Meursault are returning to active duty with the release of their sixth, self-titled long player.
Released through Common Grounds Records, ‘Meursault’ is perhaps their finest record to date, ranging from anthemic rockers through to plaintive ballads with interesting diversions along the day (Meursault does swing, anyone?)
Talking to band mainstay Neil Pennycook ahead of the release of the album, it became clear that the pandemic has had a profound impact on the band – in both practical and creative terms.
Change has been a constant throughout Meursault’s career but, even by their standards, the last few years have been notable with not just a new band and a new record imminent but, perhaps most significantly, a new way of working.
“I hate that everything goes back to during lockdown. but it’s true. We were going to be recording the new album at that time, but that obviously couldn’t happen because of lockdown.”
Instead, the imposition of restrictions sent Neil off down a different path and he set about working on the songs he had alone. The results of these sessions were released through Bandcamp as a series of 3 EPs (‘Meursault’ Vols 1-3, currently residing on streaming services) under his own name.
“Because most of the songs were kind of in the process of being written, I had a vague idea of how I wanted to present them. So the EPs turned into a project of basically demoing the new record live and trying out arrangements.
“I recorded at home obviously and didn’t have access to all the usual bits and pieces that I would use to make a record or even to make demos to be honest with you.
“But I work in a music shop and the night that we got the phone call saying no one’s coming in tomorrow, and for the foreseeable, I borrowed a few bits and pieces, a microphone here and a couple of cables there, and just did my best with that.
“I was definitely getting first album vibes in terms of access and availability of gear to record with. It was kind of interesting.”
The EPs proved to be only a starting point in terms developing the new material.
“There were just melodies and some bits of lyrics and things like that, but the songs on the new record that were featured on those EPs, for the most part, have been worked up considerably although there’s a couple that are fairly recognisable.”
At this stage, Neil thought that the storytelling approach featured on previous album ‘Crow Hill’ would continue on the new record but lockdown created the space for the record to shift into a different, more personal direction.
“I write comics, longer form narratives and short stories and things like that in my own time, for my own amusement mostly. That doesn’t come through in my music that much, except in ‘Crow Hill’ which was pretty much based on fiction and very little to do with me.
“This record was kind of starting to go down that road as well. but the overall themes and the meat of what I was needing to engage with as the singer and as the lyricist weren’t quite developed yet.
“It’s that thing of being in your own house for the best part of two years and lots of self-reflection going on. And for someone that’s a songwriter who is in the business of writing stuff, that can veer into the auto-biographical, I just kind of embraced that and went down that rabbit hole, you know?
“So, over the course of the lyrics changing and songs going in and out, it became way more of a personal thing, me thinking about my relationship with Meursault, what that’s become and how that’s affected my life and the lives of the other people that have been involved in it.”
The initial concept of the album featured a narrative about the fictional character Meursault, and whilst that approach was ultimately abandoned, the character of Meursault was retained but for a different purpose.
“If you’re going to be writing things are quite intensely personal and not the easiest things to write and to sing about, it can be helpful to have a mask that you wear even if that mask looks just like you and acts just like you on the surface.
“It’s just enough of a layer of protection that you can address certain themes and go a bit more in depth. It’s like a scuba suit!”
With the course for the new record established, a new band was about to be born, curiously inspired by the restrictions of lockdown.
“It’s quite easy to sort of hypothesize when there’s no chance of you doing anything! So you’re kind of imagining this version of the band and what they all sound like and like what those personalities bring. But we did put together this new version of the band during lockdown.”
Having been playing shows right up until the first lockdown, Neil made a conscious decision not to play live when restrictions eased.
“When we all got out to play again, it seemed like everyone was trying to get shows. So rather than trying to chase lots of shows I thought the best thing for us to do would be go away and record, and be musicians in a room together for as concentrated a time as possible.”
Neil is quick to credit the influence of the band on the new record but the group he assembled had more far-reaching consequences than expected.
“Whereas Meursault has been just me and a hired band before, it’s kind of morphed into a different thing.
“We went up to Skye with a group of eight of us. Some of us had played together before, people like Robyn (Dawson), Reuben (Taylor) and Cal (MacLeod) but then we also had totally new people like Fionn (Byrne), Emma (Capponi) and Drew (Boyd) with Graeme (Young) on drums.
“So what’s informed this album as much as the songs is the people that are playing on the record and a community has grown out of that, which we’re calling the Geiss collective. It’s changed things quite considerably for me in terms of the way I work and what my day-to-day engagement is with Meursault.
“Everyone in the group has their own project, so I’ve got Fionn and Emma playing (in Meursault) but they also have their own projects and we’re all playing on those, as well. It’s the same band effectively, but just different matchups and different instruments.
“It feels more like a band, but it also feels more like a solo project and that’s a hard thing to describe!”
The new band were introduced to the audience with a set of older songs at Summerhall in November but the new songs had to wait for a public airing until last month when much of the album was played at a soft launch show at the Hug & Pint in Glasgow, which was quite rock orientated.
However, Neil and the collective are planning something quite different for the formal album launch shows in the Pianodrome in Leith at the end of July, as he explained.
“I’m excited about these shows. I just kind of it had it in my head for ages that Pianodrome would be a fantastic place to launch the album as it’s very piano-centric.
“The idea like of having this space, where you’re effectively playing inside a piano the whole time, is just kind of cool. And the fact that it’s in the round and very intimate means that we can do a lot more acoustically and off mic.
“It’s limited capacity, I think it’s around about 120 for each night, but I’m more interested in the experience of the show and what we could do in that space rather than putting on the sort of traditional album launch show in a 500 to thousand cat room. But, no doubt, further into the year we’ll do a more traditional Edinburgh show.”
Beyond these shows, plans are being finalised for a more extensive series of dates in the rest of the year.
“We’re booking up until November and very soon we’ll be up to capacity of what we’re able to do this year.
“But this band is a lot more available and a lot more keen to go and play than maybe previous incarnations. So, everyone’s very motivated for sure. And the fact that everyone’s going to pull in the same direction helps immeasurably getting things done.”
‘Meursault’ is out on 7 July on record and as a download through Common Grounds. More at www.iammeursault.com
Whilst the full schedule of autumn dates has to be announced, confirmed shows so far are:
Leith, Pianodrome at the Wee Hub, Ocean Terminal – Friday 28th and Saturday 29th July.
Galashiels, MacArts – Friday 11th August
Dunfermline, PJ Molloy’s – Saturday 2nd September