonight" and we come to the title track.

In the last post, I wrote about the difficulty of knowing how to respond to situations in the world, and this was one such situation. For some reason, I was making breakfast with the radio on, having slept reasonably well. It was a January morning.

The news of the earthquake in Haiti came on, and I was struck by the contrast - while I'd been safely tucked up, this terrible thing had been happening. Homes were shaken, lives were taken. I was oblivious.

There's an instinct to do something - we can give our money, but there's still the frustration of watching as the aid struggles to get through.

In situations like this, even those who don't normally can turn to prayer, event amidst the "why" questions, and I found myself with this chorus idea, which was a prayer for the people of Haiti, and for me in my powerless, frustration. I get the sense that God is there in the pain, God is with the poor, God is close in the questioning.

The verses took a bit more work, and there were a few versions before I got to what made it onto the album. The sense of the fragility of life, and of the frustration of not knowing how to respond were the things I really wanted to capture - hopefully some of that comes across.

From a musical point of view, it's one of the simpler arrangements, but I like the dynamics and the shape of it - Terl suggested bringing in the kit, and it works perfectly, to give the song a sense of journey. Again, Hannah sings great on this one. The weird noise at the beginning and end is a bit of an ebow trick, and it's another place I used the baritone electric sound on the album - really raw and rootsy sounding.

It might be the most emotional thing I've recorded. When I sing it, I think of the people of Haiti.

The other day I visited an exhibition of photography taken in Haiti, documenting the aid work of Tearfund - you can view some of the pictures here on the Guardian's website. The devastation is obvious, the stories are moving, and at times extremely sad, but there is a hope in the smiles of the people, that is equally powerful.

Have a listen to the song:

This is probably the song I had first for this album - in fact it might have even been written just as the last one was being finalised. I wanted to write a song about making a difference in the world - something I often think about, aspire to, but am aware I'm not all that good at.

We have a postcard on the wall of our downstairs toilet, with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. "Where are the extremists for love and grace?" What a great phrase, and a great challenge. When the media is full of talk of extremists, and countering extremism, maybe the answer isn't moderation, homogenisation and a suspiscion of passion, but to go to the other extreme. To go all out for loving people, forgiving people, valuing people.

There are so many situations that need our help, our money, our prayers, our attention that it can sometimes feel overwhelming.

I wrestle with some of this stuff, because my life is essentially quite safe, quite middle class and easy. There's a real danger of hypocrisy when people like me start singing about this stuff, but sometimes it's not easy to know what practically we can do. And I guess that's what I'm really singing about. It's all too easy to think any difference we could make is insignificant, but down that way cynicism lies.

It's about a breaking heart, the foolishness that shames "wisdom", and the possibility that the little we give can be multiplied by someone whose heart is also breaking.

This is another daft song which, as most of these songs tend to, started off with a germ of truth, and then was extrapolated to the point of nonsense puns about knitwear.

The true part is that I enjoy wearing a good jumper, but I do sometimes find I'm too hot with a jumper on and too cold without one (on those "inbetween days"). The rest is just silliness, but hopefully fun silliness. I particularly enjoy watching audience faces when they hear the "cardiologist" line and aren't quite sure how to respond - whether to groan, chuckle or applaud at the sheer audacity of the contrived pun.

It was in a conversation with poet and funny lady Jude Simpson that the "Too much difference" line came up, and it seemed to be a good hook to hang the rest of the song on. Thanks, Jude!

We came up with something musically as crazy as the lyrics, with tubular bells, harpsichords, timpani, mellotron, and a stomping piano - the whole thing just makes me giggle. Once again, Mark Edwards came up with the goods, and Mark Prentice's bass part just finishes the whole thing off beautifully. Good job chaps!

Here it is:

I started off this song with the thought of writing a song about all the things love isn't - I put out a call on Twitter for suggestions, and got a few back. A bit of that idea still stays in the first verse. Lyrcially, I found myself thinking about 1 Corinthians 13 - often called "The Love Chapter" in the Bible. If you've been to more than a few church weddings, you've probably heard it a number of times.

Regardless of whether you call yourself a Christian or not, if you take this chapter seriously, it's a really powerful, really challenging description of what it means to love someone. It's easy to skip over some of these words without asking the tough questions. How patient am I? How kind? How proud? How self-seeking, self serving? How do you "keep no record of wrongs"? Have I lost the love that gives meaning to all the other stuff? Answers on a postcard, please.

A band called "The Beatles" (whatever happened to them?) once wrote "all you need is love", and it's easy to sing that when you're in an easy place and life feels great. I love those times, but sometimes we find that it's love that holds us together when things get tough, puts us back on our feet and gives us the strength to move on.

Musically, I think this was probably the hardest song to get right - my original guitar part was a sort of meandering affair that was impossible to play in time, but it had a quality to it that was difficult to replicate with some of the straighter things we tried. In the end I took one of the dead straight acoustic parts and reversed it to create this kind of pad sound with a bit of movement to it and that seemed to tie together the different elements.

Highlights for me are Mark's piano playing, and Hannah's harmony vocal which really captures the emotion of the song.

Have a listen:

When the theme of 2011's Greenbelt festival was announced as "Dreams of home" I remember thinking it was a great idea, a great thought. Home is a hugely evocative idea - the sense of belonging, the feeling of safety, and acceptance. At least that's what it should be about.

This is one of those songs where you can take the lyrics a number of different ways - I like songs like that, so I don't want to expand too much on what I was thinking when I wrote it.

I've since had people who work with homeless people tell me how it evokes thoughts and feelings around that issue. For others it may be about "heaven", whatever that may mean.

For me at least, while there is a sense in which I feel at home in a lot of places, "home" in its purest sense is something that I feel I'm still working towards - I'm caught in between times.

I made a little video to accompany the song:

 

It was lovely to play this song at the festival that inspired it, this year.

 

Musically, I really love the percussion elements on this song - Terl did such a great job, layering up shakers, toforans, other things for us to use a loops. James Middleton brings a great backing vocal too.

The album "While we sleep tonight" is available to purchase here and you can catch up on all the "song by song" posts here.