The Pop Corporation

Marlon Williams is one our favourites, writing music that’s veered from dreamy, ’50 country to hip post-pop – he’s a real treasure that’s for sure, and has the voice of an angel. He’s announced a new LP, sung entirely in the Māori language, and the first track from it is a real beaut.

The album is called ‘Te Whare Tīwekaweka’ and you can hear it all on April 4th, and the first song goes by the name of ‘releases the lead single, “’Aua Atu Rā’.

It’s beautiful to hear the Māori language in this setting and Williams is yet another artist who is connecting with their home, in a world that rightfully has a wary eye over the pervasive colonialism that has been so rampant. Are we going to see artists going hyper-local and subsequently making career bests? Bad Bunny and Marlon Williams certainly suggest so.

The track is inspired by ’60s Māori showbands, and is a twist on the Māori proverb – “he waka eke noa” – which means “we’re all in this boat together,”

Williams’ says: “‘Aua Atu Rā’ has existed as a song since May 2019. My stumbling around in flawed, simple Māori in my Lyttelton bedroom studio, spurned on by the thought of writing a depressively isolationist rebuttal to the above whakatauki, was the moment that kickstarted the record. It speaks to something universal, but especially pertinent to Te Ao Māori’s collectivist culture, that I’ve always found difficult to square. We ARE all in the same boat, and as the British literary pundit GK Chesterton added to the picture, ‘we owe each other a terrible loyalty,’ and yet are at once utterly alone.”

Seriously, press play right now. We’re looking forward to this LP hugely.