Feature: Death To Meursault

Edinburgh’s Meursault have been such stalwarts of the Scottish live scene for a number of years, surviving, nay, thriving on a constant churn of members, it came as a real shock to learn that their gig as part of the Pale Imitation Festival is to be their last.

The one constant in the band, of course, has been songwriter Neil Pennycook and he was happy to explain to itm? why he thinks now is the time to lay Meursault to rest.
“It’s been something I’ve been thinking about since the last record came out and, for a whole host of reasons, now is the time to do it before I start releasing new records. It feels time for a clean slate in a lot of ways.
“Every new record I’ve released under that name has been either slightly or wildly different from the others and for that reason it just made more sense to change the name this time rather than wait.
“And also there’s the factor that the band that I have all changes constantly. I feel that when I do work with a new band, I want that band to have an identity of its own.”

Whilst there’s been some debate on Twitter in recent days about possible new names for Neil, he instead seems to be looking towards someone like Micah P. Hinson for inspiration when naming future endeavours:
“More than likely it’s going to be Neil Pennycook and the band that I’m working with at the time – that’ll be the title of the project. It kind of gives each project a life of its own, rather than just everything being lumped under Meursault which is sometimes an uncomfortable fit.”

Looking back on Meursault’s achievements, Neil has one over-riding emotion:
“Without going over the top about it, I’m really super proud of the work that we’ve done. There’s been ups and downs obviously but I wouldn’t change any of it, it’s been absolutely fantastic. I’m absolutely honoured to have worked with all the people that I’ve worked with, I’ve worked with some longer than others.
“But I’m excited about putting Meursault to rest. That feels really nice and there’s not many people that I speak to can say that they’re happy with their entire back catalogue. But I’m really chuffed with those three records. It’s really nice to be able to close it off.”

Speaking to Neil, it’s clear that he has no regrets about the decision. Rather it seems that he has one overwhelming emotion about what’s to come.
“I’m excited about the new thing. It’s kind of bled in to a lot of the shows I’ve been doing over the last six months. People will immediately relate to that because the change has already happened. It’s just the name is changing.
“Some of the music we’ve made for the new record has quite a stark contrast. Like there’s some really, really heavy stuff which people will have heard in the sets we’ve been doing this year. Then there’s some really lo-fi stuff, you know piano and vocal, so it sways wildly.
“I won’t lie to you, when we started doing it we thought we were making a new Meursault record. And when that changed the brakes were put on it a bit.”

As a consequence, whilst a number of songs have already been recorded, Neil reckons that there is still work to do before a new record is released.
“I don’t know yet, it’s not done. I’ve taken a wee while over it and it’s been done sporadically. The recordings that we have will still be used but they’ll used in a different context, with all these other songs that have been recorded since.”

Before fully concentrating on the new thing though, Neil has the small matter of Meursault’s final appearance to get out of the way. And as last gigs go it’s a bit of a belter – at the Queen’s Hall on 13th August as the Blue Ribbon event of the second Pale Imitation Festival.
He has definite ideas of how he’s going to send Meursault off:
“I’ve never played the hits! I’ve never done a set where people said that ‘Aw, you played all the songs that I wanted you to play’! But, yeah, we’ll try and do stuff off all three records and the singles and stuff.”

Turning to the Festival itself, which he’s been involved with in organising, Neil explains that Pale Imitation is focussed on one thing:
“Music basically. There’s very little representation for music in Edinburgh whilst the Fringe is taking place. Every year less and less emphasis is put on it and I really like music and Matthew really likes music!
“If we can get the word out enough hopefully some people will come to see this music that we all rant and rave about.
“It’s an amazing platform for a music scene and there’s an awful lot to show off to an international audience. If we can get some of those into Henry’s Cellar Bar, that would be nice!
“It’s be foolish to say we’re going up against the Edinburgh Festival but the idea is it’s all Scottish bands, for the most part independent bands, and just showcasing that.”

The Pale Imitation Festival 2014 runs pretty much for the duration of August from this Saturday (2nd). Meursault play the Queen’s Hall on Wednesday 13th August with support from Plastic Animals (more info and tickets).

The Pale Imitation Festival 2014 runs pretty much for the duration of August.
Meursault play the Queen’s Hall on Wednesday 13th August with support from Plastic Animals (more info and tickets).

The full list of Pale Imitation Festival shows is as follows:

Sat 2nd Aug – Adam Stafford, Le Thug & Duchess

Thu 7th Aug – The Leg, Now Wakes the Sea +1 TBC

Sat 9th Aug – The Yawns, Sharptooth & alansmithee

Thu 14th Aug – Deathcats, Garden of Elks & Passion Pusher

Sat 16th Aug – JonnieCommon, Jesus H Foxx & Andrew R. Burns

Thu 21th Aug – Rick Redbeard, Siobhan Wilson (Ella the Bird) & Kitchen Cynics

Sat 23rd Aug – LAW, Numbers are Futile & Wozniak

Thu 28th Aug – eagleowl, Ian Humberstone & Smackvan

Sat 30th Aug – PAWS, Halfrican & Et tu Brute!!!

All shows with the exception of the Meursault/Plastic Animals show take place in Henry’s Cellar Bar and a £25 season ticket is available for the Henry’s shows. More info here.

Mike Melville edits manicpopthrills which as luck would have it, has further reading on the last days of Meursault.