Marlon Williams Shares New Album 'Te Whare Tīwekaweka'

Marlon Williams (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tai) reemerges three years following the glimmering pop hooks of My Boy with Te Whare Tīwekaweka, the Ōhinehou Lyttelton superstar's first album entirely written and sung in te reo Māori. Working closely with co-writer and guest vocalist KOMMI (Kāi Tahu, Te- Āti-Awa) to bring his project to fruition over a period of five years, the title translates as 'The Messy House', which Williams has described as an analogy for a "world in creative flux".

Featuring Devonport pop icon Lorde on lead ballad 'Kāhore He Manu E', Te Whare Tīwekaweka was co-produced with Mark Perkins (Te Whānau-ā-Apanui) and recorded with Williams' trusty live bandmates The Yarra Benders, aka Ben Woolley, Gus Agars, and Dave Khan. Guided by the proverb "Ko te reo Māori, he matapihi ki Te Ao Māori" ("The Māori language is a window to the Māori world"), the album expands on Williams' already famous use of the Māori strum, centring arrangements around his spellbinding croon and casual guitar mastery, uplifted at selected moments by the He Waka Kōtuia singers. Williams rides a range of emotions on his fourteen waiata collection — some times disarmingly intimate, such as on the yearning 'Ko Tēnā Ua' and lonesome-hearted 'Ngā Ara Aroha', at others boisterous and celebratory eg. 'Korero Māori', the soaring 'Kuru Pounamu', 'Kei Te Mārama' ("I understand"), the scathing 'Huri Te Whenua', and the gospel-like aspiration of 'Pōkaia Rā Te Marama'.

Adorned with illustrative artwork by Williams' mother Jennifer Rendall, in fact made while "while pregnant with him" and bearing an uncanny resemblance to the lean-limbed songwriter all grown-up, Te Whare Tīwekaweka represents both a deeply personal work and a gift for the community. Committing his own star status towards amplifying te reo Māori, during a time when those in the Beehive are discouraging the everyday use of Aotearoa's first official language, is a significant act of political resistance and indigenous agency. Dedicated to Māori composer and activist Hirini Melbourne ONZM (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu ), listen below, hit play on his self-directed video for latest single 'Rere Mai Ngā Rau', and go catch Williams with The Yarra Benders and KOMMI celebrating Te Whare Tīwekaweka on a stage near you...

"Through the process of constructing these songs, I’ve found a means of expressing my joys, sorrows and humour in a way that feels both distinctly new yet also connects me to my tīpuna and my whenua.

I hope that music may do the mahi that conversation cannot, and that it may broaden and deepen our sense of interconnectedness, our enmeshment in the world".

Marlon Williams Te Whare Tīwekaweka Tour 2025
With support from KOMMI

Friday 9th May – TSB Showplace, New Plymouth☐
Saturday 10th May – Regent on Broadway, Palmerston North*
Monday 12th May – Napier Municipal Theatre, Napier*
Tuesday 13th May – War Memorial Theatre, Gisborne*
Thursday 15th May – Holy Trinity, Tauranga△
Friday 16th May – Clarence Street Theatre, Hamilton*
Saturday 17th May – Sir Howard Morrison Centre, Rotorua△
Saturday 7th June – St James Theatre, Wellington△
Saturday 21st June – Spark Arena, Auckland△
Thursday 26th June – Regent Theatre, Dunedin◇
Saturday 28th June – Town Hall, Christchurch△

*Tickets via ticketek.co.nz
△Tickets via ticketmaster.co.nz
☐New Plymouth tickets via eventfinda.co.nz
◇Dunedin tickets via regenttheatre.co.nz

'Te Whare Tīwekaweka' is out today on major streaming platforms, you can order the album on vinyl LP / compact disc HERE.