Marlon Williams announces third solo album My Boy

After sharing the album's title-track "My Boy" last month, Williams has returned with details of his third solo album and a second cut from the record titled "Thinking Of Nina".

He says of the new single, "This is a song about the dangers of wearing different faces in different places, of waging wars on multiple fronts; of having so many selves as to not be a self at all. Also at play is the dark phenomenon of White Knight Syndrome; the desire to simplify, infantilise, protect and ultimately commodify an object of desire."

My Boy will follow 2020's Plastic Boquet collaborative album with Kacy & Clayton, and will be his first solo album since 2018's Make Way for Love.

"There’s a lot of male shapes on the record," Williams said of My Boy. "Growing up an only child, I had to outsource my brothers and build a world around me. So while masculinity is a big theme, it's really subsumed by broader explorations of vitality, and the social and cultural value placed on legacy."

He demoed half the record withMark ‘Merk’ Perkins before heading to Neil Finn’s Roundhead studios in Auckland in late 2020 with producer Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, The Chills). He was also joined by drummer Paul Taylor (Feist), bassist Cass Basil (Ladyhawke, Tiny Ruins), Healy on guitars and synths, and the record features appearances from Delaney Davidson, Dave Kahn (The Yarra Benders), and Elroy Finn on drums and percussion.

"Having new personalities in the room allowed me to escape myself," Williams added. "When everyone’s still working out each other’s roles, there’s an unsettling and exciting tendency to go off in different directions."

Tracklist:

1. My Boy
2. Easy Does It
3. River Rival
4. My Heart The Wormhole
5. Princes Walk
6. Don’t Go Back
7. Soft Boys Make The Grade
8. Thinking Of Nina
9. Morning Crystals
10. Trips
11. Promises