William Dart slips into the bedroom studio of Merk, AKA Mark Perkins, to discover what magic lies under the coverlet of his latest album, Infinite Youth.
Merk Infinite Youth album cover Photo: supplied
Mark Perkins, at 27, is not the only songwriter whom I’ve been able to track back to his schooldays. Like Louis Baker, Kimbra, Jesse Sheehan, Celeste Oram and Ruby Solly — to name just five — he took part in Mike Chunn’s Play it Strange song-writing competition. Eleven years ago, this Tauranga student came up tops with a song titled 'My Tower'.
His debut album, Swordfish was named in 2017 as best independent debut by Independent Music NZ, the organisation behind the Taite Music Prize.
This Play it Strange success earnt Perkins an internship at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios where he was able to gain valuable survival skills in sound engineering. And he’s talked of the beautiful sense of tension to be found in being a DIY producer making pop music, searching out a vast world of sound in one’s bedroom studio.
His prize-winning Swordfish album was in fact created in a basement of the Finn studios, and it’s absolutely exhilarating to hear a young musician having so much unbridled fun exploring and playing the resources at hand.
Merk’s new album, Infinite Youth, comes with a title that somehow makes me think of that never-fading myth of Eternal Youth. The fabled Shangri-La and all that, as in James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon and the 1937 Frank Capra movie. A Utopian escape that, only last year, was resuscitated by Ed O’Brien of Radiohead for his song 'Shangri-La'.
Infinite, as opposed to eternal, youth is the stronger and more positive concept, I think, letting loose all of its unabated energy in Perkins’ bouncy castle synths on the album’s opening track, 'HNYB'. It's a breezy launchpad for Infinite Youth in keeping with his avowed determination to make generous music – music that adds to people’s lives, is never indulgent and always gives more than it takes.
But elsewhere, deep down, you can suss out signs of a distinctly melancholic man. A few centuries ago, in the right European court, I could well imagine Perkins as a lutenist songwriter, a soulmate of John Dowland, plucking out sad Renaissance laments.
Music Details
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Treehouse 2
ALBUM: Swordfish
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Merk
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: My Tower
ALBUM: The Lion foundation Songwriting Competition 2010
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Play It Strange
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Eat a Lemon Tart
ALBUM: Swordfish
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Merk
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Melody
ALBUM: Swordfish
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Merk
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: H.N.Y.B.
ALBUM: Infinite Youth
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Humblebrag
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Happiness
ALBUM: Infinite Youth
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Humblebrag
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Canoe Song
ALBUM: Infinite Youth
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Humblebrag
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Laps around the Sun
ALBUM: Infinite Youth
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Humblebrag
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: My Love
ALBUM: Infinite Youth
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: Humblebrag
ARTIST: Merk
TITLE: Deep Dive
ALBUM: Music 101 Live Session
COMPOSER: Perkins
LABEL: RNZ
