Great Expectations

I didn’t know a recording studio could be so warm (and not just in temperature terms). Having only ever spent time in radio studios, I anticipated lots of bright lights and clinical, operating theatre-like precision in the city centre studio where BellX1 are recording their third album. Instead, it’s toasty and inviting in the sitting/eating area and the live room is like an Aladdin’s Cave for musicians, such is the amount of equipment BellX1 have brought in with them, everything from Hammond Organs to lap steel guitars – there’s even a percussion instrument in the shape of corn-on-the-cob.

So far, they’ve been in studio for a quarter of the time they spent on their last album, 2003’s Music in Mouth, and yet the end is already in sight. It would seem that it’s been a whole lot easier second time around?
“Much easier,” admits bassist Dominic Phillips. “I think it’s because we got to play the songs live beforehand. Also, we did a few writing sessions in houses around the country and they were great. I love the idea of doing an album in two weeks, but I think this is our version of that.”
“There has been less fuck-acting this time around,” smiles frontman Paul Noonan. “This record is a lot more of a spiky angular thing, and I think it took us time to learn to do those songs. I think there was a time when we couldn’t do it convincingly for ourselves. We’re always over-analytical about things and we can get quite anal so capturing that kind of naivity is something we always found difficult. For whatever reason, it clicked this time around. I suppose we had more of an idea that was the kind of record we wanted to make. We wanted to work at communicating that energy, that kind of adolescent thing.”
It seems that this album is coming out almost fully formed, whereas previous outings have always taken a lot longer to be completed. Paul agrees, while acknowledging that the band have a reputation for revisiting material: “We could start interfering with it now until we all go blind.”
“Or we could start dragging in strangers from the street and having sample sessions, organising charts based on which songs they prefer,” laughs Dominic.
Rather than working with a big name external producer, the band have been beavering away with the help of their manager, Roger Bechirian, a knob-twiddler of some note, who numbers The Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’ amongst his own production credits.
“Roger acts mainly as somebody who tells one of us that what we’re doing isn’t good enough, and it’s not one of us saying that to each other, which can cause all kinds of vibes,” admits Noonan. “So he’s a cooler, I suppose, in some ways.”
Having heard a sneak preview of about half the album, I can confirm that it sounds bloody exciting, not unlike Talking Heads bumping craniums with The Clash. Some tracks, like ‘Bigger Than Me’, ‘Reacharound’ and ‘Flame’, are immediately familiar and familiarly immediate, having received numerous live airings, but others, such as the beautiful ‘Nobody Moves Me’ and particularly the jazz-inflected ‘Firstborn First Song’ display the band’s willingness to experiment with different textures.
Anyone who caught BellX1 during their autumn tour last year will already have heard a number of the upbeat, (s)punky new songs. While noting that the faster numbers “are a joy to play in rehearsal”, Paul admits that the widescreen sonic canvas we have come to expect from BellX1 is still present and correct. Or as he puts it, “there are a few classic moany-holes in the bag as well”.
One track that definitely won’t feature, however, is ‘Here She Comes’, a Merchant Of Venice-inspired lust-song that has been knocking around for a few years now.
“That song can fuck off,” Paul exclaims, “cos we’ve tried it so many fucking times. We messed around with it again when we were writing and we all feel there’s something there but we couldn’t tame her.”
BellX1 remain undecided about their paean to pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland, ‘Still Selling Shoes’: “We’re afraid of it being a bit parochial,” Paul muses, “but I suppose a lot of the best things are, in that you write about what you know and it somehow becomes universal.”
The big question, though, is when the as-yet-untitled album is going to see the light of day.
“We’re hoping to have a single out in early April, with the album following before the summer,” Paul enthuses. On the evidence of the tracks I’ve heard, you should start holding your breath now. This is gonna be a big ‘un.

Bell X1 hit the road for a nationwide tour in April. For more details check out the What's On section of hotpress.com.