Ride’s Andy Bell Announces Debut Solo Album, Shares Video for New Song: Watch

The album is not about songwriting. There aren’t many verses or choruses, because this album is about sounds, a listening experience.

The poem describes someone committing suicide by jumping to their death and the regret the protagonist experiences when he sees “the view from halfway down.” Although, of course, it’s too late to change what’s going to happen. I read this poem as having a message of suicide prevention: if you could see the view from halfway down, you would never go through with anything that would end your life. I’ve never been suicidal, but I felt really moved by this brilliant poem when I watched the show during Ride’s U.S. tour in Autumn 2019. It’s an incredible message.

There was a small kind of a parallel with me, sitting at home in London in March 2020. In the early stages of lockdown, you could feel the tension in the air, causing what felt like a global panic attack. But, in common with what I’ve heard from others who can experience anxiety for no reason in their everyday lives, I felt strangely calm in the midst of all of this, seeing things in my life very clearly. Such clarity allowed me to finally compile this record. In a way, to see my life flash before me and be able to curate moments of it into a 40-minute listening experience, then find a title that would fit. I also got a lot of DIY done.

My upcoming 50th brought everything more sharply into focus. If you imagine that my entire life was a freefall jump to my death, and you were feeling optimistic about me reaching 100 like my Gran did and getting a telegram from the Queen, this album would be “the view from halfway down.”