The Mixed Grill: Bell X1

Chris O’Donoghue, Dublin
What was your favourite gig to date?
Paul: “There have been a few momentous ones, like the first time we played to a full Vicar Street. We did some crazy gigs in Eastern Europe a couple of years ago when we were sent there as ambassadors of Ireland, welcoming the people of the new accession states – ourselves and Turn went. The last gig was in Warsaw in a pub called ‘Saint Patrick’s Very Irish Pub’ where people strictly observed the fast dance/slow dance divide and they danced in couples. So that’s my favourite gig.”
Dominic: “Some of the smaller gigs like De Barra’s in Clonakilty and the Spirit Store are great, because it’s like going to someone’s house to play. It’s very hard to pick a top gig though. It should be Top 10 gigs: that would be easier.”

Chris Daniels, Cork
How desperate are the band to break into the UK? How about releasing a compilation album there on your own label?
Paul: “The notion of putting out a compilation album in America has been mooted because we’ve never released records there. I don’t like the idea because, for me, the making of an album is a process that has a kind of arc, for want of a less wanky term, and has its own particular bang off it. To mix them would seem incoherent: not that our records are particularly coherent anyway, but just in terms of the time and place and the headspace of the band at the time, they are three very different phases for us. So while commercially it might be the way to go, I think it would ring hollow for us.”

Donna Cooper, Newcastle
When Santa came around to deliver, was there a time that that ‘one’ thing on your list was not there? What was it and why was it top of your list?
Brian: “I asked for the Ireland strip when I was about nine or 10 and I got this green polo shirt from Penneys. I was never so upset.”
Dominic: “I generally got what I asked for but I wasn’t a very demanding child so I was easily pleased. I was happy with just a box and an orange.”
Paul: “I don’t remember ever being disappointed at Christmas. But I do remember having one Action Man, the dude who said ‘Send out the patrol’ and ‘Enemy tanks approaching’, and he had a lot of sex with Barbie. I have three sisters, so there was always Barbie and her slutty sister Sindy, a kind of low-rent Barbie who would be working Benburb Street while Barbie would be in the escort agency.”

dlucking, Wexford
Bell X1 or U2? (aeroplanes that is)
Dominic: “Which is the better plane? Well the Bell X1 was the one that broke the sound barrier and the U2 was a spy plane, and nobody likes spying, so the Bell X1. Obviously.”

Sean Coughlan, Doolin, County Clare
Any chance of playing a gig in New Zealand as my brother-in-law is a huge fan... is that even a question?
Dominic: “If he sends us 20 grand in a brown paper bag, we will be more than happy to arrange that.”
Paul: “We’ve never been to that part of the world and would love to go. We have yet to put out records outside the UK and Ireland, which is what we have been working on over the last four or five months, so hopefully that will happen soon. So Antipodes, here we come!”

Louise Connolly, Dublin
Which do you prefer: Chef or Heinz ketchup?
Dominic: “Chef!”
Paul: “This man [Dominic] is a one-man campaign for Chef Brown Sauce.”
Brian: “It’s been a running joke for the band, because for some reason, a few years ago, Dom put brown sauce down on our rider and it’s never been taken off.”
Paul: “The thinking behind it was to see what kind of brown sauce you would get, and it was very rare that we got Chef Brown Sauce.”

Angela, Dublin
Bellies, are you thinking of taking a break for a while? With Paul splitting off to play drums for Duke Special and Dave forming his own side project, I’m concerned!
Paul: “We’ve all been working on projects outside the band over the last few months, with fingers in many pies. Obviously, it’s important to keep whatever it is that gives you fire, and to feed that: it’s easy for that to wither while you’re waiting for stuff to happen and we’re trying to avoid that.”

Apey, Drogheda
If you could look back and give yourselves advice as a band five years ago, what would it be?
Paul and Brian in unison: “That’s a good question.”
Brian: “Five years ago was just before Music In Mouth, and I don’t think we’ve had any bum steers since. We were consumed a little bit with breaking the UK and that was because of the label we were with, who were based in the UK, and in hindsight we wouldn’t have placed such importance on that.”
Paul: “We could have taken control a bit more and probably should have. And we would probably have eaten less Little Chef and Travelodge food and more Denny’s and International House of Pancakes.”

Scott Edgar, Belfast
After your trip to Africa and The Cake Sale album, do you believe that musicians and celebrities really have the power to change the world?
Brian: “They have a role in highlighting what a lot of organisations like Oxfam, who we were travelling with, do. I think it’s valid and anyone who was involved in The Cake Sale genuinely wanted to contribute, and that was the best way that they knew how to do it.”
Paul: “I think the term ‘celebrity’ has changed an awful lot. In times when it possibly meant something more substantial, people like Marie Curie and Einstein were celebrities and they certainly changed the world for good. I think you do have people doing stuff like that but it’s been so clouded by fame without merit that the title ‘celebrity’ has lost something of its prestige.”

Cathal McBride, Strabane
Seeing as you all seem to play more than one instrument, do you have any preferences, and is there ever any jealousy over who gets to play what?
Paul: “Jealousy is probably the wrong word. I think we fuck around for a while and settle on what works best.”
Brian: “It’s whoever gets to the instrument first, simple as that.”
Dominic: “I never take the bass off, ever, or I’ll be stuck with something else and we don’t want that.”
Brian: “Nobody else wants to play the bass, it only has four strings.”
Dominic: “That’s how you become a bass player: you join a group and everyone else has already picked an instrument.”
Brian: “It’s like musical chairs and bass is the ‘no chair’”

Baglady
What three words would you use to sum up what Bell X1 is all about?
Dominic: “Initiative, innovation and foresight. Well, initiative and innovation anyway: I don’t know about the foresight.”

nlenehan, Dublin
Paul, why did you not sing ‘Some Surprise’ [from The Cake Sale album – JW] yourself and show Damien he’s not the only one that can make sweet music with Lisa?
Paul: “I do sing it, in the privacy of my own home. I’m glad that song did what it did for The Cake Sale project. I didn’t sing it on the album because the whole idea was that you didn’t sing your own songs.”
Dominic: “So he wasn’t allowed.”

Debbie, Dublin
Who is your favourite musician and if you could ask them a question, what would it be?
Brian: “Beck and I’d ask him, ‘Why are you a scientologist?’”

Aoife Dooley, Galway
What was the worst thing that ever happened to you on stage?
Paul: “I ripped the ‘barse’, the place between your balls and your arse, of my Alexander McQueen suit. I remember the ‘barse’, gusset-tearing incident ruined the gig for me because you’re just wondering are you going to be stuck with your cock out at some point, which would not be good.”
Brian: “And would your bandmates tell you?”

Niamh, Kildare
What would be your Mastermind specialist subject?
Paul: “The submission of tour budgets to Island Records. I think I’m a jack of all trades and master of none, so if you could spread it out over ‘Ways Not To Squeeze A Teabag’, and ‘Barse Repair’.”
Brian: “Service Stations on the M1”
Dominic: “I’m trying to think of what I know enough useless information about, and I can’t think of anything.”

Aoife, Waterford
When’s the new album due, and do you have any songs for it yet?
Dominic: “It’s a live album and we have all the songs.”
Paul: “There are lots of songs there, but in what form they’ll appear I don’t know.”

Daniel, Cork
Did you ever hear what Peter Perett thought of your version of ‘Another Girl Another Planet’?
Paul: “He probably said ‘Nice one lads, mine’s a poached condor egg, please’.”

Fran, London
What’s your most rock ‘n’ roll moment?
Dominic: “Having Easter Sunday dinner in Garfunkel’s in Gatwick Airport in 2003. That’s what it’s all about.”

Niall, Dublin
The Divine Comedy? The Choice Music Prize? What’s all that about?
Brian: “No better man.”

Siobhan, Sligo
How did you get on in your Leaving Cert?
Brian: “Paul did very well.”
Paul: “I got 32 points, which doesn’t mean anything these days.”
Dominic: “Nowadays, that means you wrote your name down and couldn’t spell it properly.”

Dennis, Dublin
Paul, I saw you at the Leonard Cohen gig in The Point. What were your favourite bits?
Paul: “My favourite bits were when people didn’t read the fucking lyrics. I thought that was disgraceful. For an artist whose songs are etched on so many people’s souls, they know them so well, supposed fans of his shouldn’t have to read his fucking lyrics. That was maddening. The star of the show was undoubtedly Antony of Antony And The Johnsons, who was amazing.”

Una, Norwich
Van Morrison – musical genius or grumpy old man?
All three: “Both.”

Roisin, Westport
I’m sure there are lots, but what’s the most romantic thing you’ve ever done?
Brian: “For each other or someone else?”
Paul: “When we toured with Aqualung, as a gift, we made them a customised carriage clock to commemmorate our time together: that was pretty romantic.”

Remy, Dublin
One of the signature tunes on your fantastic sophomore release, Music in Mouth, ‘Eve (The Apple Of My Eye)’ was featured in possibly one of the most controversial scenes in American pop TV culture on The OC. Surely a massive scale American tour should have taken place on the back of that exposure. Why the reluctance from your former record company?
Brian: “Well, Island Records have a suggestion box in their foyer and if you could forward that question to them, we would also like an answer.”
Paul: “The simple answer is that it didn’t mean that much. We did tour on the back of it on the East and West Coast but that happened in isolation: there was nothing else around it at the time.”
Brian: “The truth of it is that we didn’t really have a lot of support from the label to release a record in America at that point. There was nobody from Universal in America interested in releasing a record: they weren’t even turning up to see our shows.”
Paul: “But I’m not so sure whether The OC should have forced that: I don’t think it was as big a deal as people may think. But, they [the record company] should have done it whether we were in The OC or not.”

Breffni Coffey, Dublin
I’ve always wondered about the religious theme which runs through your albums. Was that a conscious decision or was it just something that cropped up once or twice and then you thought, “Hmmm think we’ll stick with that”?
Dominic: “If you were born in Ireland in the ‘70s, it’s automatically subsconscious in everything you do, music or not. Imagine what it would be like to grow up as a child now, without the religious guilt or paraphernalia.”
Paul: “I don’t get the guilt thing. John McGahern calls churches the libraries of the poor because it’s where imaginations would be given fire in the theatre of it all, the spectacle of the mass, the ceremony, the ornate nature of the churches, the almost Python-esque daftness of some aspects of it. Also, when I was very young, we lived next door to a Methodist Minister and I was given Illustrated Bible Stories For Children as a present, which I loved and haven’t stopped robbing from since.”

Eoin Kelly, Killarney
Having stated a desire to change direction after parting ways with Island Records, would you ever have the intention to take the Snow Patrol route to stardom by appealing to the masses or would you prefer the type of success you are currently experiencing?
Paul: “I don’t think we necessarily want a change in direction. We’ve never really had an outside hand in directing that whole area. I don’t think bands make conscious decisions that ‘We’re gonna go stratospheric here and this is how we’re going to do it.’ There is no formula to it and if there was, it would be a lot less interesting and magical, so we’re gonna keep making our records and follow the motto, ‘Don’t be shite’.”

Photos by Enda Doran