Breaking New Ground With Bell X1

Bell X1 have consistently released chart-topping albums since their inception back in 2000; however, with their sixth record, Chop Chop, frontman Paul Noonan explains that the trio needed to switch things up a bit. “What we talked about a lot in the studio was shrinking the palette, in that we wanted to use far less instruments and not get distracted or carried away with new toys. So it's a pretty traditional record for us for the most part, just guitar, bass, drums and piano. Also, we did most of the touring [promoting the album] as a four-piece. I'm usually the singer and frontman, but I played drums on this recent tour. At one stage we all played different instruments and that was great.”

Elaborating further, Noonan reveals, “We've been wanting to work with Peter Katis for a long time – he helped make a lot of the records we love from bands like Interpol and The National, and the stars finally aligned and we recorded with him in a studio in Connecticut. The one thing about that was, we only had two weeks to do it, because we also wanted Thomas Bartlett [The National, Antony & The Johnsons] to co-produce the record. Both of them were only available for this two-week period in January last year and we'd never recorded that quickly before. It was an entirely new thing for us to be in a studio for such a short time and feel like we'd nailed it.”

Noonan believes the time frame forced the group to be much harsher with themselves and their music, a process made easier by the many years they've spent together. “There's a sort of familiar contempt that develops from spending so much time with each other,” Noonan laughs. “You can be rude arseholes, and it's okay! Also in the studio you can communicate without having to spell things out, you don't have to do a whole lot of talking. At this stage we can arrive at things by intuition; we know how to read each other.”

Having had the privilege of opening for bands like U2 in their career and earning a plethora of musical accolades along the way, Noonan is thrilled to finally be bringing the Bell X1 experience Down Under. “Heading to Australia is something we've wanted to do for a long time. I suppose we felt the first records didn't really break through enough, until now. When you head over to a country for the first time there's always that sense of breaking new ground and building things from the ground up – you feel like you're converting people a room at a time.”

And it's not just the tour Noonan is excited about with his first visit: “I believe the pies are something to try! Our first record was produced by Nick Seymour of Crowded House, who lives here in Dublin, and he would make these meat pies with white pepper and they were amazing! I look forward to trying the experience Down Under.”