Naarm/Melbourne’s Merpire aka Rhiannon Atkinson-Howatt (she/her) shared new single and video “Leaving With You” – an intoxicating blend of indie/alternative sounds and chromatic dark pop, the latest in her trilogy of singles plunging further into “desire for desire” – this time into an exhilarated, restless space, bursting with the kind of jumpy, ever-climbing emotion that can ripple around the “what if?” of yearning for a crush.

Co-produced by Merpire and James Seymour (Pillow Queens, Elizabeth M. Drummond, Jacob Diamond), “Leaving With You” is a breathless combination of heady, erratic indie songwriting and chromatic, ascending dark-pop featuring inner-monologue verses and a dreamy pre-chorus that kicks into desperate vocals, head-bang-worthy drums and searing guitars with instrumentation from Merpire, Seymour and Jess Ellwood (Julia Jacklin, Alex Lahey, Rowena Wise).

Merpire explains about the single: “‘Leaving With You’ is about those feelings you get around a crush when you have an inkling they feel the same way: the wonder if they’ll turn up to the party you’re at is both unnerving and exhilarating, you’re not sure if you’re hiding it well, nothing fills you with more energy than your crush being in your vicinity. You think about going home, you’re tired, but then they turn up and suddenly you could stay all night, living in this space where the probability between hooking up with them and not hooking up with them is equal.”

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