After releasing his highly anticipated new album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, last week, there’s more to come from Marlon Williams.
In just a few weeks, the documentary film Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds will arrive in New Zealand cinemas. The doc offers an intimate portrait of the musician’s most ambitious project yet – the making of his first te reo Māori album. The film spotlights the connections in Williams’ life, his album collaborator and rapper KOMMI, his whānau, and longtime band The Yarra Benders. It also captures his bond with New Zealand pop star Ella Yelich-O’Connor (Lorde).
When Williams sat down with Rolling Stone AU/NZ for an in-depth interview, which features in our March-May issue, about his new album, his forthcoming documentary was also understandably a point of discussion.
While no stranger to the silver screen, Williams was keen to assure that he’s “not the kind of person that goes, ‘I want to make a documentary about myself.’”
He recalled meeting the director, Ursula Grace, for the first time, revealing how she quickly put him at ease about the project. “I met her at a restaurant with him [collaborator Mark Perkins] and mentioned I was getting into this Māori record and her ears pricked,” he said.
“She set up a meeting and laid a pitch to me. I think she was more interested in the personal journey rather than the political side — the personal side of someone who has become worldly and trying to establish something new.”
“She [Ursula] was there from the start of the writing until like two months ago. And it was arranged to follow me to my marae (meeting grounds) on the east coast all the way to London, Berlin to LA, Melbourne. A lot of time spent, a lot of miles covered,” he continued.
Williams’s interview can be found in our latest print issue, which is on newsstands now, and it will also be available to read in full online later this month.
Watch the trailer for Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua – Two Worlds above.
We gave Wiliams’s new album a glowing review, hailing it as “the album we’ve all been waiting for” from the Aotearoa singer-songwriter.
“Te Whare Tīwekaweka is a celebration of Māori culture, but it’s also for anyone looking to reflect, heal, and feel,” we wrote.
The March-May 2025 issue of Rolling Stone AU/NZ is on newsstands now.
Whether you’re a fan of music, you’re a supporter of the local music scene, or you enjoy the thrill of print and longform journalism, then Rolling Stone AU/NZ is exactly what you need. Click the link here for more information regarding a magazine subscription.
