Marlon’s ‘fever’ for Ma¯ ori strum

The multi-talented Marlon Williams might have world tours and movie roles in his back pocket, but he’s really gone back to his roots with new release My Boy.

When he emerged onto New Zealand’s music scene as a solo artist back in 2015, the man with the golden voice was always keen to play up the duality of his family’s Ma¯ ori upbringing with the

ChristChurch

Cathedral chorister training – but since then the majority of his music has tended towards the indie/ country genres.

Now, in his first new solo release since 2018’s Make Way For Love (which won New Zealand’s album of the year and debuted at at the top of the NZ charts), he’s right back where he started.

‘‘My Boy is a pop song with a Ma¯ ori folk strum,’’ he says.

‘‘The urge to turn every song on the planet into a Ma¯ ori strummer descended on me like a fever sometime during the long and winding tour cycle of Make Way for Love. So, writing it into my artistic life became the only way to get the fever to lift.’’

For a performer who’s enjoyed major roles in The True History of the Kelly Gang, Lone Wolf, The Beautiful Lie and hit Netflix series Sweet Tooth, and even found time for a cameo in A Star Is Born, it might have been expected that a long-awaited single would come with a blockbuster of a video – but even that shows a back-to-basics approach.

Co-directing the clip alongside Christchurch-based Slovenianborn director Martin Sagadin (fun fact: Sagadin is also the go-to video director for fellow Kiwi songwriter Aldous Harding, who is Williams’ ex), Williams chose to shoot in his own front yard and the Lyttelton Trinity Hall.

Fans will remember My Boy from last year’s An Evening With Marlon Williams tour, but they might have to wait a while before hearing it in person again as its release comes hand-in-hand with the announcement of a 29-date US and European tour between September and November.