Merriman Weir Q & A
July 4th, 2006 by rui
Media Mix’s Merriman Weir works his way through our Q&A…
What is your name?
Merriman Weir, although I also write songs as Heatherbuck Harebredder and Tristan Woeman. In some parts of Scotland I am also known as Falcon.
What do you do for a living?
I play and occasionally record sad songs on the guitar.
What is your habitat?
I live in a cottage or hut in the countryside, near my neighbour Strom, who lives in the field next door to mine. I can’t tell if it’s a cottage or a
hut, because bits are falling off it all the time and it’s half sunk in mud.
But it’s home.
What do you eat?
Depends what I find during the day. Most kinds of vegetation, especially leaves, and any form of meat, provided it’s been killed humanely. I once
survived for three months on pond water and bracken. For breakfast I usually make porridge sweetened with honey, although every girlfriend I have ever had has always preferred salt.
What do you drink?
Water. And beer.
What is your least attractive habit?
Scratching my chest hair in public, which seems to have a life of its own.
My girlfriend put her hand through it one night and something bit her.
What were you doing in 1989?
I can’t remember much beyond the last two weeks without imbibing something first. I was probably in the pub.
Describe your ideal evening chilling at home?
Sitting by the fire with a good beer and casserole inside me, playing songs to my dead dog, Byron, or my dead wife, Lily.
Describe your ideal day and night out?
Strolling through the forest with my girlfriend, with an occasional wrestle
behind the trees, followed by an evening at the pub.
What are your favourite places?
Pubs, forests and the insides of tree trunks.
What are you reading these days?
I got through ‘The Da Vinci Code’ on a recent camping trip in the forest,
although I can’t say I was reading it.
Are you a political animal?
I released an album of medieval ploughing ballads quite early in my career, which upset two farmers. And I recorded a thirty minute folk musical version of ‘The Magna Carta’, which failed to chart. My girlfriend says I eat like an animal, so perhaps at some level I am.
What gets the goosebumps rising for you musically at the moment?
I don’t know, because I have trouble remembering anything I hear. I can’t even remember the question you’ve just asked. What was it?
Top ten influences of all time (musical or otherwise)?
Lily, Sally, Polly, Molly, Annie, Byron my greyhound, alcohol, Grenwenfar the Hermit, nightingales and Saxon burial rites.
What are you working on at present?
The leak in my bedroom. After that I’m going to dust the living room and
renovate the fireplace.
What would most like to achieve over the next five years?
I would be more than happy to survive them. My pace-maker is becoming temperamental. Last year I came back from an open air festival and it was stuck on samba.
[b]What would you like to see change most in the world over the next
five years?[/b]
I would like to see the remergence of Levellist and Digger communities in rural Sussex, followed by a general non-bloody revolution.
Highlight of your life?
Meeting my wife Lily.
What are you expecting from the The Big Chill?…
I would hope they provide sandwiches, but I am happy to scrounge from my audience if not.
Arthur Smith has a deep voice doesn’t he, do you listen to Radio 4?
Yes.
Merriman Weir performs in the Media Mix tent at Eastnor 2006.
