by Luke McCarthy @lukempmccarthy
Luke McCarthy is a filmmaker, writer and critic living in Naarm/Melbourne. He has written for The Monthly, The Guardian and the ABC, among others.
PHOTO BY KEITH MARINIER
I
t was on a tour bus in 2017 when Marlon Williams – the 29-year-old singer-songwriter hailing from Lyttelton, New Zealand – first discovered country duo Kacy & Clayton. “I was in Europe with my band, and I just heard this incredible song come on my Spotify playlist while we were driving along to the next show,” he says. The song was ‘Springtime of the Year’, an elegant, wistful folk tune from the pair’s album Strange Country (2016). “Initially I was like, ‘Okay, this is one of those 1960s gems that somehow, I’ve missed my whole life,’” says Williams. “And then I looked them up, and they were these two cousins who were younger than I was, living in Saskatchewan, Canada.” Since he formed the band The Unfaithful Ways as a teenager, Williams has garnered a reputation for his modern take on the weathered world of bluegrass, blues and country music. This sensibility underpinned a natural kinship between himself and Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum. After Williams got in touch, the three quickly decided to record an album together. In December 2018, Williams headed to Saskatchewan and now we can hear the result: Plastic Bouquet, a lush collection of delicate, considered folk music, one which melds Williams’ Pacific blend of bluegrass, folk and country with Kacy & Clayton’s homespun Americana. Collaboration is not new for Williams. Whether it be his early Sad But True album series with country musician Delaney Davidson, or releases with his former partner and fellow New Zealand folkie Aldous Harding, Williams seems particularly drawn to forging musical partnerships. “You’re shown parts of what you do [as a musician] by the other person that you wouldn’t be aware of [yourself],” he says. “You want them to open
PLASTIC BOUQUET WILL BE RELEASED ON 11 DECEMBER.
27 NOV 2020
Crooner Marlon Williams teams up with Saskatchewan two-piece Kacy & Clayton on an album that is part country, part folk, all heart.
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Country Charmers
you up in a different way – and you’re encouraged, you’re uplifted by what they see in you, and vice versa.” After the release of his second solo album Make Way for Love (2018), a deeply personal account of his separation from Harding, Williams says it was “cleansing” to make Plastic Bouquet. Whereas Make Way for Love was a theatrical and elegant break-up album, at times verging on chamber-pop, Plastic Bouquet is a return to “the storytelling, the stiff-upper-lipness of bluegrass and folk and country music” that he gave up on his last solo record. When we speak, Williams is on set filming a series in New Zealand. Acting was something he never planned (despite being something of a film buff, citing Ingmar Bergman’s classic Wild Strawberries as a favourite film), but the musician has been steadily accruing an impressive filmography. He has appeared in the Australian miniseries The Beautiful Lie (2015), Bradley Cooper’s Academy Award winning A Star Is Born (hand-picked by the director after Cooper watched him perform at The Troubadour in Los Angeles) and Justin Kurzel’s brutal outlaw drama The True History of the Kelly Gang (2019). Williams’ acting sprung out of his deep involvement with his own music videos. Early in his career, Williams began to see the medium as a “real extension” of his songwriting, an art form which he believes is fundamental to how songs are now “digested”. Given this perspective, he began to take a more active role in the process, starring in all but one of his video clips since 2015. “The TV shows, the casual film work, they sort of came out of people seeing that,” he says. I wonder whether this has informed or shaped his approach to songwriting. “To see yourself on screen, you just learn something about your physical parameters, your natural inclinations,” he says. “Whether it’s directly fed the music or not, I’m not sure.” Currently, Williams is working on two new records. The first is a recording in te reo Māori (Williams himself is of Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tai descent), and the second, another solo album. Next year, he’ll also embark on a lengthy tour in New Zealand, his first solo shows in over a year. Whereas previous tours thrived on “spontaneity”, Williams has spent this strange pandemic year crafting an experience he hopes will be more “considered and deliberate”. Being stuck in New Zealand has reminded and affirmed Williams of his love for his home country, and he’s looking forward to performing for local audiences across the islands. “I think it’s going to be special,” he says. Before COVID hit in March, Williams had toured practically nonstop for the past couple of years. The suspension of his life on the road was challenging. “I feel lucky in that I was already home, not at the start or the middle of an album campaign…but it was a confronting time, as it was and still is for everyone,” he says. “It feels like everyone is going through a wholesale renegotiation of what they want to be doing and how they want to be.”