Bell X1’s ‘The Lobster’ is a highlight from their recent eighth album Merciful Hour with some humorist lyricism and a fizzy Talking Heads energy.
Merciful Hour was recorded in Dublin with producer John ‘Spud’ Murphy and the band collaborated with Dowry Strings on the recording.
A video for ‘The Lobster underscores the song’s influences, taking its cues from Jean Paul Sartre’s infamously bad mescaline trip in the 1930s, which is mentioned in the lyrics.
The video directed by Allyn Quigley features Irish actors Liz Fitzgibbon and Kieran Roche.
“The song is I suppose a plea for comeuppance for the assholic behaviour of our current crop of political “strongmen”, and their appeal to the worst in us humans – that they may be tormented by their dick-swinging deeds. The reference to Sartre and his bad flashbacks is maybe unfair – I don’t think he was a dick, the poor unfortunate. But it did give us the chance to make a Lobster suit…”.
Paul Noonan
“I’ve always been a huge Bell X1 fan so I was delighted when they asked me to come up with a video for one of their new tracks. Paul’s lyrics always have a playfulness and singularity to them that jumps right out at you and this track was no different. I knew straight away we needed a video with a strong sense of humour to match the frenetic energy and tongue-in-cheek feel of the song.
We spoke about Jean-Paul Sarte, lobsters, populist strongmen and reaping what you sow. What resulted was this – a bizarre, post-date marshmallow test scenario that allowed us to play with the surreal nature of the lyrics in a really fun and farcical way.
For casting I had recently worked with Kieran Roche and Liz Fitzgibbon so knew they had amazing comedic chemistry. After we had all agreed on the concept they were the first people I called so I was delighted they both said yes”.
Director Allyn Quigley
Video credits.
Writer/Director – Allyn Quigley
Producer – Aisling Malone
Director of Photography – Aidan Gault
Production Design – Noelle Slacke
Costume Designer – Dylan Murphy
Makeup – Jenn Bowman
Art Dept Assistant – Jinny Molloy
Focus Puller – Sarah Dillon
2nd AC – Séamus Duffy
Gaffer – Pádraig Conaty
Gaffer Assistant – Sean Smith
Sound – Ivan Alexandrov
