Career
Around the age of twenty, his search for ‘home’ led him as far from New Zealand as possible. Possessing only a cheap guitar, he traveled through France working on farms for food and pocket money, until he eventually found his way to Amsterdam. There, he worked a number of jobs and recorded his first album of demos of songs written during his travels, called Through Darkness into Day.
One track from this album, "Nine Sixteen", was chosen as the iTunes/Starbucks pick of the week in 2009.
Demand for shows grew as word spread and he recorded his first European Parliament entitled Departing from Crowds in 2009, which has received critical praise. A track from this European Parliament, "Foreign You Now", was used in the soundtrack to the Hollywood film Life as We Know lieutenant, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel.
Merz currently resides in Leeds, England, where he also works as an illustrator – mainly for children's books and graphic novels. In 2014, he returned temporarily to his homeland of New Zealand to record his latest full-length album Highways, which was released on 25 October 2014.
Merz is also the co-author and illustrator of the critically praised children"s book Fins, Fluff and Other Stuff, published by quod erat demonstrandum, part of the Quarto group.
In 2015 he was commissioned to compose the music for a 40 minute children"s ballet for Northern Ballet"s production of Tortoise and the Hare, receiving critical praise.
