He is at once passionate yet calm, intense yet laid-back, and it’s these contrasts that add real depth and intensity to his music, his lyrics and his conversation. Originally from Caerwys Flintshire, Meilir moved to Cardiff with his first band Manchuko five years ago. He’s the first to admit that the poor state of the gig scene in north east Wales at the time was a deciding factor as he explains that “In Manchuko’s early days the Welsh music scene was pretty horrible so the move to Cardiff was more to do with that. There was nothing up here then, there was no Wrexham Music and the Redi Nights had only just started up… even with Manchuko we’d go to Bangor, Caernarfon and round the Gwynedd area, we’d only play a gig in Wrexham or Flintshire every couple of months.”

He leans back into the sofa and continues, “The thing about live music in north east Wales is that you’ll find ten bars for drinking in and maybe one cultural event going on. People need to get used to going out to stuff, the best nights are always put on by people who are enthusiastic and get the audience interested.”
Even when decent events are being organised it can be difficult for the artist to get the audience’s attention. Crossing his legs and folding himself forward Meilir says intently, “I played to over 100 people in London recently and probably only half listened. People want to say ‘I was at that gig when Meilir was a no-one’ but they don’t really listen to what’s going on.”

His frustration is apparent; the audience’s attitude is very much the problem for artists like Meilir whose performances are incredibly intense yet so subtle in parts that the listener needs to really be engaged with the music to appreciate what's going on. So it is annoying when people treat the music and performance as the background soundtrack to their own talking; and it does beg the question, ‘what’s the point in going to see an artist then wittering on throughout the whole performance?’ is it just that some people don’t want to take time to appreciate art anymore? Meilir is passionate about his work, which is why I get the impression that probably does spend sleepless nights questioning the authenticity of his audience. Here is a musician who puts so much of himself into every note that he sees nothing wrong with asking for the same investment from the listener. This expectation could be seen as overly-demanding but anybody who does make the effort to truly get inside Meilir’s music is greatly rewarded for their efforts.

The conversation meanders across any number of bizarre and eclectic topics from quantum physics and the laws of positive attraction to the freemasons (“my dad told me never to have anything to do with them”) and internet conspiracy theories. Meilir’s outlook on many of these issues is down-to-earth and pragmatic when he says, “I’m confused, not paranoid about the way the world is, and I definitely take what I read on the internet with a pinch of salt”. Such wide-ranging interests add a rich dimension to this musician’s lyrics; at the last Absurd gig Meilir performed a beautiful song written about a man wrongly incarcerated in an American jail and it's cool to spend time in the company of an artist who understands that it’s important to be aware of current events.

So, back to the performances, has Meilir got much planned for the coming summer months?
“I’m waiting to hear from the Green Man festival…” his slender pianist fingers wrap his mug as he continues, “but there’s quite a few up-and-coming welsh bands who’ve been pushed out by some festivals who just want bigger names.”
You get the feeling Meilir is disheartened with the established music scene and the way in which acts are booked when he says, “I think I’m the most interesting new thing happening in North Wales at the moment”, but he does struggle to get enough of the sort of gigs that an artists of his calibre deserves. Coming from anybody else that statement might sound arrogant, perhaps it is. But if he doesn’t have belief in his own music then why should anybody else? Meilir talks with searing honesty about the arrangements of his music, “I’ve always been hard to please. That’s not arrogance, just confidence in what I’m doing; I’m not ‘doing guitar bands’ I’ve moved on from that.”

Meilir’s bilingual performances are original and striking precisely because he has stepped away from the more traditional ‘band’ format; and what this does is leave each audience member with the knowledge that they’ve experienced something truly unique and totally personal to the artist. The ‘blurb’ description for his performances tells the reader of ‘melody driven songs with experimental elements & unconventional instrumentation such as the African Karrimba, a box filled with gravel and singing wine glasses. Layered orchestration and innovative approach to song writing creates an individual style & sound…’ But even this does not do justice to what it is to truly experience of one of Meilir’s live performances.

Although he has a classically trained voice Meilir is forthright about his difficult early schooldays as a choirboy. Unfortunately for the school, but fortunately for welsh music, Meilir’s strong character and blunt refusal to be ‘preened and polished’ to suit an established audience means that he has maintained beautifully balanced depth and scope to his voice without sounding like another tired old ‘welsh choirboy done good’. He is the first to admit though, that once he stepped outside-the-box and started creating something a bit more unfamiliar to today’s sound people found it hard to pigeonhole his work. This has its benefits, but when he’s looking for radio airplay, well that’s another matter. He explains, “If you’ve got a different style then it’s hard to get your stuff heard. You get the same appalling stuff that gets played on the radio day-in day-out, perhaps if more people were open to different stuff things would change…”

In the meantime Meilir is working hard to promote the launch of his new EP, the stunning ‘Bydd Wych’ (Be Great). On Friday May 1st there will be a spectacular full band performance including computers, live bass, glockenspiels, gravel, and the piano, at the Glyndwr Performance Centre, Wrexham. With a second performance on 8th May at Milkwood Jam in Swansea and further gigs to follow over the summer.

Those of you who’ve witnessed a Meilir gig in the past will have a good idea of what an epic performance this is likely to be. Those of you who haven’t yet made it to see this musician in action need to mark these events in your diary, they are definitely ‘must see’ gigs of the year as far as we at theAbsurd are concerned and we're convinced that this launch will be another landmark in the career of a truly great welsh musician.

Bydd Wych is available to buy at any of the live the shows or order online at meilir.net and myspace.com/meilirmusic