BACK STORY: COUNTRY & KRAUTROCK

When Mercer was 10, his father’s job led the family to live at the Ramstein air base in south-west Germany. Dad would sing at a venue in Kaiserslautern called Charlie’s Country Club. Mercer’s parents couldn’t afford a babysitter, so he would go too. The drive home took in a stretch of road known as 40 Mark Strasse because it was peopled by prostitutes, and this later inspired Mercer’s song of that name from Port Of Morrow. That record’s producer, Greg Kurstin, also lived in Germany as a child, and Mercer has spoken of their shared love of Krautrock and kosmiche prog.