His main passion, and experience, is working in the acoustic, singer-songwriter and folk worlds. He has produced records with artists such as Bellowhead, Karine Polwart, The Lost Words Spell Songs, The Furrow Collective, Sam Sweeney, and Jon Boden. He has been both a nominee and receiver of multiple BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Songlines Awards & Albums of the Year, SAY Awards, BBC Radio 2, 3, Songlines, Mojo, The Guardian, R2, Album of the Year Awards, Resolution Magazine Producer of the Year Award and more.
Andy is a producer and audio/mix engineer, who also works within artist management and consultancy.
Andy has been producing records for over 15 years, having graduated in 2003 with a degree in Music Production from Leeds College of Music. After spending several years recording various Classical and Jazz albums, Andy became the house engineer at Leeders Farm in Norfolk. Here he worked with the likes of Dan Hawkins (The Darkness), Seasick Steve, KT Tunstall and Teenage Fan Club, plying his trade under various great producers, including Nick Brine.
After leaving Leeders Farm, he established himself as a producer and engineer on the Folk and Acoustic scenes, where he is now one of the most in demand and recognised producers. Today, he works with the likes of Bellowhead, Jon Boden, Karine Polwart, Martin Simpson, Eliza Carthy and Seth Lakeman to mention just a few.
Many of Andy’s records enjoy national TV, newspaper and radio coverage including regular plays and playlisted singles on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 6Music. These records have also gone on to achieve awards from various places including Songlines, fRoots and BBC Radio 2. In 2013 Andy produced The Full English at Realworld Studios in Box and Songs of Separation (2016), an album recorded in a barn on the Isle of EIgg featuring 10 of the UK’s best known female folk artists. Both albums went on to win album of the year at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
In 2016, Andy established Hudson Records alongside Sheffield musician Neil McSweeney. The label releases anything from Folk, Acoustic, World through to Indie, Pop and Free Improv records - there are very few boundaries. Quickly becoming established as an exciting young Yorkshire & UK Indie label, music critics have been swift to recognise the labels successes. Records and artists have been both nominees and winners of awards from BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, SAY Awards and even major theatre awards. Releases on the label regularly feature in the media, with the likes of Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker spins and national print & online articles and premieres with publications, such as The Guardian, Mojo, Uncut, The Clash and Quietus. Hudson Records music videos have caught the eyes and ears of Peter Lord of Aardman Animations, Vevo and editors choice at Vimeo. One track even featured as ‘Top 100 Track of 2016’ on the annual NPR ‘Best Of’ playlist either side of Bon Iver and Beyonce. This was the first ever Gaelic record to do so.
Most recently Andy has produced records for Jenny Sturgeon (most notably ‘The Living Mountain’, based on Nan Shepherd’s book about the Cairngorms), Sam Sweeney’s acclaimed English fiddle album and The Lost Words Spell Songs featuring Julie Fowlis, Kris Drever, Karine Polwart, Seckou Keita, Beth Porter, Rachel Newton & Jim Molyneux in collaboration with Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris.
As well as producing records in 2018/19, Andy curated and project managed ‘The Modern Fairies’. This was a multi-arts collaboration funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council for the University of Sheffield. In 2020/21, Andy produced the music for two large live stream events: Bellowhead’s ‘Reassembled’ stream (10,000 people) and The Lost Words stream live from under the Whale at the Natural History Museum, London.
'Masterfully produced' ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Guardian
Andy Bell has fused traditional and 21st-century textures, with subtle strands of electronica, ambient sounds and pocket piano floating behind the two main instruments. You could easily imagine some of these tracks turning up in the chilled contemporary playlists on Radio 6 Music. The Times
BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2012 - Best Album - The Full English
SAY Awards Shortlist 2018 - Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy/A Pocket of Wind Resistance
SAY Awards Longlist 2021 - Jenny Sturgeon - The Living Mountain
Mojo - Top 10 Folk Albums 2021 - Martin Simpson - Home Recordings & Spiers & Boden - Fallow Ground
BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2016 - Best Album - Songs of Separation
BBC Radio 2 Folk Award - Best Album Nominations - Martin Simpson/Vagrant Stansa, Nancy Kerr/Sweet Visitor, Karine Polwart/A Pocket of Wind Resistance
BBC Radio 2 Folk Award 2012 - Best Group - The Full English
Songlines Album of the Year - Wind Resistance, Spell Songs ??????
BBC Radio 3 ???
Resolution Magazine - ????
