Search for soulmates ends in Saskatoon
Marlon Williams’ collaboration with a Canadian duo delivers one of the year’s rarest gems, finds Martin Boulton.
Moments of real creative inspiration are not everyday occurrences. More like hitchhikers, they come into view and get picked up – or they don’t. On tour a couple of years ago in Europe, Marlon Williams was travelling with his band when Canadian folk duo Kacy & Clayton popped up on the radio. Williams knew instantly that he wanted to reach out to them.
‘‘I messaged them and said I’d love to work with them, so we started chatting and a few months later I was flying from Christchurch to Saskatoon,’’ the 29-year-old New Zealander says.
It was around Christmas 2018 that Williams arrived in the hometown of second cousins Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum, who between them have released half a dozen albums since 2011.
It was then that Williams’ inspirational moment in the tour van came into much sharper focus as the trio set about recording Plastic Bouquet ,an album of charming country and folk sketches.
‘‘We didn’t have to speak too much about what we were doing; we all love the same kind of music and they knew why I was drawn to them,’’ Williams says. ‘‘There were just so many obvious signs pointing the way to go.
‘‘I really wanted to go into their world, particularly their album Strange Country, which was the one that really got me in, so we recorded with that band in the same studio. For me it was very much trying to chase that sound.’’
The freezing chill of late December in Saskatoon, in the bend of the south Saskatchewan River, only inspired Williams more as he and Kacy & Clayton completed songwriting and threw themselves into the task of recording.
‘‘We all stayed at Clayton’s house, so we travelled in [to the studio] in the morning, worked, and then we’d have dinner at a diner somewhere,’’ he said. ‘‘Saskatoon is a pretty intense city. It was
‘‘We didn’t have to speak too much about what we were doing; we all love the same kind of music and they knew why I was drawn to them.’’
Marlon Williams on his collaboration with Kacy & Clayton, above
an interesting cultural context.’’
The three weeks that Williams spent in Saskatoon produced 11 songs for Plastic Bouquet, which runs to about 30 minutes and features first single I Wonder Why among other gems, including Kacy’s stunning vocals on Isn’t It.
‘‘Clayton’s guitar playing is as much a part of this sound as Kacy’s voice, which is saying a lot – it’s this beautiful balance of two,’’ says Williams, whose own distinctive voice captured the attention of Bradley Cooper when he was casting for the film
A Star Is Born.
Like Williams hearing Kacy & Clayton on the tour van radio, Cooper was driving through Beverly Hills when he first heard Williams on his car radio.
Later that night, the actor and film-maker went along to see Williams perform at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, leading to his part in A Star Is Born.
‘‘I have a naive curiosity about the film world,’’ says Williams, who also appeared in True History
of the Kelly Gang but puts music ahead of acting work.
‘‘I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about [acting roles],’’ he says. ‘‘Time is a finite resource, and sometimes I’ll give up opportunities in music to do something in the acting world, but I don’t give it too much energy.’’
He’s hopeful that the moment of inspiration which led to Plastic Bouquet with Kacy & Clayton will mean future collaborations on stage, but up ahead he sees more solo work and the completion of his next album sometime late next year.
‘‘I’ve just finished doing a film soundtrack for a great Kiwi film that’s coming out next year, and I’m halfway through writing my next album, so I’m not completely sitting around on my a .... ’’
Plastic Bouquet is out now through New West Records/Caroline.