ACL Artist Interview: Bell X1 Chat About Drum Machines, Charity, and Supertramp

You might not have heard of Dublin's Bell X1, but in their native Ireland, they are superstars with two #1 albums who now headline festivals and arenas. After significant American touring, though, fans are starting to take notice, as are satellite radio and late-night TV. We suspect it might further pique your interest that most of Bell X1 were originally (in a different format) a band called Juniper, who featured one Damien Rice on vocals and guitar. When Damien left to pursue his folkier style, Juniper became Bell X1, and they've both gone on their separate paths to stardom. Bell X1 play ACL this weekend to support their 2009 Yep Roc disc Blue Lights On The Runway, which mixes portions of their traditional rock sound with electronic textures and some longer, more serious tracks than on past albums. We recently emailed vocalist Paul Noonan to ask him about musical influences, Oxfam, and touring.

Paul, we first discovered Bell X1 after talking with (Crowded House's) Nick Seymour about your collective involvement in Oxfam charity album The Cake Sale. Could you tell us a bit more about your feelings about creating the album and how that project turned out?

It's something I'd like to do more of. There was a lightness and ease to the sessions that was really enjoyable. Our own thing is often heavy bananas...I think it turned out really well. There's a coherence to the record that was kind of hard to achieve given all the voices involved, but Brian Crosby (former Bell X1 boy and 'curator' of The Cake Sale project) really pulled it together.

On a related note, it seems that Dublin has a really vibrant creative community at the moment, though there's a lot of different types of music floating around. Is there anyone you're keen to collaborate or tour with in the future?

The DIY ethic is really strong in Dublin, with people making their own records and honing their craft till it shines. [With] people like Villagers, Jape, Halves, and Lisa Hannigan, who are good souls, too.

Reading the reviews of your recent albums Flock and Blue Lights..., people throw out Talking Heads, Coldplay, and U2 as what Bell X1 may sound like, but we don't see a big connection there. Who are your primary musical influences in truth?

I had no older siblings to introduce me to stuff, and my parents weren't really big into music, so it was an older brother of a friend of mine whose records we listened to - Supertramp, Bruce Springsteen, New Order, and Talking Heads. Since I've been making making music myself, I suppose lots of people have given me a nudge, like PJ Harvey, Flaming Lips, and Gillian Welch.

On the new album, the track "How Your Heart Is Wired" is quite unconventional for Bell X1, and uses both a long running time and electronics to create a strong mood. We spent a lot of time playing this track earlier this year...might you explain the origin or the inspiration?

With this record, I suppose the initial idea was to take songs that were written pretty conventionally on acoustic guitars or piano - and dress them in noises from boxes, beats, and synths. The computer end of things was certainly new territory for me. I think this song is the only one where this worked out completely. With a number of tunes, it just felt like we were forcing it, the electronic dressing, so we pulled it back.

While you're primarily touring American clubs at the moment, you've also opened for U2 in stadiums and headlined rock festivals in Ireland this year. What is your favorite type of venue to play these days, and do you modify your set list and stage demeanor for the different spaces?

We've had some great outdoor festivals this year - Benicassim in Spain and Electric Picnic in Ireland, and [we] are really enjoying some of the small US shows, too. We're getting to a lot of places we've never been - Ann Arbor, Woodstock, Birmingham, and it's a buzz when we feel like we're connecting. They are different animals, the big and small shows - the detail is often lost to scale on the big ones.

You are currently touring with Wild Light, who are a quality act in their own right. How are things going, and how did you hook up with them?

We played together in Boston last year, and when we put this tour together, we thought of them - it's going well so far. Last night they were going to bring shots of whiskey to us on stage, but they got high - like Afroman.

Finally, unlike a number of Irish and English bands, you are spending a lot of time in the US on tour. Are you bound and determined to break through to a large American audience one of these days?

I think we just might have the shtuff (sic) to do it.

Bell X1 will perform at the ACL Festival on Saturday, October 3 at 2:20pm on the Austin Ventures stage.

Bell X1: [official] [MySpace]