New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams has a reputation for breaking hearts.
But on his new album, 'Make Way For Love', we discover it's his heart that's been broken. “The album comes off the back of a break-up and it seems to be timed quite well, as much as these thing are, with me needing to write a new record,” Marlon explains.
“It's one of those dubiously serendipitous things that happens. All the writing came out in one block of three-and-a-bit weeks, and it's a little bit like a crime of passion or something.”
'Make Way For Love' is Marlon's second full-length album and the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed 2015 self-titled debut.
Marlon says the sheer act of writing the songs in the aftermath of the break-up was a cathartic process that helped him come to terms with what he couldn't express in spoken word. “It was really necessary that I needed to express myself in a certain way that I couldn't do in any other way. I couldn't talk about certain things, I could only write about them, so it was very therapeutic.”
Marlon's style of songwriting owes much to the classic pop and love-song structures that were popularised by artists such as Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley.
Add Marlon's velvet-smooth vocals, well-crafted rhythms and infectious hooks, and you might as well have a licence to start pressing your own gold records. “Music is constantly being recycled, it goes in waves and there's room for new exploration in every media and every genre. All of it is limitless really and there's a way to present everything,” he says.
The album was recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Noah Georgeson, whose credits include The Strokes and Joanna Newsom, and Marlon's own band The Yarra Benders. “I've only ever worked with one other producer before back in my home town,” Marlon says.
“It was a completely different style of production; [Noah] was very passive in a sense. I'd make the sounds and then come up with the product and he tied it together in a lovely way.”
Marlon heads out this May for the Australian leg of an extensive world tour in support of 'Make Way For Love', being joined by The Yarra Benders. “I'm a bit nervous because it's a huge tour, just the scope of the thing, but I'm excited to be presenting all these new songs and to be going to a whole bunch of places I haven't been to yet,” he says.
“There's plenty to be excited about... there are equal parts nervousness, anxiety and excitement – they all tie in together.”
With a view to keep moving forward in his career, Marlon says he plans to be back in the studio by the end of the year for another album session. “After the tour there will be a bunch of festivals and I'm trying to get some writing done in between then and hopefully by the time the year is done I've at least got another record to record,” he says.
“It'll be a bit of a rinse-and-repeat process; I want to keep creating and I want to keep putting music out and I want to keep touring it so I'm just hopping in and out of the cycle really.”
'Make Way For Love' is available now.
Marlon Williams Tour Dates
Sat 12 May - Forum MelbourneMon 14 May - The Gov (Adelaide)
Tue 15 May - Rosemount Hotel (Perth)
Wed 16 May - The Triffid (Brisbane)
Thu 17 May - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Fri 22 Jun - Forum Melbourne
