Short

Weyes Blood to her 15-year-old self – “Kim and Thurston Moore will be divorced… Abandon all hope…”

Natalie Mering completes our Getting To Know You questionnaire

The best piece of advice you’ve been given

Everyone’s got their own unique struggle. Don’t compare yours to someone else’s.

Your favourite word

Ululating.

Your pet-hate

Emotionally manipulating advertising.

If you could only eat one food forever, it would be

Steak.

The worst job you’ve had

I once worked at a peanut brittle packaging company and monotonously packaged peanut brittle all day long, ending up with sticky everything. I guess now that I think of it, it was a pretty sweet gig.

The film you can quote the most of

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy.

Favourite place in the world

Kyburz in Sierra Nevadas. My great great grandfather built a cabin there, and I was conceptually conceived there one day while my parents were talking on a rock. They decided to have a daughter, and that they would name her Natalie. Suffice to say I’ve been dreaming of Kyburz for as long as I can remember.

Your style icon

Crispin Glover has a really far out style that I can relate to. Understated goth with a ’70s twinge. Painfully autobiographical… indulgently weird.

The one song you wished you’d written

‘Seabird’ by the Alessi Brothers.

The most famous person you’ve met

I met Lou Reed on the streets of New York after going to the Occupy Wallstreet protest. He was surprisingly human – he held my hands and warmed them while looking into my eyes and asking me how the protest was.

The thing you’d rescue from a burning building

Probably the most musical things. Guitar and laptop are neck and neck, with the Tascam 388 in third place. Definitely gonna grab my Ibanez analog delay pedal, it’s quite small.

The worst date you’ve been on

I took mushrooms (with romantic implications) with a boy in high school and he completely freaked out – a manic episode. We were getting a ride with our friend to go somewhere more mellow as we started off in a park – he physically forced me to runaway from the car while it was stopped at a red light, leaving our third friend high and dry. We ran into a housing development and sat on the grass while he cried in my lap for a couple hours.

Your guilty pleasure

Sushi – Sashimi, specifically. One of the worst things for anyone on the planet to consume regularly, but incredibly pleasurable.

Your first big extravagance

Extravagance? I’ve been extravagant since the day I was born. Maybe first big extravagance was wearing the Christmas tree skirt as an actual dress and putting on a one girl show called “the spirit of christmas elf”.

The worst present you’ve received

A used Lollipop wrapper sewed to a photocopied drawing of a naked man. Wait… the more I think about it this might’ve been the best gift.

The characteristic you most like about yourself

I can feel, and I feel for a lot of people too.

Your hidden talent

Badminton. I’m a bit of a shark.

Your favourite item of clothing

Moon pants, moon shirt, moon shoes – an article with “moon” in front of it, usually very flowy, potentially iridescent.

Your biggest disappointment

Global Warming. I used to cry about it more; now I’m becoming numb to the way of the biome.

The celebrity that pisses you off the most even though you’ve never met them

They’re all a little strange around the edges to me. I feel embarrassment for a lot of them.

Your biggest fear

Fear itself, baby.

The best book in the world

The Acid Archives ­­– an archive of private press psyche records. My musical bible.

People’s biggest misconception about yourself

That I’m not a ham. I am. I like being silly more than I like being sad, but I’m better at making people cry then making people laugh.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

Kristen Stewart, hopefully. Hard ass roll.

What is success to you?

Being an even keel human being as opposed to a violent see-saw.

How would you choose to die?

In my sleep, please.

What is the most overrated thing in the world?

Consumerism, duh. What a bust. Heartache.

What, if anything, would you change about your physical appearance? 

I’d make my eyes lime green, and maybe my tongue split right down the middle. Might escape my mammalian/elf genes.

What’s your biggest turn-off?

Jumping the gun.

What would you tell your 15-year-old self?

Kim and Thurston Moore will be divorced… Abandon all hope…

Your best piece of advice for others

If you start doing something for real, you’re inevitably going to fail and experience set backs. Its important to leave your comfort zone, you’ll never get anywhere good as long as you’re hiding there, where everybody likes you. Let yourself be rejected. It sharpens your knives.