MERK Announces Melbourne Show Dates for 'Infinite Youth'

With thanks to the newly appointed travel bubble, the talented Merk has just announced additional show dates in Australia ahead of his headline New Zealand Tour! Merk’s long-awaited return to the stage comes perfectly timed with the recent release of his second album Infinite Youth, which was released last week via Humblebrag Records. You can catch Merk in Australia from 8pm upstairs at The Gasometer Hotel on April 22nd. The show is sure to be one not to miss as it includes live band members of Darvid Thor, Lewis Coleman and Holly Thomas.

Merk’s Infinite Youth Tour kicks off on April 22nd with all support act to be announced soon. Be sure not to miss out, get your tickets HERE.


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). He an understated, commanding presence, a playful intensity, as well as an ability to simply let go. Lyrically, this album treads a line between earnest, vulnerable, and knowingly tongue in cheek: songs that began in irony mutated into sincerity, and vice versa.

On his new album Infinite Youth Merk examines the blurry line between adolescence and adulthood, and all the clarity and mess that accompanies that blurring. This is a record that thrives on a certain simplicity of rhythm, melody, and lyric, and is compelled by contrast: pop songs influenced by art music, an album about adulthood that reflects heavily on what it is to be young, and a sonic world that is both expansive and deeply intimate. “In the past it felt like I was hiding, but now I’m trying to wear my heart on my sleeve a little more”.

Merk credits producer and key collaborator Johan Carøe with opening up Infinite Youth’s space: “He was so good at seeing where I was hiding”. The album’s approach to balance and contour was inspired as much by the American minimalists and those who followed them (Steve Reich,Philip Glass, Arthur Russell), as it was by pop songs that transcend the basic, disregard the complex, and zero in on the simple: Infinite Youth seeks to find where ABBA, The Beach Boys, The Carpenters, the Japanese City Pop of the late 70s and 80s, and those American minimalists might meet.

~ Listen/stream/buy 'Infinite Youth' HERE ~

With the addition of the newly added show in Melbourne, Merk is also set to embark on a headline tour of New Zealand for the release of his album 'Infinite Youth'. Merk’s Infinite Youth Tour kicks off on April 22nd. To celebrate the release of Infinite Youth Merk will be playing across six cities in April/May. Tickets are on sale now HERE.

April 22nd - The Gasometer (upstairs)

May 1st - Jam Factory, Tauranga

May 15th - Cassette No. 9, Auckland

May 20th - Meow, Wellington

May 22nd - Loons Theatre, Christchurch 

May 23rd - Dive, Dunedin 

Infinite Youth is out now worldwide via Humblebrag Records. Buy the album HERE.