Paul Noonan and Daithí announce new band HousePlants, share debut single

Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and atmospheric producer Daithí have revealed 'What’s With All The Pine', the debut single from their new collaborative project HousePlants.

“Having made ‘Take The Wheel’ together for Daithí’s most recent record, I sent him a song last summer by way of a ‘Howaya?’, really, but also for his banger sensibilities!” says Noonan of the exciting new venture. “We began trading ideas, with the idea that whatever we were doing was not ‘Take The Wheel’, that we go the other way and make music that was visceral, and a release of sorts."

“It doesn’t feel like one of us featuring on the other’s music – it’s greater than the sum of its parts,” adds Daithí. “I’ve always worked as a solo producer so forming a band has been a lovely experience. There’s magic in seeing one of your ideas being worked on from a different point of view, sending music to someone you trust and having it return as a brand new piece of art. The more you work together on an idea, the further it goes until eventually you can’t see the seams. It’s something completely unique.”

The brand new single from the veteran musicians is peppered with playful observations from Noonan’s wandering mind. HousePlants say that the track is “an attempt to speak to one of the phenomena of this time; the sometimes soul-crushing Zoom calls, the efforts to convey a certain taste or togetherness with our backgrounds – while all around us is going to shit! – having a snoop, an interest in others’ private spaces and a certain judgy-ness around it all.”

For both artists, HousePlants represents reclamation amidst the creative drought brought on by the global pandemic. “There’s a community of music makers who mainly see each other at gigs and nights like the Choice Music Prize that feels somewhat atomised in the void of lockdown,” Noonan says. “One of the nicer things about this time is that artists have been checking in on each other. It feels like lots of people are doing what we did.”

Listen to the song below.