Merk Deep Dive

Merk announces the latest single 'Deep Dive' from forthcoming album Infinite Youth out April 9th. 

Merk is the solo project of New Zealand songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Perkins, which began when Perkins recorded 2016's Swordfish (winner of Best Debut at the Taite Music Prize). Releasing both 'GOD' and 'Laps Around the Sun' earlier this year 'Deep Dive' is another look into the playful yet sincere world of Merk.

'Deep Dive' sees Merk setting the scene with a disco tinged beat, driving the song along as the delicate play of Juno Synth and guitar lay the groundwork for his own kind of syrupy sweet pop. A master at creating tracks that feel minimal and sparse imbibed with hidden gems, giving head spinning depth that you'll catch on repeat listens. Merk weaves in everything from the play of strings to voice memos of the St Paul's Cathedral organist.

Speaking on the new single, Merk had this to say:
"A portion of this song came to me in a dream one night, I woke up and went to the piano and recorded the demo. For that reason it feels very surreal and seperate to me. It's one of the more pop moments on the album, a song that carries you the whole way through without changing too much. It reminds me a lot of our 80s Japanese city pop references as well as a New York New-Wave sound.

We started this in Copenhagen by chopping up a breakbeat sample to give this heavy groove and messed around with  the guitar and Juno synth until they had this nice minimalist interplay with each other, almost becoming one instrument. When we recorded drums with Alex, we played him the song and told him to do whatever he felt. He laid  down this really nice disco groove over the breakbeat that gave the song a lot of energy. To add a sense of depth I buried in the mix a voice memo recording I made while on tour in London when visiting St  Paul's Cathedral of an organist playing while tourists walked around. My favourite part of this song is the beautiful cello of Danish musician Nicole Hogstrand. In particular her pizzicato doubling the guitar lead in the instrumental."

Accompanying Deep Dive's release is a Sports Team written and directed video featuring Merk as head pancake chef at Auckland's sweetest rooftop party.

Of the music video Merk says:
"Sometimes I DJ at weddings under the name DJ Ragù and wear a chefs hat to help bring a good vibe. I think I made an offhand reference to this weird character I perform under to Sports Team when we were hanging out once, which they must've remembered because when I asked them to make a video with me for Deep Dive this is the concept they came back with: A rooftop pancake party where I'm performing like a DJ but instead of flipping records I'm flipping cakes, baby. So we invited a bunch of people over to my house in Auckland, went up to the rooftop and chaos ensued!"