The stars sure are aligning for Aotearoa's mercurial indie-pop talent Merk, the songwriting nom de plume of Mark Perkins. Following a run of gemlike singles that attracted attention from the likes of SPIN, BBC Radio 6 and Clash, he'll be unleashing his second studio album Infinite Youth to the delight of fans across the globe, the keenly awaited sequel to 2016's Auckland Live Best Independent Debut winning Swordfish. Launching in early April, Merk is celebrating the record's release with his first ever headline tour, taking over venues across the nation with full band this coming May, following on from this month's online performance for SXSW Digital.

That's not all Merk's got up his wizard-like sleeve for today. You'll certainly flip out about his brand new single / video double-punch ‘Deep Dive’, the fourth tune unveiled from Infinite Youth, along with a brunch-tastic video directed by the champs at Sports Team for you to feast your eyes on, created with the support of NZ On Air. Channeling the sublime melodic visions of 20th Century Japanese City Pop into his latest release, Merk explained the literally dreamy origins of 'Deep Dive'...

“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 separate 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.

Sometimes I DJ at weddings under the name DJ Ragù and wear a chef’s 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!”