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Paul Anthony Noonan is a songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Lucan, Dublin. He is best known as the frontman of the Irish group Bell X1 and as a solo artist and collaborator on various musical projects.
Noonan was brought up in a musical household, with his school principal father regularly picking out music to play for his students. His parents had a large collection of vinyl 45s which he would decorate his room with. During his early teenage years, he began writing songs and recording them on Compact Cassette. One of the most formative influences during that time was the record collection of a friend's older brother. Noonan drew much inspiration from albums by Supertramp and Talking Heads as well as early concert-going experiences involving acts such as Hothouse Flowers and U2.
While attending Salesian College secondary school in Celbridge, Co Kildare, Noonan met Damien Rice, Dominic Phillips and Brian Crosby. The four would first be members of a folk group that entailed Noonan using school lockers as percussion. In 1991, they would form Juniper, comprising Noonan on drums, Rice on vocals, and Crosby and Phillips on guitars and bass, respectively. Friend and multi-instrumentalist David Geraghty came in to complete the line-up. In 1995, Noonan graduated from Trinity College with a BAI in Computer engineering.
With a body of songs already accumulated, Noonan, Geraghty, Phillips and Crosby decided to continue under the name Bell X1, with Noonan taking over lead vocal duties and Paul "Binzer" Brennan coming in on drums. Rice, meanwhile, moved to Tuscany, Italy to write songs for what would eventually be a successful solo career.
His role as principal songwriter in the band has seen his lyrical style come up as a talking point occasionally, especially in reference to his use of aphorisms, puns and colloquialisms.
Noonan has stated that while a competent drummer, he feels he is less proficient at the other instruments he is more closely associated with in his work with Bell X1, such as guitar and piano. In recent years, he has fulfilled drumming duties for the band both in the studio and occasionally live as well. The renowned Irish rock drummer Paul "Binzer" Brennan (The Frames, The Waterboys, Concerto For Constantine) has said: "One of my favourite drummers is Paul Noonan, the singer from Bell X1. He doesn’t approach songs from a drummer’s point of view."
Since 2011, Noonan has conducted a solo project called Printer Clips which has taken the form of collaborations on original material with a range of female artists. In May 2014, a self-titled debut album was released featuring collaborations with Joan As Policewoman, Martha Wainwright, Gemma Hayes, Amy Millan, Julia Stone, Lisa Hannigan, Danielle Harrison, Cathy Davey, Maria Doyle Kennedy and fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. The album's release was delayed until May 2014 due to touring and recording commitments for Bell X1's sixth LP, Chop Chop.
In May 2014, Noonan joined many of the female singers who featured on Printer Clips debut album at the National Concert Hall, Dublin for a special live performance of the project. In August 2014, Noonan confirmed a new Printer Clips tour of Ireland in December 2014 with Noonan touring alongside Gemma Hayes.
In recent years, Noonan has curated various cultural events in Ireland, organising ensemble performances centred around a festival or theme. In 2016, he was commissioned as part of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme to stage and produce Starboard Home, a live concert series in Dublin's National Concert Hall and an accompanying album. The multi-media project featured new original material by artists such as James Vincent McMorrow, Cathy Davey, Duke Special, Gemma Hayes, Jape, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Lisa O'Neill, Declan O'Rourke, John Sheahan (The Dubliners), Paul Cleary (The Blades) and novelist Caitriona Lally. In March 2018, Noonan was asked to co-curate a series entitled Imagining Ireland: 21st Century Song – a pair of shows in the National Concert Hall Dublin, and Barbican Centre in London, of original music to highlight Ireland's diverse creative landscape. Among the acts confirmed were Lisa Hannigan, Saint Sister, Maria Kelly, Brian Deady, Seamus Fogarty, Loah, poet Stephen James Smith and Mango & Mathman.
In July 2018, electronic artist Daithí released a new track entitled "Take The Wheel" featuring Noonan on lead vocals, with Hot Press describing the song as "hauntingly hopeful".
In spring 2018, it was revealed that Noonan would be releasing Push Puppet, a debut solo EP under his own name produced by Doveman and comprising the tracks "Microfiche", "Moth To Your Flame", "Venetian Blinds" and "The Flood". Noonan has said that the material was largely structured over R&B and Hip-Hop grooves created using a phone app called Funk Box, with less emphasis on semantic lyrical meaning than the sound and rhythm of the words. Noonan has stated his intention to release a debut solo album later in 2019.
A portrait of Noonan, his wife, their two children and their dog, taken during lockdown in spring 2020, appeared in the book Twilight Together: Portraits of Ireland at Home by photographer Ruth Medjber.
In 2000, Noonan's then-girlfriend, the broadcaster and Irish indie icon Uaneen Fitzsimons, was killed in a car accident. The song "In Every Sunflower" from Bell X1's second album Music in Mouth, was written in her memory.
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