SPILL FEATURE: PENDULUM – A CONVERSATION WITH CARL BELL OF FUEL

PENDULUM

A CONVERSATION WITH CARL BELL OF FUEL

Multi-platinum rock icons Fuel return with their seventh studio album, Pendulum. Known for their hit songs “Falls On Me,” “Hemorrhage (In My Hands),” and “Shimmer,” Pendulum marks a change for Fuel: a new lineup and a heavier sound. Founding member, guitarist, primary songwriter, and producer Carl Bell discusses the creative process behind Fuel’s new album and reflects on the EP Porcelain, which celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year.

“We’re excited for everybody to hear the record,” Bell says. Previous Fuel releases have been heavy, but Pendulum ups the ante and is one of their heaviest albums to date. Pendulum delivers hard-hitting songs with thunderous guitar riffs, loud, aggressive drumming, and gritty energy. Adding new frontman Aaron Scott, who joined the band in 2022, helped jump-start the decision to go heavier. “Aaron was just going to be our vocalist, and we were just going to go out and do shows and perform live. We saw him on The Voice. He sang ‘Hemorrhage (In My Hands).’ He made Blake Shelton’s team. We gave him a buzz to see if he wanted to do it. Well, our drummer, Kevin [Miller], did. Kevin wanted to do it again, so I was like, ‘Alright. Let’s go and try this guy out,’ and Aaron brings in a song called ‘Want It.’ Bell listened to the song and was really impressed. “The song was heavy, and I went, ‘Alright. This is awesome. This is cool.’ He and I worked out the rest of the song and got it together, and for the rest of the songs, we kept going heavier. If you know us from ‘Shimmer’ and ‘Bad Day,’ you might think they’re a little different, but if you listen to ‘Won’t Back Down’ from the Daredevil soundtrack that we did, it’s all in the same vein of the stuff we’ve been doing in the past. It’s not that much of a departure.” An example of this is “Pull Me In,” which Bell describes as “[having] a lot of the legacy sound of Fuel modernized for today.”

“Blame” was another song that Scott brought to the band. “I think he only had partial lyrics to it, but I think this was a song that was kind of personal to Aaron a lot,” Bell recalls. “We’re happy to have Aaron in the band not only as a vocalist, but he’s doing a lot of songwriting.”

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Pendulum sees Fuel incorporating more keyboards into their sound. “A lot of the songs have keyboards in the back, and some are featured a little more in the front,” Bell states. “I like the scale that keyboards bring. They bring a lot of width and depth to the mix, and they sound epic if they’re done right, and I think that was part of the approach on this record for me. I wanted the sound. It’s got more keyboards than Fuel records in the past, but believe me, there’s plenty of guitars. Don’t get panicked.”

Bell points to the song “Bad At Love” as a fun experiment, noting that the band used keyboards and a heavy sound in an exciting and intriguing way. “It’s kind of what I call dance or trance music on a rock track,” he says. “I thought that it would be a cool collision.”

Pendulum features a new piano version of Fuel’s song “Innocent” from their album Something Like Human. “I went back through the old recordings, and there is a piano that is buried in the mix,” Bell explains. “I pulled that piano up, and I went, ‘That’s a cool standalone piano by itself.’ I sent it over to Aaron, and I went, ‘What do you think of singing to his,’ because we play that song live, and I think that’s one of the songs Aaron really shines on. He shines on all of them, actually, but he really shines on ‘Innocent.’ When we play it live, we will do half and half. Part of it will be piano, and then midway through, around the bridge part, the band comes back in… The reason that track is on the album is because I just found the piano track, and I thought it would be a cool addition to the album.”

Fuel also covered the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” though Bell was a little hesitant at first to tackle the beloved rock song. “In our camp we called it ‘Motel California’ because the Eagles did ‘Hotel California,’” he says. “It’s one of those songs Aaron remembers [from when he was] a kid, him and his dad hearing that in the truck as they were driving. Aaron one day said, ‘I’m gonna send you something,’ and he just played the piano part that is in the track; he played that piano part and sang a scratch vocal on top. He sent it to me, and I went, ‘No way. There’s no way we’re doing “Hotel California” by the Eagles,’ and I was serious. I let it sit for six months and didn’t touch it because it’s just too sacred, and we understand that people, ‘Hotel California’ is sacred ground. But about six months later I pulled it up on Pro Tools, and I said, ‘I wonder if I added a little guitar here. What if I added this here? I started adding stuff, and my best analogy is that I stuck my toes in the pool, and the next thing I’m up to my ankles. Next thing I’m up to my knees. Next thing I’m up to my waist. Next thing I’m up to my neck. I just slowly crept into this song, and I thought it turned out pretty cool… Scary song to do. When it came to the outro solo, I was like, ‘Now what am I going to do? Oh my God, what am I gonna play?’ I just started playing, and it just started to come out… We’ve been playing it live, and it goes over great live.”

PHOTO CREDIT: KATE RUSSELL

This year also marks the 30th anniversary of Fuel’s EP Porcelain. Reflecting on what the album means to him, Bell laughs, “That EP means we’re old – 30 years, that’s crazy!” Continuing, he says, “That was the turning point record for us. It had ‘Shimmer’ on it. That’s the song that got us going. That song got us signed. That EP, we sold out of the back of our cars at shows… ‘Shimmer was the catalyst for us. It got us signed. It got us recognized locally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Thank you, Pennsylvania people.”

“Shimmer” launched Fuel’s career as it was their first hit, reaching #42 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains an enduring post-grunge song of the ‘90s and one of Fuel’s best-known songs. Bell is not exactly sure why “Shimmer” became such a massive hit. “I think it’s just the right song at the right time with the right audience,” he shares. “You’ve got to have a thousand things go right for a song to hit, and it’s hard to predict what’s going to hit and what isn’t… Thank God ‘Shimmer’ connected at the time, and it is still in a lot of people’s playlists. When we play it live, people love it. When we post stuff about it on social media, people say, ‘This is the soundtrack to my life.’”

Pendulum is set to drop on October 30. “It’s a pendulum swing, and there’s that metaphor that things are changing,” Bell states. “We have Aaron Scott on vocals. Tommy [Nat] and Mark [Klotz] playing bass and guitar. Kevin and I are still there; we are still half of Fuel that is still there from all the way back, but it’s a change… What Fuel might sound like in 2026 was some of the thought process of what we went for here. It rocks, man! I think the album is heavy, and it’s great, and we enjoy playing it live. We’ve played almost every song on the album live now. We’re just having a good time with it. It’s a really enjoyable time for me, man. These guys are fun. We make fun of each other. We laugh the whole time we’re together… There’s the phrase ‘There’s no smiling in Metallica,’ and [when] I’m on stage, and these guys are coming over, I’m laughing and smiling so much. It’s just a good band and a good bunch of guys. Pendulum is a regime change, a sound change, and a personnel change. We don’t ask you to forget the past – just come join us in the present.”

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Main Photo Credit: Josh Erdmann