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May 03, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Derek Henderson

New Zealand singer/songwriter/guitarist Marlon Williams has shared a new song, “My Boy,” via an amusing video for the single. He has also announced some new tour dates in North America, the UK, and Europe. Williams co-directed the video with Martin Sagadin. It features choreography by Robyn Jordaan. The tour dates go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time. Check out the video and tour dates below.

“My Boy” features co-producer Tom Healy on electric guitars, Los Angeles-based drummer Paul Taylor (Feist), bassist Cass Basil (Ladyhawke, Tiny Ruins), Mark Perkins on vocals and additional production, and Elroy Finn on additional percussion.

Williams had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘My Boy’ is a pop song with a Māori folk strum. The urge to turn every song on the planet into a Māori 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.

“I turned up at Mark ‘Merk’ Perkins studio early in 2019 with ‘My Boy’ and a small handful of other tunes. Some simple songs will try to tempt and lure you into over-complication; this one showed no such insecurities. For the first time in my writing life, it didn’t even demand lyrics in the chorus. It laid itself out, buoyed by its own sailing rhythm and lightness of phrase: Mark and I fleshed out the demo with a simple drumbeat and a whimsical mellotron descant and dinner was largely on the table. Going into Roundhead with Tom and the band, we kept that simplicity, adding only some extra percussion from Elroy Finn and a folk electric guitar solo from Tom.”

Williams’ last full-length was his sophomore album, Make Way For Love, released back in February 2018 via Dead Oceans. In 2019 he released his first official live album, Live at Auckland Town Hall.

Williams has also been acting of late, appearing in the Netflix DC Comics TV adaptation Sweet Tooth, as well as acting in the films The True History of the Kelly Gang, Lone Wolf, and The Beautiful Lie. Williams also appeared in the hit Bradley Cooper/Lady Gaga musical romance A Star Is Born, playing himself as a younger star tapped to lead a Roy Orbison tribute at the Grammys instead of Cooper’s somewhat aging rocker Jackson Maine.

Read our 2017 interview with Marlon Williams on Make Way For Love.

Read our 2016 interview with Marlon Williams.

Marlon Williams Tour Dates:

Wed. Sep. 14 - Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Thu. Sep. 15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
Fri. Sep. 16 - Washington, DC @ The Miracle Theater
Sat. Sep. 17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Mon. Sep. 19 - Toronto, ON @ The Great Hall
Wed. Sep. 21 - Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Thu. Sep. 22 - Minneapolis, MN @ Turf club
Sat. Sep. 24 - Denver, CO @ Lost Lake
Tue. Sep. 27 - Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern
Wed. Sep. 28 - Vancouver, BC @ Hollywood Theater
Thu. Sep. 29 - Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
Mon. Oct. 3 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
Wed. Oct. 19 - Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Fri. Oct. 21 - Glasgow, IE @ King Tuts
Sat. Oct. 22- Leeds, UK @ Brudenell
Sun. Oct. 23 - Manchester, UK @ YES
Tue. Oct. 25 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
Wed. Oct. 26 - London, UK @ Koko
Sat. Oct. 29 - Paris, FR @ La Maropquinerie
Sun. Oct. 30 - Zurich, CH @ Bogen F
Wed. Nov. 2 - Munich, DE @ Ampere
Thu. Nov. 3 - Berlin, DE @ Hole44
Sat. Nov. 5 - Copenhagen, DK @ Hotel Cecil
Sun. Nov. 6 - Oslo, NE @ Parkteatret
Mon. Nov. 7 - Stockholm, SE @ Nalen Klubb
Wed. Nov. 9 - Hamburg, DE @ Nochtspeicher
Thu. Nov. 10 - Cologne, DE @ Artheatre
Sat. Nov. 12 - Antwerp, DE @ TRIX
Sun. Nov. 13 - Amsterdam, NE @ Paradiso

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