These Chiming Men

I begin this interview with Paul Noonan, BellX1 vocalist and guitarist, by telling him I don t really want to talk about Juniper, the band s former incarnation. He seems relieved.

It s a natural process that a lot of the interviews I am doing around this time will start with that, but it is over, he sighs. She wasn t the woman I married is the line I m using.
All well and good, so far, but as you will see, the J word comes up time and again during our conversation. I suppose it is bound to, considering that all of BellX1 once made up 80% of Juniper, who released two singles a couple of years ago on Polygram, Weatherman and World Is Dead . Before they had an album out, they saw their record company taken over by the Seagram Organisation, forming the Universal Music Group. The following restructuring affected both the label and the band, and saw the departure of lead singer Damien Rice. Up to that point, Paul was the band s drummer.
I ve always played guitar and written songs and the writing process was always co-operative, he points out.
As a result, when the now-quartet took the decision to keep going as a band, it wasn t as strange as it may have seemed to outsiders when the sticksmith stepped out from behind the kit and up to the microphone. They decided a new moniker was the order of the day, naming themselves after the first car to break the sound barrier.
Universal then came to see them play live and decided they still wanted a piece of the action, although BellX1 made sure the label knew their priority was to release an album.
First came the fairly low-key release of two singles, Pinball Machine and Man On Mir . BellX1 have also built up a sizable, loyal fanbase, and the timing could not be better for the release of their brilliant debut album, Neither Am I.
We have arrived at the position we find ourselves in because we haven t shoved it down people s throats, and I think people have warmed to it for that reason, Paul affirms. Because it was so low key, there is a sense of people discovering these songs for themselves.
When I suggest to Paul that one thing people will discover in these songs is lots of sexual references, he laughs: Maybe that s compensatory.
His lyrics do ring resoundingly true, though. Take, the brilliant Slow Set , which may be released as a single next year. It examines the disappearance of the slow dance at the local teenage disco, and sees our lyricist recalling the embarrassing moment when you get an erection while tripping the light fantastic with a partner, when he observes that both you and her know that you ve risen to the occasion . Again he laughs.
I think everyone goes through . he tapers off. Well it certainly happened to me and it s a phenomenon which is the most fucking terrifying thing sometimes.
The sentiments of Slow Set will be particularly relevant to anyone in their mid-to-late 20s, as will the wonderful Blue Rinse Baby where Paul calls up images from classic 70s children s TV programmes, Playschool, Button Moon and Bagpuss, which apparently frightened the young Noonan. Bagpuss did give me the fear, I swear, he laughs. It was the whole sepia tone that scared the shit out of me.
On a more serious note, BellX1 are delighted that they finally have an album on the shelves and they are going to be treading the motorways and boreens of dear old Eireann over the coming months to show everyone just how happy they are. Then they re heading to the UK for a series of showcase gigs, which will hopefully see Neither Am I getting a release across the pond.
Neither Am I was recorded with former Crowded House man, Nick Seymour, on production duties. Paul was a serious Crowded House fan and admits that it took a while to adjust to working with one of his heroes. The album, though, sounds polished without ever being fussy, mature but not boring.
People have said that it sounds like a second record, Paul muses, and because we had been through so much with Juniper, it kind of felt like a second record to us, too. It s not particularly immediate and it is quite considered in its instrumentation. We had achieved a confidence as musicians and as a band to pare things back and not be fussy. The reference used a lot was The Velvet Underground, who sound like they can t really play their instruments but it s still beautiful.

BellX1 play Vicar St on November 25th.