Just two days before the release of his hotly anticipated third solo album My Boy (out globally this Friday), Marlon Williams has delivered brand-new single ‘Don’t Go Back’ and announced a 4-date tour of Aotearoa.
2021 saw Marlon play solo across 30 shows in 16 regions on ‘An Evening with Marlon Williams’ the tour of Aotearoa. This time, long-time bandmates The Yarra Benders re-join him to play 4 of our most beautiful performance and theatre venues, both the Civic Theatre in Auckland and the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington for the very first time and returning to stages at the Christchurch Town Hall and Regent Theatre in Dunedin. Fittingly regal rooms that ensure a special, memorable audience experience.
These shows will be the first time most fans will hear songs from My Boy performed live.
My Boy sees Williams firmly having fun, even while interrogating the behaviours of himself and those around him. This is clear in new party anthem “Don’t Go Back,” the album’s sultry, dance floor pop centrepiece. The song and its accompanying, self-directed video calls back to Williams’ debauched ‘party boy’ character of 2018’s Make Way For Love as we see a young man being dissuaded from the lure of the party by a bizarre character in the form of Williams, dressed in an animal onesie.
“There are a lot of New Romantic influences in ‘Don’t Go Back,’” comments Williams. “I love the songwriting and over-the-topness of bands like Duran Duran. I was too young to have a sense of it the first time around, but at least to the modern ear there’s a silliness to the pathos in that music that definitely had an influence on the tone of the record.” The song was recorded north of Auckland, in a house surrounded by the native New Zealand ruru, traditionally a guardian of the night, whose call may portend good or evil. The rurus were deafeningly loud, inspiring Williams to find a synth analogue to mirror their hoot. On the track Williams sings “Tērā te tangi a te ruru,” which translates to “That’s the cry of the owl.”
The song was recorded in his hometown of Lyttelton in a house surrounded by the native ruru, traditionally a guardian of the night, whose call may portend good or evil. The rurus were deafeningly loud, inspiring Williams to find a synth analogue to mirror their hoot. On the track Marlon sings “Tērā te tangi a te ruru” translating to ‘That’s the cry of the owl.’”
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